Stranded

While things have calmed down a bit we've still been a bit on edge. It's hard not to be when the main thing in the news is earthquake/tsunami/radiation related. Although to be fair this area seems pretty normal at first glance. All the buildings are intact, there are no riots or signs of panic and everyone seems to be getting on with their lives as normal.

There are some signs of the disaster though. Some shops are running low on certain essentials like bread, milk and toilet paper. There are rolling blackouts throughout the region leaving us without electricity for about 3 hours a day. And there are limited train services. The trains are slowly returning to normal, but it hasn't really been possible to go anywhere particularly exciting. Yokohama is the only place I have so far managed to get to, I haven't even managed to get to Tokyo. We've been pretty stranded here really, but while that's slightly frustrating it could definitely be a hell of a lot worse.

Things are looking up though. Trains have started running through the area now, albeit less frequently than normal and with suspension periods during the day. Hopefully I'll manage to go somewhere tomorrow, we're planning to try and go back to Yokohama again, mainly because it's one of the easier places to get to and there's plenty that we didn't do on Sunday. And hopefully if the trains keep improving I'll be able to make it into Tokyo at some point over the weekend.

While it may not have been quite how I envisaged my visit to Japan, I have enjoyed it. It's been nice seeing the suburban side of life and having a nice sedate trip.

So far the British Embassy is only advising caution and as long as it stays that way I fully intend to stick it out and make the most of the trip.