picture of the day

Signs of the times

23 Comments

Akiko Nakamura, right, who runs a convenience store, and her two children advertise their business for motorists in an area devastated by the March 11 tsunami in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. The signs read, from left: "Toilet available", "Seven-Eleven Gamominami (store opens for) 10:00-15:00, (selling) rice balls, lunch boxes, bread, sandwiches, drinks, etc," "Seven-Eleven is open."

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23 Comments
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Is it legal to put children to work like that?

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Is it legal to put children to work like that?

Sure! Their pay is food to eat, a warm bed to sleep in, and the knowledge that they were able to help out their mom when it was needed the most. The fact that they're actively advertising out by the street tells me that they are hurting badly for business. Most of their normal customers were probably killed or moved away from the ocean after the tsunami.

Interesting that one of their selling points (that deserved its own sign) is a working toilet. I couldn't imagine even using a porta-potty for a month!

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that photographer has a really nice camera

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It is excellent that they are helping Mom out and have a toilet to use. People are probably eager to use a real toilet.

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Good on them for helping their Mum. I hope business picks up for them.

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sheriff

The woman is probably a franchise owner of the Seven-Eleven store, so of course, there is nothing wrong with her children helping her. They probably helped out in the store before the disaster. In times of crisis, everyone pitches in, and from what I have seen so far, children in all parts of the quake-hit Tohoku have been very enthusiastic about helping to do odd jobs here and there.

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Interesting that one of their selling points (that deserved its own sign) is a working toilet. I couldn't imagine even using a porta-potty for a month!

A few weeks ago they were handing out poop bags to people. Poop bags! The bags were even colored brown, so nobody dared to, say, barf in them. How on earth one is to use one of those is beyond me. Hope one has enough time to read the printed instructions. Anyway, I only pay attention when I see people waving flags or somebody in a bunny suit jumping on the sidewalk.

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good to see the kids helping out. Sometimes when disasters like this happen you see people become better people. Good things can start to happen. Need to get that positive energy to drive the Nuclear Energy away....

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@Fadamor at 08:39 AM JST - 18th April Sure! Their pay is food to eat, a warm bed to sleep in, and the knowledge that they were able to help out their mom when it was needed the most. The fact that they're actively advertising out by the street tells me that they are hurting badly for business. Most of their normal customers were probably killed or moved away from the ocean after the tsunami. Interesting that one of their selling points (that deserved its own sign) is a working toilet. I couldn't imagine even using a porta-potty for a month!

You said it very well!

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I imagine poop bags might work the way they work in space. You have a kind of ... adhesive ring around the bag to attach it to your butt, and then you ... go.

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They are advertising their toilet! As important a business as any other right now, I suppose.

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Good luck to them! These kids are doing their family proud. If I was around there I'd pop in and buy some stuff - and maybe even use the toilet!

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I see the family isn’t a card-carrying union member, looking for a hand out first. I admire for their initiative and doing their best to succeed after a Japan’s natural disaster of the greatest magnitude. They’re not defeatists.

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All power to them. I hope they thrive and 7-11 helps them out. The more I see of this I wonder whether my home country could cope anywhere near as well.

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great kids

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Listening to the internet radio from Christchurch, they had all sorts of innovations that people called in, including how to use those bags. Without being too graphic, you can line a bowl, flowerpot, big can, anything....with the bowl. Squat and there ya'are. Many were then burying it in their gardens or fields, something I doubt the folks up north have much access to.

Survival techniques: gross but effective.

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...with the bag.

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Unbreakable spirit, great people.

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So different than the scenes from hurricane Katrina. No pictures of spiky-haired black men carrying 30-gallon plastic containers with Heineken beer, nor videos of police themselves looting in Wal-Mart.

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meanwhile the guy in the background is wasting water!

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I hope our kids in the future are as awesome as these ones! Little champions!

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meanwhile the guy in the background is wasting water!

If the 7-Eleven's toilet is working, that means the municipal water supply is on in that area. He's probably helping to clean the parking area of the store so it looks like it's still in business rather than still caked in mud.

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i'm glad thses kids are helping out

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