3/25/2011 problems of problems of problems

Still documenting the quake, but I:ll have to go back and recap the last 2 WEEKS!! ugh…anyhow….

Now it is the 25th and Im amazed at how many problems that quake is STILL causing…..even smaller personal problems.

It is like one problem leads to another to another to another to another…..

at least the global epicness of each problem is getting smaller….

 

First there was the quake itself.  which didnt cause all that much damage in reality….but it led to the tsunamis….which caused a LOT of damage and death…..which also lead to the nuclear disaster…..which led to hording and panic….(some say it was not panic but i still call it panic….maybe japanese people didnt go on killing sprees, but to act as they did, buying up all they could despite the shame of this behavior, considering those north needed it more, and other problems it caused, esp buying water when the limit was only harmful to babies…..(adults buying water)…..i call it panic, for here.  The fear was there, in the air, just, people controlled it…..there is a thinking-for the-group selfless stoic behavior that is promoted which makes the fear more hidden…….but *I* call it panic……

Anyhow, the stores sold out, over a fear of not having food, and now there is the fear of contamination….radiation was in the air, the rain came and washed it into the dirt, and now the veges have soaked it up and are reading higher than normal levels of radiation….this is causing selected buying and empty drink shelves. even the colas are nearly gone now…..sigh.

But those are the well documented problems.  Here is one of the hugest problems facing my daily life right now:

MOISTURE AND MOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See, we are not supposed to hang clothes outside to dry….and it doesnt seem like anyone is hanging them out……so i am still not hanging them out either.

BUT we dont have dryers….so that means hanging them up inside…..where they dry slowly…..esp since it is COLD, and since it has been RAINING, and since we are supposed to conserve ELECTRICITY (not use heat), and we have to take daily showers to wash off any radiation since we go outside, and i have to wash VS’ suit more often (he only has 2, that i must rotate)…

So this leads to LOTS OF LAUNDRY, LOTS OF WASHING, and LOTS OF MOISTURE!!!! The moisture levels are through the rough.  often exceeding 100%…the scale is just stuck all the way past 100%.   We are also not supposed to open windows and not supposed to ventilate….

SO IM CONFUSED>>>>>AM I THE ONLY ONE WITH THIS PROBLEM????  WHAT TO DO???

Ive minimized how often i change an article of clothing…stuff that doesnt touch my skin directly i am using a few times before washing.  it is hard to dry thicker things before they start to smell….i have held some up in front of the heater at times….

The paper doors are looking…..moist…..at times….there have been times when cardboard around the house was soft….the windows are covered with condensation, dripping, if i dont wipe them from time to time. When it rains and we take a shower, afterwards, our breath hangs in the room…..white clouds when we speak…..

I admit…i had to turn on the heater a few times….out of fear of the moisture……i have already found a few spots of mold which i am trying to clean quickly.  out apartment is mold prone for some reason anyhow (prob coz it:s buried in the darkness of other apartments and on the bottom floor).

So the moisutre is now leading to mold.  So im having to act like it is rainy season, or even worse than that, and treat all food items with special care. Even some things you wouldnt expect to be sensitive to that, are….

And now it seems i have a touch of nail fungus on my left thumb…..not sure that is what it is, but i had it once before and it feels the same.  no visual evidence yet though…and i have already attacked it with medicines and vinegar soaks….NOT GOING THROUGH THAT AGAIN!!! UGH!!!

Anyhow…..the sun is up and bright today…the moisture is currently down to 85% and I am gonna skip laundry today if possible…..I have an air filter which takes out pollen and mold spores and ive started running it more.

I’m about to just give up and hang my clothes outside anyway. open the windows and let the air dry the house out….. The mold and moisture is probably more dangerous than the radiation where i am anyway…the only reason i dont is that, no one else has their clothes outside either……but Im just fed up and dunno what else to do about all this….

not to mention my hair bleach which i JUST BOUGHT…. enough to last a few months…and which goes bad easily in high moisture…..i am trying my best to keep it safe….

should i just say……..screw the radiation?  It’s not THAT high anyhow…………how long is this gonna continue?

