The last week of March

Today's walk revealed this streetside bouquet

Who knew March would end like this? Nuclear reactor news goes from bad to worse and the situation concerning all four reactors is still very grave. Work has been suspended on reactor #2 as the radioactive levels have been found to be too high for workers to enter. Things are going in the wrong direction.
     To cope with the reduced electricity supply, rolling blackouts continue and many businesses have reduced their services/production schedules or shut down completely. Tokyo Disneyland is one of these and their temporary closure has forced surrounding hotels to close for the time being too. Some companies are running at night instead of day to avoid the blackout schedules and to ease the strain on electricity needs during peak hours. Train schedules are severely impacted: many lines have cut 20% of their services or more at rush hours, resulting in long waits for trains in the hope of boarding sooner or later.
      As for the direct results of the earthquake, the news here is reporting lots about those in evacuation facilities. As of today, there are more than 190,000 people living in vacant schools, stadiums and other makeshift facilities. Goods are finally moving to them and gas deliveries were made for the first time on the weekend. People with functional vehicles that can get some of the gas can finally move. The expressways were open to private vehicles over the weekend as well, and the highways were crowded with people travelling to the affected areas.  Little by little, things are getting under some sense of control, though in a very temporary and fragile way. Support by volunteers and donation foundations has been overwhelming. The city of Tokyo stopped accepting donations  temporarily after receiving over 12,000 packages because they didn't have enough manpower or gasoline and vehicles to transport the goods. Grassroots organizations, NPOs, and individuals are giving great help too. And lots of companies are making financial or material donations in very big ways. This is the good news.
     A nice story I heard yesterday: A group of high school students wanted to know what a certain shelter was lacking, and they were told pillows. So, they hurriedly made a bundle of pillows, embroidering messages of encouragement on them and delivered them to the shelter. Just one of thousands of warm gestures.
    However, the quakes are still not over. We were treated to a shake-free weekend in Tokyo, but at 7:24am today there was another one, which was 5+ intensity in Fukushima and fairly significant here too.
  The sun was shining though and it was a calm, clear day in Tokyo today, always a good thing. And look - the cherry blossoms have decided to come out after all!

Cherry blossoms beginning to bloom