(no subject)

[a_cubed]

The supply shortages seem to be easing, with some things becoming available again. Bread is now generally available in bakeries, though in quite limited supply at supermarkets. Meat is more available again at supermarkets and fish never really went away. Fresh tofu is limited. Milk is non-existent. Yoghurt almost so. Even soy-milk is almost unavailable, though we did find some of that today. Fresh fruit and vegetables are almost at normal availablility. Most pre-packaged drinks are limited or no supply.

The news from Fukushima is a little worse, but even so I’m not panicking the way some people are. Our options are quite limited given Tomoko’s condition. Even if we wanted to, the airlines wouldn’t let her fly and a long haul flight would invovled a certain does of radiation that wouldn’t be advisable. Unless things keep getting worse and worse at fukushima the risk in Tokyo is non-existent. Closer to, there are some risks, but even there the advice on evacuation is the right level, I think.

I got almost no work done this week, between the continuing bad news about the effects of the tsunami and the regular aftershocks, I was too unsettled to concentrate and focus to the level needed. I’m hoping to get back to work this coming week.

The planned power cuts have been almost entirely averted due to people keeping their power consumption down. I’m not sure whether that will last, though. We’ve been doing our bit by replacing the lights with new LED ones, which run at half the power consumption of fluorescents and hugely better than incandescents. I was surprised when we moved in that many of the bulbs here were stillo incandescent. Too small for CF bulbs, but the new LED ones are fine. Gradually working our way through the replacements. Sumida City have decided to close the Ryogoku swimming pool from 21st to 31st March to save power (it does take a lot to filter and light such a pool, though the heating I’m fairly sure is done by gas). Since the Kinshichou pool is still out of action due to the damaged floor, that’s no swimming for me for the next week. As my diet is disrupted by the supply problems, I’ll have to be careful and see what else I can manage for exercise and try to keep the food intake monitored.

Originally published at blog.a-cubed.info

Comments

[nojay.livejournal.com]

The Chiba gas refinery fire has probably taken a chunk of natural gas supply off the grid and any going spare is probably getting burned in generating stations right now. It's fortunate that the Northern Hemisphere is moving into spring rather than heading into winter otherwise the damage could mean a cold time for a lot of folks in Japan until stuff gets fixed -- it's not like you can trade your gas heating for electrical radiators and fan heaters given the amount of electrical supply that has been knocked out.

I'll see you in the summer when things will be better. I figure coming over and dumping a couple of thousand quid into the Japanese economy via tourism will help a lot. Yokosou Japan!

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

Actuaqlly very few private homes here seem to use mains-gas central heating. Mains-gas supply is for hot water and cooking. Everywhere I know uses these combined heating and aircon units attached to the wall. We've also got the living room under-floor "heating" though really that just takes the chill off the laminate flooring so one can sit on it. It's one of those odd differences with the UK. Another being the complete lack of double glazing. In the UK I believe it's building code requirements for all new dwellings to have double-glazing and replacement sealed unit double glazing is very common except in period buildings where people want to keep the styles, and even there one can get sealed unit double glazing in various appropropriate matches unless one wants to be completely authentic. Here very few places have it fitted as standard and when Tomoko looked a while ago, she couldn't find a supplier (compare with the UK where one can't move without seeing adverts or being accosted by door to door sales, cold calling phone sales etc). Most double glazing is secondary glazing (ugh!). It is available, though. A friend's family had a house built in Chiba and they're right next to a school, but the double-glazing keeps the noise down.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

Our options are quite limited given Tomoko’s condition.

Did I miss something? Like good news of a 9month duration?

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

See http://a-cubed.livejournal.com/21787.html, which is friends-locked but to which you should have access.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I must have missed that too!

Congratulations to you both!

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

Thanks.