So new problems keep coming from other problems…..just glad the scale of these problems is getting smaller…. if i have a nail fungus, the global scale of this problem is indeed a lot less than the tsunamis that killed so many….i guess that means things are MUCH MUCH better than last week or the week before…..

but i just wish this cycle would STOOOOOOPPPPP>>>>>>UGH

8.9 Earthquake in Japan…..My experience from outside Tokyo. 3/11/2011

over the course of the next few days, I am going to slowly and thoroughly document what happened from my point of view.  i will not cover the main blow of damage, as i have no first person view of that, and it is well documented by the news.

As you probably know, my memory is not great.  I am likely to forget the details of this event quickly.  i wish to preserve them, so I will be writing this mainly for that personal, diary type reason, but if someone wishes to read these accounts or share them, I would be very happy that it has served another function.

 

I will have to do it a little at the time because during the ordeal i seem to have gotten frostnip on my fingers, and typing is not good for that.

 

1.

It started out like any other day.  There had been a major quake up north a couple days ago, but it already seemed like a thing of the past.  We had hardly felt it here.  It was certainly not on my mind as i woke up and went about my usual chores.   I was to make rum balls, so i was preparing the ingredients for that.  I was also working on a video.

When suddenly, the room started shaking.  The first thing that went through my mind was, get the camera.   I even stepped in the direction of it but as i did the shaking increased and got to a level that scared me so much that I quickly forgot the camera and stumbled instead to the toilet room.

Describing what a medium-largish quake  feels like is rather difficult.  It seems so very different in real life than on video.  I guess in a video, you already know the *camera’s eye* survived….the person filming is alive….and you dont feel the physical motion…..like watching someone jump out of an airplane on TV….it is just different.

But in real life…you never know when it:s gonna get worse.  Every shake that is slightly stronger than the one before leaves you filled with the adrenaline of believing the roof is going to cave down on you with the next wave.

The cracking and banging walls sound as though they are being ripped apart and it is still hard for me to believe that they could go through that without structural damage.

It really feels like the forces are pulling on the room from all directions at once….ripping it apart in different directions.   When you feel that, and the huge energy under your feet, moving the ground in ways you just dont expect the ground to move……it totally throws your whole balance off. literally!

it really makes you realize how much faith we put into the fact that the ground is stable.  When that stability is gone….it:s like all stability in the world is gone and there:s nothing you can do but pray.

Some quakes are up and down, some side to side, and some form a wave-like combination.  this was the latter type.

sometimes gentle and with a high amplitude, sometimes jerky and shorter and random, sometimes in combination, i could make no sense of the way i was moving.  it was very dizzying.  hard to stand, hard to get oriented, and especially hard to think and hard to breathe  ….i cant even find words for how it feels.

So there i sat, crouched down, praying,….begging nature to stop! please stop!

i crouched….listening with 120% focused, adrenaline induced attention to every little sound….the violently sloshing water in the toilet bowl, the items falling, the cracking and creaking, the banging and clanking…and the worst sound of all i think, the sound of the building seemingly being lifted very slightly and dropped back down….that heavy structural sound that i really dont know how to describe.

Each sound inducing fear that *maybe that is the sound of the structure breaking* *maybe the next thing i  see will be the room fall apart*  * maybe i will be trapped in the bathroom*  *maybe the building will catch on fire*   *will i burn to death?*  *will i be trapped for days*  *will i get out only to find that yasu did not make it* *will i have to follow drones of strangers for weeks until i can be reunited with someone i know* *will my world be plunged into the dream-like state of utter tragedy now?*

My life did not flash before my eyes…..the devastating possibilities of the near future did.   and i braced myself for them.

Now, I must mention.  it didnt get all that bad here.  it wasnt so much the fact of how bad it technically was that scared me….it was the fact of knowing it COULD be much worse.  it MIGHT be like that…that this might be *IT*….the one we all fear…….There is never ANY IDEA of how long or bad it will end up being.  They tend to start smallish and escalate more and more, quite often.   no warning, no clues…….not before and not during…….even when it stops you do not know if it is really over.  there could be many.  the next one could be worse……no clues.   no info.  nothing but rolling the dice of fate.

Finally it died down and i sang my praises to the heavens, and went to get the video camera and cell phone, room still shaking mildly.

to be continued.