The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami have not had a significant affect on life in Hokkaido. To me, in some ways watching the TV footage and hearing from others who are going to help feels like it is happening in another country. There have been stories of gasoline shortages, food not arriving, people panic buying goods and worrying about radiation levels, water being cut off, electricity rolling blackouts and all kinds of other things going on in Japan, but in Hokkaido, at least in Ebetsu City, there has been nothing like this. One supermarket had a sign telling us we could only buy 20kg of rice per person and one pack of toilet paper, but we don’t need that much at one time! For most people, life has returned, even continued, as normal here in Hokkaido.

We ourselves are, of course, praying for the people in Tohoku, giving money where we can and helping out others directly involved in helping where we are able. But our church position has meant not being able to go with the team of OMFers who just got back from Iwate prefecture to help clean up and provide food for people in the area. The church pastor of 33 years has just finished and a new pastor is coming today, we are the “link” between the two in terms of filling in and helping the new pastor get up and running.

One affect it did have was on entertainment and media, for about a week after the earthquake, regular TV shows were put on hold and every channel was showing 24 hour news coverage of what was going on.   In itself this was a noble effort in keeping people up to date of the dangers that could be coming their way, of government messages regarding safety and “life-lines” (electricity, water etc).  But after a few days Hokkaido it meant brisk business for local video rental shops.  For some people it has meant feelings of anxiety and concern did not subside and even people relatively unaffected by the earthquake have been considerably disturbed by the continue flow of media.

I hope this post doesn’t seem too flippant, I don’t mean to take anything away from the disaster that has occurred in Tohoku and Kanto, many people are suffering greatly, mourning family members, neighbours, friends who have been swept away. Many people have lost their livelihoods and homes, wondering how to build for the future.

Really the truth is I want to blog about a TV commercial… Since the earthquake, understandably, companies don’t want to be associated with the images of suffering and destruction that have been on TV, and so have pulled their commercials. The result is the Advertising Council of Japan have been given a LOT of airtime for their commercials, including this particularly irritating one about why you should use everyday greetings to make friends (the message isn’t irritating, the constant playing over and over of the same tune grates a bit though).  The ads are beginning to return, but aside from news reports in the regular slots, the ever present AC ads are one of the few every day things that reminds me of the disaster that happened just a few short weeks ago.

But it also means the run of a particular favourite of mine was cut short.  It’s a commercial for a product to keep pollen out of your nose called Ion Block.  Last year it featured a few pollen grains dancing along singing “At last!  We’ve arrived at the Nose!!” only to be taken out by Ion Block at the last minute and told not to come back again.  This year it is back with “This year too, we’ve arrived at the Nose!” and another devastating tackle, and Ion Block is joined by his mentholated “cool” friend.