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Tokyo shoppers clean store shelves of basic goods

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This article states that water was hard get to the day after they released the info on radiation levels??? You say what? Water has been hard to get since the Saturday after the quake! I spoke with some Japanese tokyoites last night and it seems they are only reading headlines and not the full articles. My mate's 26y/o J-GF was in tears last night exclaiming how she would never be able to have children cos she drank a glass of tap water in Chiba yesterday. These people have really got to get a grip and the J-Gov has got to start doing something about the mass-depression and hysteria the broken reactor is causing. The majority of the people I have spoken to have completely lost what little plot they had to begin with.

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Isn't all this massive purchasing of bottled water going to create a mountain of empty PET bottles?

"one pack of diapers ( per family )"

No problem, just take an ubiquitous plastic bag, cut it along the edges, open it, put a small towel in the center, put yer baby in it, tie it up, and away ya go!

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"The limits refer to sustained consumption rates"

Crikey, it seems some members of the public do not understand the meaning of this sentence..

According to the BBC's medical correspondant "the extra risk from drinking tap water in Tokyo for a year would be far less than that of someone moving, say, from London to Cornwall for a year" (Cornwall being a part of the UK having a slightly higher background radiation than average).

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I am heading to Tokyo tomorrow. Long story short, my husband and I waited 2 LONG years to get my spouse visa.

My question is: what am I going dealing with in terms of living conditions in Tokyo? Should I worry about not being able to find certain things? And should I just bring stuff from home?

My hubby seems to be calm and tells me things are slowly coming back to normal. I just wonder if he is telling me that so I don't panic :)

It's ironic that I'm worried about the panic buying going on. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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@ Sarge. Or there is always the old timey cloth diapers that you have to wash by hand and stick in a bucket of bleach. But i also like your Macgyver diapers too.

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The restaurants still have plenty of food, I've had virtually no problems eating out for lunch etc.

As for radiation levels in water:

The guideline value (300 Bq/kg) set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan for restriction of drinking water intake.

"It should also be noted that the Japanese guideline value is an order lower than the internationally agreed Operational Intervention Levels for I-131 (3000 Bq/kg)

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Oh my god the world is done and we are all going to die. Please, people I am in Tokyo everyday and it is just life as usual. There is bottled water in the two convenience stores by my office in akasaka. Please stop already

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It seems people here are getting two important points:

The rates are for annual consumption, not daily consumption. Japans safety levels are more severe than international levels (just like bad cholestoral levels, BMI levels, etc).

By the way, yesterday there was bottled water here in Shinjuku at my local supermarket. Shinjuku is darker than before the earthquakes due to turning off lots of lights to save energy, but otherwise, things are pretty normal here. Maybe Shinjuku people are not so easily scared.

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Go out and buy a Brita filter and use the tap water.

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Go out and buy a Brita filter and use the tap water.

Yeah, that'll stop the radiation

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"My question is: what am I going dealing with in terms of living conditions in Tokyo? Should I worry about not being able to find certain things? And should I just bring stuff from home?"

You will be ok. Nobody is going hungry in Tokyo. You might not be able to eat what you want for a bit but you will be able to eat, there is no fear of that.

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@my2sense- what an idiot! since when do water filters take out cesium and iodine? why don't I just pee into it and drink it up? it can filter everything, right brainiac?

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my2sense Don't waste your money man, Brita filters while good at removing other contaminants, do not remove radiation.

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My question is: what am I going dealing with in terms of living conditions in Tokyo? Should I worry about not being able to find certain things? And should I just bring stuff from home?

The only thing I really haven't been able to get hold of in the last 2 weeks is natto, fermented soybeans, and I doubt you will miss those much unless you've already developed a taste for them. Milk is a bit hit and miss, so you could bring some powdered milk if you were really worried, although you won't have any problems getting a latte at Starbucks. We are advised to give bottled water to babies under 1 year old for the time being but that the water is safe for adults (by overseas experts as well as Japanese sources).

Otherwise it's just that the escalators are off sometimes and the lighting levels are lower than normal, minor concerns really. There is the possibility of power cuts but we haven't had one yet.

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Forgot to make the first part of my post a quote- I am replying to SpanishEyez above, not asking the same question.

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Debucho, i live 400km south west of tokyo. Although u could still buy the expensive water from convinience stores, all the water at every supermarket, drug store...are all out. I usually drink bottled water to begin with so now im forced to dust off my brita filter.

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Agree with the above posters.

Life in Tokyo is nearly back to normal. Here is what I found you can get most of the stable items, forget the super, combini, etc those sell out quicker.

Want bread got to a bakery, etc. Liquor stores often still have bottled water, Rice shops still have stock. Granted those options are bit more pricey.

I use Soy-milk quiet a bit now instead of Cow-milk,, etc those don't seem to sell too fast.

As was said you won't go hungry or thirsty in Tokyo, granted some fav food or ingredient might not be readily available.

Lets face is us down here in Tokyo we still got our apartments, electricity, gas, water, TV, Internet and the shops are fairly well stocked.

And the escalators not working, etc is a good way to keep the tummy in or lose a bit of the flab. ;)

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Some people are even turning to the city’s ubiquitous vending machines to find increasingly scarce bottles of water.

See, here's where the international media loves to sensationalize. They make it sound like buying water from a vending machine is like going to a loan shark for rent money. It's just a vending machine. There's nothing unusual with buying water from it.

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Go out and buy a Brita filter and use the tap water.

Thank you for giving me a really good laugh for the first time in two weeks. It is much appreciated in these trying times.

why don't I just pee into it and drink it up? it can filter everything, right brainiac?

