In Japan, in order to cut back on the usage of electricity, many retail stores are cutting back on operating hours, and on lighting.
Japanese consumers have less time to shop, and in some stores, are shopping in the dark. Stores are keeping most of their lights turned off.
Consumers say they don’t mind, especially because they know it’s due to the triple whammy of disasters that have struck their country.
Even in the areas that are on the periphery of the natural disaster areas, in north east Honshu, trash collection has come to a near stand still.
Temporary trash dumps have been set up in parks and baseball fields.
I found the home video of liquefaction near Tokyo Disneyland, in Chiba Prefecture, on YouTube.
The two minute 39 second video shows sidewalks splitting, length wise, then moving in opposite directions. Water then begins to surge up from under the sidewalks and streets. The person doing the videography starts running as more water comes up everywhere, even asphalt streets start to split.
People are down on the ground, screaming. Keep in mind that Chiba Prefecture is between 137 and 200 miles from the where the 9.0 quake hit.
Tokyo Disneyland is still closed, after suffering damage from liquefaction.
In an area of Sendai city, in north east Honshu, Japan, there are survivors who are glad they refused to go to the official tsunami evacuation point, an elementary school. They are alive, but most of the people at the elementary school are not.
Based on computer modeling, disaster officials designated the elementary school as safe from tsunami. The computer model said tsunamis would not reach so far inland, so the school was safe. One survivor said he never understood that because the school is near sea level, he ran to a road that was much higher than the school, and survived. He says the tsunami went over the school’s second floor, people were inside.
A scientist, named Otomo (? think that’s his name), has been warning people for at least a year about the faulty claims by disaster officials. Otomo uses geologic evidence, which shows that tsunamis did indeed reach far inland, past the school. Officials ignored Otomo’s warnings.
This is an example of high tech ignorance, and arrogance.
Mazda Motor will temporarily stop accepting orders from the United States due to a shortage of auto parts, caused by the disasters.
Mazda models being affected by the shut down including the SUV models CX-7 and CX-9, and the Mazda3.
It was looking like Ford would escape supply problems from Japan, nope. Ford announced that specific colors for their new vehicles will be in short supply, due to the disasters in Japan.
Yes, even paint comes from Japan.
An ingredient used to make Ford’s Tuxedo Black, and three shades of red, come from Japan. That ingredient is called Xirallic.
Ford is trying to find a substitute ingredient.
Most Asian countries have banned food from specific Japanese prefectures, some Asian countries banned all food from Japan.
The United States has banned products from radiation zones.
The European Union is the latest group of countries to announce testing and bans of foods from 12 Japanese prefectures.
The food ban will probably not affect Japan’s export business, unlike electronics and cars, because food products make up only 1% of Japan’s exports. Where it will hurt most for Japan, is domestically. Japan will now have to import more food to make up for any loss at home.
Thousands of anime (Japanese animation) fans hoping to hit one of the world’s biggest anime conventions will have to wait another year. The event in Tokyo, Japan, was canceled after the 9.0 quake/tsunami. The event center is now being used to house survivors of the disaster.
Convention officials are now working to refund money to those who already bought tickets, and to more than 190 vendors.
In response to a reporter’s question, of how they are going to proceed with reactor 3 (with possible core damage), the TEPCo official said they do not know at this time.
This might be another reason why voluntary evacuation has been announced.
TEPCo officials speculate that the contaminated water in the basement of reactor 3, might have come from the reactor core.
It might have been caused by high pressure inside the reactor core. It could have been caused by valves, or the core was “compromised”.