Entries this day: Kawasaki Rob_Update

Kawasaki

10:38am JST Saturday 19 March 2011 (day 14969)

Came back to Kawasaki last night to see Lin; her mom said it was cool considering the earthquakey circumstances.

Another earthquake at 6am upon waking, and now breakfast time.

Rob Update

Rob Update

Hello World!

For me, having stopped watching TV, the world is back to normal (*), with just a
few little differences which will take a bit longer to go back to normal.  Those
are the ability to purchase rice and bread, and the ability to have electrical
power 24 hours a day.

(* I know there are some people worried about the Fukushima reactor, but I trust
the experts who are working on it know how to do their job.  Super-blessings to
them for their hard work.)

We have power about 20 hours per day, with a rolling system of blackouts that don't
yet seem to have a schedule known far in advance.  It's kinda like a weather report
on the radio.  "Tomorrow's outages: Group 1 from 7:30 to 10:30, Group 2 from 10:00
to 1pm, ...." up to five groups.  (I just made up these times, but there are 5
groups, with about 3 or 4 hours per outage, and I've heard of some groups going out
twice in a day.)

One thing I find quite interesting: on the first day after the earthquake, there
were no power outages in Tokyo.  On the second or third day, they said "we might
have to do rolling blackouts," but they didn't, citing that people conserved enough
power on their own.  Then on the next day, power outages occured in some areas as
planned, and now they seem to happen consistently each day.

Part of me wonders at what appeared to be a gradual phasing in of power outages. 
Did people go that quickly back to their normal greedy consumption rates?

The lowered access to power has resulted in fewer trains running.  My line (Tokaido
Line) used to have a train every 11 to 15 minutes during non-rush-hour.  I noticed
last night 45 minute gaps between train service in the non-rush-hour direction.  I
haven't seen/experienced the overall schedule, but certainly that was noticably
different.

- - - -

Yesterday I noticed the following thing: if I didn't have any access to news, my
senses would only be fed by the beautiful weather around me.  The past few days
have been chilly, featuring bright blue sunny skies, and only the slightest
indication around me that anything changes since last week (bread, rice, and power,
mentioned above).  I've enjoyed having my focus on the beauty around me.  As my
friend Kevin says, "Love expands consciousness and includes; fear contracts
consciousness and excludes."

I'm therefore focusing on the positive around me; it's so lovely and beautiful
here!

On Monday, I'll be going to The Pink Cow for a fundraiser; I will likely donate
some of my drawings to auction, and may do a live painting with Divy, a superstar
human being!

I'm open to going up north to volunteer with physical cleanup and construction, if
I'm guided that way.

  blessings
   - Rob!