Somewhat normal

Well, as of Tuesday midday, many things are normal.

Leo's school is in session, half-day.  The local (Japanese) schools are open, perhaps showing their civic purpose, caring for the kids (my opinion).  The kids may be safer at school than at home, and it probably helps them mentally to be there with their classmates and teachers.

Tyler's school (private International) shut down for the entire week.  Spring break begins Saturday anyway, and many people had already decided to evacuate.  Most of the evacuating people are Europeans.  My guess of the reasons is, 1) financial means, 2) information gap (language barrier), and 3) experience and memory of Chernobyl, which was much closer to them than us Americans.

Mika is at work as usual.  Although her section doesn't handle domestic claims, the insurance company already has thousands of claims from the disaster.  We hear that many employers are having their people stay at home, partly because of the blackout uncertainty, and partly because of transportation difficulties.

Our neighborhood avoided the scheduled blackouts yesterday and today.  The electric utility (TEPCO) has planned rotating blackouts to deal with the reduced generating capacity, but have not actually turned the power off as long as demand has stayed below the supply level.

There are some economic worries.  Train service is somewhat limited (because of power supply, not damage) and many stores are shortening their hours (related to commuting problems?), and the stock market is down to the level of 6 months ago.  

Mostly, we're glued to the TV (maybe like you)!