Aftermath of Earthquake

So, as most of you know, Japan suffered an 8.9 (or 9,0) earthquake on the 11th. It caused large tsunami of up to 10 meters high that pretty much smashed and destroyed whatever the earthquake didn't get first. Then the temperatures dropped and it snowed heavily in the worst affected areas near the quake epicenter. NOW we're worrying about the heavily damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima and whether Fukushima will be the next Chernobyl. It's one large sh*t storm in Japan right now,  my friends. BUT Tokyo Nights isn't going anywhere.

I did consider skipping town and taking a prolonged vacation (read running away) down south somewhere like Nagoya, Osaka or Kyoto, but I'm in the middle of changing jobs. If I leave now, I'll miss out on the chance to get out of my teaching job and into something else. Let's just say a very good position (albeit for a lower salary) has become available with a prominent company and yours truly has just been for the 3rd interview. One more interview to go and that job is mine. I'm really gunning for it because the job has great benefits, and if I get the job I promised myself I could buy that Prada bag I've been ogling for the last few weeks. =)

The biggest challenge faced in Tokyo right now is all the idiots in a panic. Food will not stay on the shelves for more than an hour or two and I've been unable to buy milk or bread for the last week. It got so bad that now there's a rule in my supermarket that you can only take one of any kind of item with you to the cash register; so one carton of milk, one frozen food item, etc. This has meant that things stay on shelves a bit longer, but has also encouraged the people who are certain we're about to get nuked like yesterday's pizza to be more inventive. Now they bring their whole family to the supermarket and each member has their own cart piled high with food. Not amusing. If I can't have milk in my morning coffee I am not a pleasant person to be around. I had to settle for powdered cream substitute the other day. It wasn't pretty.

This is what I'm dealing with:

Scary stuff. I think the hoarding by some has caused panic in others who worry about food availability, which has in turned caused more hoarding. It's the selfish, food domino effect. I can't wait for all of this to finally go back to normal.

With water contamination now becoming an issue, people are stocking up on bottles of water as well. I manged to get two large bottles before the rush started, but a friend of mine had to make tea with Perrier, because she couldn't get anything else, and was afraid of radioactive contaminants in the water.

Will keep on with updates about the "crisis" and how it goes, if I don't end up drinking black rain.