The aftermath

So on Friday, we had the largest recorded earthquake in Japan's history and the 5th largest earthquake in the world...pretty heavy stuff! It's hard to imagine the true ramifications without actually seeing the true areas yourself, but I don't think that I want to see them for myself, live. It's pretty surreal that I'm currently living in the country where all the action is going on, and I don't even have a firm grasp of everything that's going on and the true impacts. I am definitely feeling the ramifications of the earthquake in the aftermath of what's going on. There is a LOT going on, and I'm going to try and list the things that have affected me, even down here in Chiba.

• Felt the earthquake on Friday with at least a magnitude of about 5
• Continue to feel the aftershocks of the earthquake...possible larger aftershocks and an even larger earthquake....hopefully not!
• Mass tsunami warnings for those along the Pacific coast. These are on and off as the aftershocks could continue to affect these.
• There has been a cause of some slightly mass panic within Japan. Everyone is rushing to the stores to get food and stock up on everything...a lot of the store shelves are empty!
• There is absolutely no bread in the stores. All of the available bread and bread in production has been sent up north to those who need it.
• Gasoline was running low in supply because they are dispersing it to those who need it up north, so there were looong lines at the gas stations yesterday! Many gas stations weren't selling any more gas or weren't letting more people in to fill up. I luckily found a gas station where I could fill up my car.
• Rolling rotations of intentional blackouts to help save energy. The government and officials have split 7 or 8 different prefectures into 5 major groups. We were supposed to have intentional power outages starting today (March 14th) in all 5 groups at some point during the day, but most areas weren't affected yet. The government just decided to start the power outages starting tonight from 5-7pm which would affect areas to the west of Tokyo.
• As a result of the possible power outages, the lunch centers are not able to properly prepare food for the schools. I have to bring a lunch to school until the end of the school year.
• JR train lines, the largest railroad network in Japan, has been delayed or reduced the number of lines running to save energy. Some have even stopped. Remember, train transportation is the largest source of public transportation for people in Japan.
• A nuclear power plant in the northern prefecture of Fukushima is undergoing some difficult circumstances and possible meltdowns...not so good and very dangerous as radiation could be an issue.

This list is extensive but not all inclusive. I'm sure that I'm missing a few points and I will probably have to add to the list in the near future. At first, it didn't seem that things were going to be bad, but things are getting worse as we find out more of what is happening as a result of the earthquake. I hope that things do become better.

Today, I received an e-mail from my father suggesting/highly recommending that I go back to the states for Spring break. It would be safer to go back there and not be exposed to possible radiation if it leaked and spread throughout Japan. While this sounds like a better idea than staying, I am really torn because I don't want to go back...to be honest. I like it here in Japan, and if there's stuff that I can do to help in Japan, I want to be able to do that...