Today is Tuesday, March 15th (Happy Birthday, Jerry!) and we're doing fine (the blog always posts the date as one day behind and I haven't figured out how to fix it without the page turning to Japanese!) Our colds are getting better and we're now almost completely back to "normal." We're in a critical conservation stage for energy and gas, but we have heat and power and are just doing our part to conserve. But as I'm reading the base's mandates for us to conserve energy, there's a Japanese worker from the gas company out changing out our gas tank -- so who knows. The request is basically to try and light a maximum of two rooms at night with no lights in the daytime, and heat as few rooms as possible (there's no central heating in Japan which I believe is for the very reason that there are so many earthquakes. So (most) rooms have their own kerosene heaters which unfortunately require electricity to run. We're currently running ours somewhere around 64 F. When I get done here our plan for the day (since we're still out of school -- I was suppose to teach today too) is to carpool with the neighbors to base and get a few things done. We're dropping off clothing donations to the base highschool to distribute in the community, and then probably head to the BX and commissary for provisions. We're suppose to hand dry our clothes to conserve energy -- so I need some drying racks (if they're not sold out!). The Japanese already do this in their everyday lives -- on the balconies of the even the more affluent neighborhoods in Tokyo, you'll see clothes drying on racks. I was told by Japanese friends that this is two-fold-- because they don't have space in their tiny housing for a dryer, and to conserve energy... which the Japanese do much more naturally than us. We'll also get in line for gas for the car which they're rationing to 10 gallons per vehicle at a time. They've told us they don't think gas will be a problem for us either, and if it follows what I saw at the commissary yesterday, we'll be fine. We went for more provisions like water (limited to one case per family per day -- much more than we need but good to stock some in case...) and not only were the lights on, but the shelves were restocked. And they'd been pretty much wiped out the day before as I understand (they had the MPs in there making sure order was maintained, which it was...) You still couldn't find a shopping cart (one mother gave me hers in the parking lot) and the lines wound through the aisles, but people were civil and calm, and buying more than just canned goods (I bought asparagus, eggplant and broccoli for instance, if that gives you any idea!) So "normal" is really coming back to us -- hopefully we can be of more help to our Japanese community now.
Several of you have asked about both our possibly returning home and the pending nuclear power plant crisis. Basically, we have no plans to return back to the states unless we were evacuated -- which their has been zero talk about. The base officials tell us our government (not just the Japanese) believe there is no danger to our area at all. And I haven't even heard any rumors -- but that hasn't stopped me from getting my "grab-and-go" folder together in case there was a knock on the door again (after the earthquake, all communication/accountability checks came door-to-door, mostly in the middle of the dark of night!) So our passports and all vital docs are gathered and I might pack a bag just in case -- because if I DON'T do all that, then Murphy's Law tells us we might need to! So we're comfortably staying put, just trying to return to normal (with one medi-vac pending that is! [see below for more info])
On that note, for any that don't know, we thought we would be PSC-ing (leaving permanently) this spring -- but now we're here for another year at least. Rick applied for a competitive emergency medicine residency and was awarded one -- but it was in the civilian world, so we turned it down. Not only would that have meant a big reduction in pay and many complications with leaving the military, but he wasn't really eligible for the slot because he wasn't allowed to leave what's essentially a combat zone deployment to go for an interview. So we'll try again next year. In the meantime, we're settled nicely into a life here in Misawa with my teaching and Hannah Jane's school where she has many friends, and are now planning more trips to make use of our time on this side of the planet. So if you'd like an adventure (a truly exciting one!) come on over! But you might wait until the tremors stop and the possible radioactive cloud clears...(just kidding!!)
Thanks again for all your emails and thoughts. Will try and post more later and maybe even a few photos -- mostly goofy ones, to show you that we really are OK!
much thanks and love, Mary
P.S. still shaking......and shaking......aaaaaaannnddd shaking.......
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