Souvenior is MILK!

I took a bus to go to Shinjo today. It seems like things started moving a bit more in Shinjo. I saw a lot of trucks loading timbers, and tank rolly wagons carying kerosene or gasoline. 

But when I talked to Shinjo residents, they all told me that there is NO GAS at all at the gas stands. They only sell gas to the emergency vehicles, not to normal people. So their life is actually getting tougher since they are using up all their gasoline... It seems like gasoline situation is a bit better outside Shinojo city....

My colleague wanted to buy some batteries. My mother wanted me to buy some hot pads "Hokkairo" in Japanese. But they were sold out in all the majour shops. Look at this! No batteries, no light bulbs anywhere!!

Finally, we found some batteries and hot pads in Yamazaki Shop, which is a bit away from Shinjo City center! I was so excited to find my hot pads at last!





I brought back some milk and bread for my nephews. I had never bought milk as "souvenir" before.  But it's really hard to find milk right now. 


I feel so grateful for a cup of milk, a bowl of rice and miso soup. We might not have as much food as before, but what we have is enough.


Is life getting better?? Would things go back to normal??


Today, I was looking at some images of this earthquake on foreign media's website. And it was really shocking. Japanese media NEVER shows corpse. But foreign medias do. 


I saw a picture of a little body being rescued from a rubble. It just broke my heart. It really broke my heart, and all these pictures shocked me, and made me realize how real the whole thing is. 


On Japanese TV, it's easy to believe that things are getting better, people are overcoming this. Yes, they started making new houses, streets are being cleaned... 


But how could they overcome this tragedy!? 


My friend's brother lives in the coast of Miyagi, he survived the earthquake, but now he is working everyday, collecting bodies. Who is going to take care of these people!? How traumatizing!


I think many people around me feel sympathy for the victims but they are trying to avoid feeling empathy because it's just too much. We've got to feed ourselves and evacuees.  In Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, Many many people have lost their loved ones. We've got to support them. We cannot afford to get depressed....