Friday, March 18, 2011

No alarms and no surprises, please

Thanks for the continued messages of support.

Maybe this is a little premature, but I'm going to stick my neck out and say that the worst is over, here in Nanyo. The situation at Fukushima Daiichi seems to at least not be getting any worse, my radiation graphs are decaying back to normal, and although power outages were planned for the last three days, none of them have come to pass. On top of that, it's a beautiful sunny winter day - I just wish there was any chance of going boarding in the foreseeable future. Of course, the situation is still bleak elsewhere in Tohoku.

There's still no fuel for civilians here, but the food situation really isn't that bad. The shortages are more of an inconvenience than a problem; you just have to be a bit more opportunistic about eating whatever happens to be available each day. It's similar to what I imagine rationing in wartime Britain must have been like, although - as has been extensively documented already - we have bananas.

To illustrate my point, I've decided that I'm going to bake a cake today for Marie. White Day (March 14th) has come and gone, but I think I have a pretty good excuse for my tardiness. I managed to pick up almost all the ingredients at my local supermarket, but it I had to visit four shops (sliding around on the slush on my bike) before I could find any eggs. However, the fourth shop had loads of the things, and were looking pretty pleased with themselves. In an example of the Japanese stoicism that media hacks have been banging on about all week, they were engaging in some impressive anti-profiteering by selling them at a sharply discounted price.

4 comments:

  1. Good to hear your news direct rather than what we get on the TV. Great photos too. Hope the cake turns out well - I am very impressed. Take care, Katy (I have not managed to work out how to post comments properly yet!!)

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  2. Thanks a lot for the update and the radiation graphs. It's good to get some local and level-headed information. I hope you can keep it up. Cheers, Paul

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  3. Great news, Finlay! Delighted to hear you're getting on with life despite the adversity surrounding you! You remain in our thoughts and prayers. take care, Lesley

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  4. Careful now, Finlay! Baking cakes and donating to charity.. you'll be subscribing to the guardian next..

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