Japanese people are amazing when it comes to conservation and "taking one for the team." No one is complaining about these rolling blackouts. There are runs on water and toilet paper, but it's not total chaos. People are concerned, but there is no sense of panic.
We arrived back in Tokyo late Wednesday night. The customs officer told us that we could buy some bottled water at the airport. When we told him that we had plenty at home, he said, "be careful." Uh oh. The water in Tokyo has actually been fine, but we are using bottled water anyway. Grocery stores are not selling items that were produced in the radiation-affected areas. There is toilet paper (as of yesterday). I am not too concerned, actually.
I went to the grocery store with the kids (not my favorite activity - see the previous post!), and I didn't see any gaijin (foreigners) on the way there. On the way back, I saw one American woman walking her dog. Mind you, we live in an area with A LOT of foreigners. I think we are one of the few families back in Tokyo.
I then ran into some neighbors, and I nearly cried when seeing them. We were all joking that we are really brave or really stupid for being back in Tokyo. I think that only 25% of the residents in our complex have returned. One family left for good.
Again, we feel safe, and if we think the kids are in danger, we will leave.
Another sobering thing is that the US Embassy is giving out Potassium Iodide pills to US citizens, just in case there's a nuclear disaster. So we have our stash. This is unreal. I never thought we'd be finishing up our Japanese tour of duty under these circumstances.
Joseph's school starts again on Monday (can we have a collective "whew?"), so it'll be interesting to see who's back. I hope Joseph and Gracie can regain some normalcy. While we were in Singapore, the poor guy kept asking to go back to Tokyo to play with his toys.
Putting things into more perspective, I just saw another video of tsunami devastation (thanks to my friend, Erik). Check this out. I mean, even though life is uncertain in Tokyo, we are SUPER lucky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBp7croSSys
