Saturday, March 19 – On, Off

Here we go again.

It’s 5 a.m. Sunday morning in Sendai and she is greeted to the day by a powerless house. Every time the electric goes out, Yasue is left wondering if it is just a temporary rolling blackout or is this her dark reality for days or perhaps weeks to come.Yesterday, aftershocks jolted her awake. Today, the electricity can’t jolt a light bulb to illuminate. What a luxury it would be to wake up and wonder about normal things. What to wear? What to eat? Am I going to be late? Instead, nearly a million people in northern Japan’s Tohoku Region awake wondering if the ground below their feet will ever stop shaking. Will we eat? Will we have electricity. Of course, that’s assuming they were even able to sleep. At this stage, we shouldn’t assume that.