Taking it easy

Compared to the excitement of Friday the last couple of days have been remarkably sedate. Saturday was in fact incredibly sedate. We had good intentions but it turned out that many train services were still suspended in the aftermath of the quake so we had a lazy day involving a short walk through the local area over to Ebina which is a bit of a local hub (although the massive shopping complex was in fact closed, probably due to earthquake related issues). That night we went out for dinner with some of Marthe's teacher friends (not as you might expect to a Japanese restaurant, but instead an Indian, so I had so far managed 2 days without any Japanese food). There was talk of potential karaoke afterwards but this soon fizzled out into a quieter night in.

We awoke on Sunday to a glorious day,

the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A perfect day to do a spot of sight-seeing. We decided on Yokohama and set off about midday. Thankfully it seemed that the train schedules were now resembling a somewhat normal service so there weren't any travel mishaps and we made it successfully. Our first stop in Yokohama was Chinatown, so we had Chinese for lunch (still no sign of any Japanese food). This was then followed by a walk along the bay, taking in the weather, laughing at people running past and admiring the architecture of the pier. All in all, a rather successful day.

Unfortunately, not all is well. There have been reports all day of the status of the nuclear power stations and various explosions. This has all led to the fun situation of rolling blackouts, so different regions get power at different times in order to lower the pressure on the power grid. Apparently there is also a risk of losing water as well, so stockpiling may well be the order of tomorrow morning... Unfortunately getting information isn't always easy because despite there being regular Public Service Announcements over loudspeakers, I haven't got the foggiest what they might be saying.

After the disappointment of the cricket I'm hoping the rugby team can do better. I would be watching it but the BBC website stream keeps crashing so it looks like it will be a case of iPlayer tomorrow.

All in all, it certainly seems like I chose the right time to come to Japan. If nothing else it'll be a good story to tell...