Four weeks on.

Even as I sit down to start this entry, the house shakes. I am pleased to say that our reflexes here are much improved. We know what furniture to grab and where. We are, somehow, used to it.

It was a quick jolt and 4 on the magnitude (in Sendai) so maybe a 2 or 3 here in Saitama. (1 on the Japanese shindo scale).But, they are still coming.

It was just less than 4 weeks to the day when, most of us were tucked up in bed, that the ground shook quite viciously once again. Thursday night, there was another earthquake in Miyagi. It was a level 4 on the shindo scale down here in Saitama.(4 out of 7). The alarm system told us so.

You can see form the this map how much of Japan was affected by the quake. I have never seen anything like this. The earthquake literally rocked and shocked almost the whole of Japan. Unbelievable.

The shakes in Miyagi were much stronger and actually, some people died. Furniture was thrown everywhere. One of my friends, who had just returned to her apartment for the first time in weeks had spent five hours on Thursday cleaning up, only for the earthquake to cause her another four hours of tidying.

One can only imagine how tiring this must all be.

I spoke to another friend on Friday who didn't seem her chirpy self at all. She had no idea when her husband would come back from work as he works at the electric company. Many houses lost electricity straight after the earthquake, but, this being Japan, it was, fortunately quickly reconnected by the next evening in some places.

I was due to travel up to Sendai last night, but, we all decided against it given the severe lack of resources. I didn't want to make the situation worse for people (I need to drive around a lot, using gas, not to mention food, electricity etc.) I shall be going up next weekend instead, I really can't wait. It will be so good to see my friends there, but also, to continue with my help for JEARS. There will be more information on that in a later.

I felt down about not being able to do anything this week that would be of use. Then, I watched more recent footage of the exclusion zone, and some of the creatures in it. It was all very dreary and makes me very upset. I thought that, four weeks on, the recovery process was on track, but, we are far from it.

If you want to see the video, click here www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp9iJ3pPuL8

As it turns out, I can still do a lot of work from my house and my computer. I tell you what though, thank goodness for softbank and free calls! It certainly helps us all at a time like this.

As I write, my friends in Sendai are doing what they can to assist me with contacts etc and are doing everything they can to make sure my visit will be a success next weekend. It is really touching and it makes me feel a bit better again.

Speaking of loveliness, our doorbell rang today. Our neighbours had finished making our sign for our door. You must remember that, these guys have the warehouse full of ceramics that they make and they lost half of their things on March 11th. They live next door in a house that lost many tiles from the roof. I had guessed that they wouldn't have had the time to make us the sign, seeing as they have to rebuild their own business, but, no. Here is our lovely name sign to be hung outside the front door. Thank you!

How sweet of them indeed!

Meanwhile, in the Hawgood household, Elbi and Mimi hang out...Bless them.

It has been a busy week. I came back from Niigata and started my new job. I got quite sick, both a cold, some hay fever too. Today is the first day that I have stopped for quite a while. And am on the mend. All the better for more work and rescue next week.

Work has been fun; a great chance to occupy the mind with positivity

and so much fun teaching these little cuties.

As you can see, the cherry blossoms are out in full bloom. Omiya Koen was a beautiful sight to see. We really must go back there again soon.

So, as I prepare for another week of running around with 3 year olds and organising animal rescue. Gambarimasho!!