So here’s what’s going on around my house just southwest of Tokyo: nothing. Literally. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, “Maximum efforts by the nation are indispensable, such as avoiding going out unless it is necessary or urgent,” so I am being a good resident and staying put.
Chris and I woke up to echoing monotone announcements broadcasting over the public address system around 5am. Rolling blackouts across the entire region mean my city will be without power from 9:20am-1pm and from 6:20pm-10pm daily (?) through the end of April. That will knock out our internet phone which we use to call the States, so email is better…even though we won’t get it for awhile. Shortly after the announcements we had some more shaking and rumbling. This time Mouse freaked out a little and scampered out of sight.
A lot of the train lines and stations are closed to save power. That means gas is hard to come by and the roads are crammed. Japan has bad traffic anyway; today several friends sat in traffic without moving for more than an hour…half a miles from their homes. All my English classes have been canceled for the week as my adult students wait for word from their families. The community center where one class meets was damaged in the initial earthquake and is closed indefinitely.
It’s nearly 1am and Chris is still at work. Yesterday he was assigned to be the officer on watch today so he’s been working with his squadron’s search and rescue missions. He’s sleeping at the squadron and not sure when he’ll come home. Yesterday he said to me, “If we were much closer to the nuclear reactor I might send you home.” Babies come out funny-looking even without radiation poisoning, so that’s something we’re monitoring with interest. Surprise, if you didn’t know—we just started The Bean’s second trimester!
We had a nice walk along the Hikichigawa yesterday afternoon and I asked Chris, “Do you think we’ll be bored when we move back to the States?” We looked at each other and started laughing. “Gosh, I hope so!” I answered my own question. The level of excitement in Japan is unsustainable. North Korea’s shooting a missile! You’re chasing a Chinese nuclear submarine! Monster devastation thanks to Japan’s biggest-recorded earthquake! You’re deploying! You’re home! You’re deploying! Here’s a baby! Would you like some nuclear radiation to go with that? Anyway, we had a nice walk along the river through the plum blossoms while neighborhood kids staged battles on their swivel-scooters and joggers serenely passed us. Some things never change.
“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26-29)