Nah, filtering out pee requires TWO of them Brita's... Kanpai!

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So the Kirin Chu-hi Hyoketsu Chardonnay Sparkling & Peach are back ??? Whohoo!!!

I was in the country for 2 weeks until 10 days ago and nothing like waiting until the last minute to try and pick THAT up. With airline fares beginning to creep down it may even be worth a return trip. :)

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Why is there a shortage of plain white flour? What are the Japanese doing with that? Not so many make their own bread. Tempura does not use so much.

People are just panicking and buying unnecessary not just too much of what they need, but what they don't need too.

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The news in USA says there are warehouses full of food and water ready for distribution. If this is true, why can't GSDF with the millions of yen spent on vehicles get the products out to the people? What is the truth here?

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noriyosan.

Truth is many roads are still blocked and there is still a shortage of fuel up north.

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Thanks everyone for the information,makes me feel better. I just wanted to know how bad the panic buying was,because the reports makes folks in Tokyo look like their running around screaming in hysteria.

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You know what? Here it is: We are all going to die some day. Accept it and enjoy your life instead of being scared of everything. There is radiation, pollutants, etc. in everything you eat, drink, and breathe. An average chocolate bar has between 3-8 insect legs in it. Up to half an average pillow's weight consists of dust mite feces. Every time you go outside, you are exposed to radiation - it's called sunlight. You are dying right now as you read this very post. Freaking out about any of that stuff isn't going to help you.

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Why is there a shortage of plain white flour? What are the Japanese doing with that? Not so many make their own bread

You'd be surprised. Lots of people have the new popular electric bread-makers. When the Seikyo lady brought my weekly delivery this week and noticed the amount of flour in it, she asked me what kind of machine I had and did I recommend it. Was gobsmacked when I told her I didn't use a machine.

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An average chocolate bar has between 3-8 insect legs in it. Up to half an average pillow's weight consists of dust mite feces.

Thanks for that. No more chocolate or sleeping for me then.

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@my2sense- what an idiot! since when do water filters take out cesium and iodine? why don't I just pee into it and drink it up? it can filter everything, right brainiac?

Thanks nice fella, and all of you who pounced on me. I think you lot are taking this thing way out of context and as hypnotized as the rest, simply Japanese. The sheer panic and paranoia has definitely hit some of you over the head and the anger management and insults are hilarious. What I meant was the supply and demand for the society a few hundred miles within the plant to conserve. The article clearly points out the level for infants is only two times more. I did not mean a Brita can stop radiation literally for the people near the nuke site you maniacs. I recommend a punching bag and logical economics thinking for some of you and stop watching Japanese TV or the gossip chat. Glad I made some of you laugh and some of you wail on your keyboard so run to the conbini and hoard bottled water at 120¥ a pop with the PTA Moms. Don't forget to buy 100 rolls of toilet paper while you are at it.

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An average chocolate bar has between 3-8 insect legs in it.

That will help my diet. Thank you.

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WhyRUAsking - IfeelImust. That has a nice ring to it...perfect. Geniuses.

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Why is there a shortage of plain white flour? What are the Japanese doing with that? Not so many make their own bread.

As cleo says, breadmaking machines have been popular for a while and lots of people have them- ours was really handy while you couldn't get bread because we already had some flour. Now for some reason it's harder to get flour than bread- go figure.

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I live in Tokyo and things are returning to normal, but if radiation problem gets worse the stores will sell out again, so stock up while you can, for example: -go shopping early (8am) -go to parts of Tokyo with few residences and you will find water in vending machines -have a plan b to evacuate to friends or family somewhere outside tokyo

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I still refill my water bottle from the tap. Call me crazy.

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lovejapan21 you might want to get out more. There is plenty of water and milk at the stores I go to. No lines at the gas pumps anymore as well. The quakes scare me more than radiation or end of the world proclaiming idiots.

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thepro: Yeah, that'll stop the radiation

Actually activated charcoal filters are one of the better ways to do exactly that i.e. filtering I-131, you should check your facts and do some research before coming across as an amateur.

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Is bottled water(a lot of which comes from the tap and is filtered) tested for radiation??? Huh? Anybody know for sure? I think not, people.

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Correct MET. Cheers for that and good to see some clever guys on JT.

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How about all that tea you can buy in a PET bottle...is that water imported from the mountains of Switzerland? No. It comes from the local tap water and is just simply filtered. Is it free of radiation? No.

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Also, if you can stand carbonated mineral water you can order from Amazon JP site and have it delivered.

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Like the more severe radiation standards in Japan, chocolate here is only permitted to contain 2 insect legs per 8oz. bar. Not so bad. Same with beer.

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I'm just using my Brita and drinking tap water, as usual. But then, I'm also a shinjuku-ite.

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I expect another major run on the shops this weekend, payday today. So I expect Costco, Carrefour, DIY/Home-Centres, etc will get hit a lot.

Downside many will also buy appliances like bread-makers, etc.

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An average chocolate bar has between 3-8 insect legs in it.

That will help my diet. Thank you.

It will. Insect legs are very nutritious.

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Frankly, I think the human body is well used to ingesting "dirty food and water" including mite's eggs, insect droppings etc. For millions of years! Face up to it, folks, we live on a filthy planet infested with other life forms. Skip the face masks and let me see your beautiful faces. Your body can handle it.

On the other hand, how many more of those low level quakes are we up for? :-:

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This is bollocks, the supermarkets are pretty much fully stocked. This article is about a week behind.

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