Posted on 03/25/2011 6:35:26 AM PDT by Iron Munro
Edited on 03/25/2011 7:05:36 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
TOKYO - Nearly two weeks of rolling blackouts, distribution problems and contamination fears prompted by a leaking, tsunami-damaged nuclear plant have left shelves stripped bare of some basic necessities in stores across Tokyo.
Some people are even turning to the city's ubiquitous vending machines to find increasingly scarce bottles of water.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.tbo.com ...
ZOMG!11! You're right! FReepers are a relatively charitable bunch, can't we send them some from here? We have so much to spare, I don't think we'd miss it.
Here's a few crates, load them up on the C130 and we'll airdrop em.
Wow, that put me into a seizure ...
My son and DIL say they can’t get bottled water in Yokohama.
Yes but it is more dramatic to say that store shelves are emptying.
The drama queen is the new symbol of our age.
My son is over there and he says that, other than some cracks in the sidewalks and streets, it’s fine where he is in the chiba district. However, he is coming home next week since his job as an english teachers dried up because all of his students are gone after fleeing the country.
“Try making an automobile with the steering wheel on the right side of the car which fits Japanese roads and compares well in price, performance and quality and then get back to me.”
That was the problem decades ago.
The problem now is trade barriers. Unless the laws have changed recently, they practically disassemble every vehicle on the pier before allowing it into the country. That wastes time and money. Not to mention taxes, tariffs, and quotas.
Were it otherwise, surely Mini Coopers would be immensely popular there.
The Japanese play to win, not to tie.
A fire is usually within a specific area. Outside that area there will be no damage so food, shelter, and life as we know it continues as normal. The scenerio said you have time go back in to gather cases of food. That's what I disagree with. Why gather food when there is plenty outside the immediate area? If you have all that time to gather something that you won't be needing then use the time he gave you to gather something of importance like the family photo album and other keepsakes which he says will be destroyed.
Dubya wasn’t blamed for the actual natural disasters, but the handling afterward — unfairly in my opinion Also, just because the Left acts viciously doesn’t mean we have to do the same thing.
Nothing wrong with your opinion. My Bug out options take into consideration severity and duration.
If I need to act now then it’s the G.O.O.D. and I’m on the road.
If I have time I’ll grab a few personal items but I won’t linger.
But with an hours head start, I can get quite a bit in 15 minutes and be on the road before the fire reaches me.
I don’t think most people have thought through the very real possibility for disaster.
Haveing been snowed in, gone through mudslides, floods, tornadoes, southern style hail and even fire, I don’t take anything for granted.
I even escaped the riots in San Francisco by a mere 10 minutes during the whole Rodney King fiasco.
So I am pretty much prepared for all eventualities and know where I will go depending on the incident.
Most people in my are will go to the Santa Cruz mountains to seek shelter under the redwoods.
Not me. I’m going east to avoid as many people as possible and my B.O.B. is designed around that possibility.
Besides, people are stupid and will end up lighting the forest on fire for their carelessness.
I'm not sure what the service record ib Mini Coopers might be. But I don't recall seeing too many while I was over there.
If I don't focus on what is being broadcast in the news, I'm left with the intended impression that the entire country of Japan is radioactive and out of food supplies.......and of course that's not the case.
But the MSM, in their own insidious way, leads you to believe that it is all of Japan.
“There’s no shortage of BMW’s and Mercedes Benz’s in Japan.”
Yes, but those are luxury items. The people who buy those in Japan aren’t worried about a few hundred thousand yen here and there.
A Mini Cooper would be — or should be — affordable.
I thought my pun was self explanatory but apparently not so.
I wasn't blaming the Japanese Tsunami on Obama.
I equated the disaster he has brought to America with the disaster the Tsunami brought to Japan.
He is our Tsunami. Get it?
Reporting from Tokyo, (Kugayama, Suginami Ward) I can give you the following update.
Most shelves at the supermarkets are full again with the exception of milk, bread and bottled water, but all are available. The local Seiyu Supermarket has asked customers to limit their bottle water purchases to two 2-liter PET bottles per customer and has posted an easy to understand chart showing Iodine-131 concentrations in the tap water, with indicators where the danger levels are.
They also ask that people over 40 who are no in any danger at all from the increased iodine-131 to refrain from purchases so it will be available for families with babies. The local ward office has trucks out delivering free bottled water to families who can’t get to the stories.
I surmise that the wheat is being channeled to the disaster areas where it is being baked into bread for emergency rations. Ditto the milk, most of which comes from Hokkaido and and also faces a transportation bottleneck. But once again, both ARE available, just in limited amounts.
There is no shortage of meat, fish or any fresh veggies. In fact, fresh vegetable prices are very cheap because of the iodine-131 scare, even if they are grown far south of Tokyo and not affected by the disaster at all.
Bananas are extremely cheap at 95 yen per bunch of five or six, oranges and grapefruit from the states are also quite reasonable, Hokkaido apples are not available, but the US apples are.
In my fridge right now, I have a 600 gram package of hamburger meat I am going to use for chili this afternoon. It cost 445 yen at 89 yen per 100 grams, which was a good price before the earthquake, so that’s about normal. American beef and pork are both available.
do they have Mexicans picking the apples there?
It is not so much that their is a ‘shortage’ of carpenters, but rather that there is a huge surplus of carpentry work.
The rebuilding from this tsunami will suck up a lot of basic supplies from all over the world.
Only the ones that swim here.
BFL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.