You learn a lot about yourself in the days and weeks after a big disaster. For me and I'm sure a lot of people, the month of March last year seemed to last a lifetime. The weekend before the earthquake I had a farewell party for a class I'd taught for around 5 years. It was the end of an era, and within a week a new one was starting.
But not just for me, for everyone.
After the quake there was no gas and soon no food. And then shortly after that there was no electricity or running water for a lot of people. I had it lucky because (and I found this out much later) my apartment is on the same grid section as the fire department, just barely. But a friend of mine who lived maybe 10 minutes away by car was without water for weeks.
And people up north had it even worse. There was a huge loss of life in Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate and elsewhere, but little mention was made of people suffering in the cold weather in Ibaraki just to the north of me. The southern part of the prefecture was mostly fine, but up north and along the coast they had nothing for weeks. If you want to have a truly gut wrenching experience, try reading a log of tweets coming out of there at the time, if it exists.
Where I was there were shortages but it was partly self-inflicted. People saw the news, saw there wasn't much food and supplies, and freaked. A friend told me he went to a supermarket days after the quake and was almost dumbfounded by what he saw - people walking out with enough toilet paper to last a family for months. Others bought up anything edible or drinkable, regardless of the fact that they could never finish it before most of it spoiled.
There were 7-11's emptied within seconds of getting a delivery. People waited in line for a half hour just to put in a few liters of gas. Soon store shelves were all bare, and a lot of restaurants closed down because of either looming rolling blackouts, they had no food on hand, or just didn't see the point with no one coming in. It all reminded me of people going crazy because of an impending snowstorm back home. About the only thing you could find after a week or so was booze and porn.
Around March 25th or so I decided to risk riding my scooter in to town again and almost cried when I found natto and rice for sale. Soon after that I could fill up my tank with gas. It didn't just immediately end, but the panicking and hoarding eventually subsided. The rolling blackouts, however, lasted well in to summer. Although it turned out later that people were so gung-ho about conserving energy by turning off lights and turning down the AC that in many cases the blackouts were unnecessary.
But it is still affecting us in many ways. I don't ride my scooter as much anymore. Partially to save gas but also because I realized how lazy I'd gotten over the years. Some of my coworkers ride a bicycle every day - not many but more than before.
Also I think a lot of people have a keener awareness of it all, how fragile the system we rely on is. I find myself taking things like a towel, asprin, a small tool set and power chargers with me a lot more than before. Because you never know what is going to happen, and where you'll be and who you'll be with when it does.
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