(Crazy supermarkets in Tokyo after 3.11)
(English by Eddie 🙂

自從 3.11 東北關東大震災之後，人在東京的塔嘻完完全全可以感受到買菜的難度提高不少… 難度最高的當屬牛奶、礦泉水、麵包、泡麵與米。其他如雞蛋、豆腐、咖哩包、納豆等也屬於高難度族群。除了食品之外，生活用品跟家電也來參一角，最高難度的當屬衛生紙、面紙與紙尿布，接下來就是電池與手電筒，我們還逛到一間超市連「衛生棉區」都空無一物，艾迪說現在月經變成「日經」了嗎？(-。-)y-゜゜゜

Since the 3.11 Japan Tohoku earthquake, Tarcy does feel it’s getting difficult to buy food in Tokyo… The most difficult ones would be milk, mineral water, bread, instant noodles and rice. Others include eggs, tofu (bean curd), curry block and natto. In addition to food, commodities are being out of stock. The most difficult ones are paper products including toilet paper, tissue paper, and paper diapers, followed by batteries and flashlights. We even saw a supermarket getting napkins sold out… Eddie was wondering if those people’s menses has changed to occur from monthly to daily.

令我們大開眼界的衛生棉區：

Surprising empty shelves of napkins:

不管是面紙還是衛生紙，都很搶手：

Either the tissue paper or toilet paper is super popular:

其實會造成這樣的現象，原因很多，依塔嘻跟艾迪的觀察，我們覺得大致上是下列幾個因素：

According to our observation, we thought there are a couple of reasons causing this phenomenon:

1. 地震造成很多道路毀壞，導致運送過程不順利
2. 因為石油的短缺，很多配送車無法順利將貨運送到目的地
3. 位於災區的倉庫因地震造成損壞，無法及時恢復
4. 倉庫的人員也成了災民，無法上班…
5. 生產商品 (如牛奶）的工廠受損或是因為停電，無法及時恢復生產
6. 地震後大家感到恐慌，急忙著囤積食物與日常生活用品
7. 很多廠商為了優先把商品提供給災區 (如麵包、電池等)，所以超市的進貨量也會比往常少

1. Many roads have been damaged severely by the earthquake, thus the delivery became difficult
2. Due to outage of gasoline, truck drivers are unable to deliver goods as usual
3. The depots and factories in the disaster area have been damaged and are still waiting to be fixed
4. The staffs in the depots became victims as well, and then can’t work anymore
5. The factories that manufacture goods (e.g. milk) are damaged or don’t have electricity, therefore can’t produce goods in time
6. People feel panic after the earthquake, and hurry to store food and goods more than necessary
7. Many vendors take a higher priority of delivering products (bread and battery, etc.) to the disaster area, thus can only provide a very limited amount for supermarkets

人就是這樣，越是難買到，就越沒有安全感。所以即便家裡還有存貨，也深怕自己的存貨吃光了會買不到，一看到有貨就先搶為快… 在進貨量本來就比平常來的少的狀況下，不是真的有需要的人也跟著人家搶，當然很容易就賣到空無一物…

Thing is like that: the harder to get the stuff, the more unconfident people feel. So even the stock at their home is fairly enough, people are unnecessarily afraid of begin out of stock and will try to buy as much as possible. As the amount of stock has being less than that as usual, the stores can easily run out of stock when sensitive people try hard to buy than necessary.

3.14某大手超市的米櫃：空空如也

14 March, the empty shelves of rice in a certain supermarket:

 

3.19，地震都過一週了～同一間超市的米櫃上，白米還是呈現搶購一空的狀態，只剩下日本人不怎麼喜歡的「發芽玄米」：

19 March, one week has passed since the earthquake, the same shelves of rice in the same big supermarket is still empty; only the Japanese people’s unpopular germinated brown rice is in stock:

 

排隊等超市開門的人群：(←感謝艾迪幫塔嘻去當衝鋒部隊)

People are queuing before the supermarket opens: (←Thanks for Eddie’s effort to be queuing there too 🙂

每天早上都來上一杯有香濃奶泡咖啡的我們，最煩惱的就是牛奶。大手廠牌的如明治、森永跟雪印，有些工廠還未完全復工，所以根本沒貨可進。但日本的超市大部分都會販售地方性的酪農品牌 ，比方在東京，就會有像千葉、埼玉地區的酪農家生產的牛奶，所以這些工廠如果沒有重大災情，都還是可以出產牛奶。但最大的問題就是供給與需求無法均衡，所以各大超市也開始規定每人僅限購一瓶牛奶，雖說有此規定，你若不是中午前去買，牛奶區迎接你的還是只有空無一物的冷藏櫃與「本日牛奶已售完」的一張紙… 可憐的上班族，怎麼樣都搶不贏婆婆媽媽與阿公阿嬤啊… 而且大家可別以為日本的超市可以買到像台灣那種大容量的鮮奶，日本人講求新鮮，超市裡最大容量的就是一公升的紙盒裝鮮奶 (ー_ー)!!

