Hidemi's Rambling No.310

Because the earthquake damaged nuclear and thermal power plants alike and caused a serious power shortage, the scheduled blackout has been carried out in the suburbs of Tokyo. The place I currently live is among the targets. The area is divided into groups and the electricity goes out in turn for three hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays. Depending on the turn, there are two three-hour blackouts a day. The other day, the power shortage became critical despite of the scheduled blackouts, and the government announced there might be an extensive sudden blackout around Tokyo anytime soon in the evening. The announcement came in the middle of speculation that the exploded nuclear power plant got out of control and that doubled my fear. To me, that night was the most frightening time since the earthquake. Fortunately, a sudden blackout didn’t happen. But the days of scheduled blackouts have been beyond my imagination enough. I had thought I lived in a civilized country until the earthquake and had taken electricity for granted. Hours without the power are horrible. Especially at nighttime, I experience total darkness. Houses, traffic lights and neon signs are all blacked out and the whole town is nothing but darkness. It’s much darker than I imagined. And somehow, the whole neighborhood falls silent as if people held their breath waiting for the electricity back on. I had never thought I would experience these living in Japan. And when the blackout is over and the light comes back on, I feel like I revived, jumping and shouting for joy each time. That’s been a kind of extreme happiness I had never felt before, but just temporary one. Tomorrow is another day for blackouts…