Wednesday, April 6 – Plum Blossoms and Ice Cream

Spring is in the air in Sendai and Yasue and her friend enjoy a summertime treat.

Wednesday was very warm here in Sendai and Spring is in the air. The plum tree at my mom’s house is covered in buds and will bloom soon. It has been many years since I have seen it bloom as most of our trips here were in the summer.

In addition to the lines at the gas stations disappearing, the empty shelves at the grocery stores have as well. For the most part, the shelves are getting filled. It is still a bit difficult to find bottled water, however we still have some at our house. I heard that Tokyo is pretty bad and that people cannot find any bottled water. Baskin Robbins is also open now and Elena and I had some great ice cream, our first since 3/11.

It seems like most of Sendai City is almost back in normal. There are still some areas in the city that do not have natural gas yet and some quake damage remains. Of course, the coastal areas ravaged by the tsunami are still in a desperate state.

As I write this, we are once again having a mid-size aftershock. Like I said, back to normal.

HONOLULU Magazine’s owner, aio, is organizing a fundraiser for Tohoku University Hospital. Click here for details.