People who have a cup of coffee with milk foam like us are worried about the availability of milk. Major vendors such as Meiji, Morinaga and Showbrand are still unable to supply milk because some factories are being fixed. The supermarkets in Japan usually sell milk from farmers in local area. For example, milk from Chiba and Saitama Prefecture can be found in Tokyo area. So even the major vendors of milk have problem supplying milk regularly, the local brands are able to help. The problem is demand is much more than supply, thus every supermarket started to limit the number of boxes of milk (1 box) one customer can buy. However if you don’t go to th supermarket before noon, you will still see the empty fridge of milk, and one paper telling you today it’s sold out. Poor office workers will never get one box of milk from the hands of housewives and grandfathers and grandmothers. You may think to buy a larger box of milk as what can be often seen in Taiwan but unfortunately it’s unavailable in Japan; the largest one is 1 liter!

很抱歉，今日牛奶已全數售完，補貨時間亦未定。還拿果汁牛奶來給我充數咧：

We are sorry that today milk is sold out and we don’t know when the next batch will arrive. What the hell juice milk!?

被限定的商品還不只牛奶，麵包、飲品、米跟泡麵也一樣。麵包 (吐司類) 一人一條；米一人一包；泡麵一人一碗/包 (五包裝一袋的也算一包)；飲品 (包含礦泉水、茶、果汁、罐裝咖啡等)，不管容量是多少，一人只能買兩罐。很多超市就連咖哩包/塊、鬆餅粉等全都銷售一空，我們倆真的是看傻眼啊 (T_T)/~~~ 也因為這樣，超市旁那些比較「高貴」的麵包專賣店，以前買的人三三兩兩，但現在常可看見大排長龍的景象…

The limited products include not only milk but also bread, toast, drinks, rice, and instant noodles. One person can buy only one toast, one package of rice, one package of instant noodles (a package of 5 bag is the same), 2 bottles of drinks (including mineral water, tea, juice, can coffee, regardless of the volume). In many supermarkets even curry block, packaged curry and pancake powder are sold out, and that was shocking us. As a result, the bread shops next to the supermarkets become the only places to buy bread, even normally fewer and fewer people would shop there…

不管是什麼牌子的吐司，一人只能買一條喔：

Regardless of the brands, one person can only purchase one bag of toast:

所有的飲料類，一人限兩瓶：

One person can purshase only 2 bottles of any kind of drinks:

為什麼偏偏買不到米的時候才要煮「咖哩」？很難理解日本人的行為…：

Can’t understand why Japanese people buy curry when there is no rice available?

重點是不管哪一家超市都是一樣的景象：(-。-)y-゜゜゜

Same scene can be seen in every supermarket…

 

泡麵也只能買一包喔～ ：

Even for instant noodles, one person can only buy one package:

一掃而空的麵包區：

Empty shelves of bread:

 

在超市買不到平價麵包，只好到隔壁的專賣店買現做的，價格兩倍但結帳的隊伍還排很長咧：

Cheap bread is unavailable in the supermarkets, people have no choice but go to the bread shop to buy bread just made. Even the prices are as double as those in the supermarkets, a long queue is formed:

最令塔嘻吃驚的，應該是「米」。地震過後那幾天，很多東西真的是超難買到，不過最近情況稍微好轉，「早點去超市的話，牛奶跟麵包還是可以搶的到」。但米就不一樣了，自從地震後，架上只剩下寥寥無幾的玄米與糯米，白米真的是完全不見蹤跡！就連我們家附近那種自營的米舖，都因為完全沒有貨而拉下鐵門暫時歇業。前兩天艾迪去幫塔嘻買麵包跟牛奶，眼尖看到架上似乎有進了幾包米，馬上打電話問塔嘻說五公斤的新潟米3,980要不要買？塔嘻一開始以為聽錯價錢，因為平常即便是高檔的新潟米，五公斤也不會超過3,000日幣… 但艾迪說他當場看到有人買耶(~_~) 好在塔嘻上次回台灣，老媽說台東的叔叔有寄「有機栽培米」來分送給大家，叫我帶兩包回日本。嫌重不想帶兩包的塔嘻只帶了一包回來，沒想到現在卻成了我們的「救命米」。真是太感謝叔叔啦～

The most surprising would be the rice. In the first few days after earthquake, it’s quite hard to get what you want in the supermarkets. Although it’s getting a bit better recently that if you go to the supermarkets earlier, you should be able to get milk and bread. But the situation of rice is different. The shelves of rice remain empty since the earthquake, only other unpopular types of rice are available. Even the private rice shop is close for a short period of time because no rice is in stock. Few days ago Eddie went to buy milk and bread, and saw the rice on the shelves. Eddie soon mad a call to Tarcy asking whether to pay 3980 JPY for 5 kg of rice from Niigata Prefecture. Tarcy thought to hear the price wrongly, because even 5 kg of the top quality Niigata rice won’t cost more than 3000 JPY! But Eddie seemed to see someone bought one bag. Fortunately last time Tarcy went back to Taiwan, and Mom was asking me to bring two packs of rice from an uncle in Taitung. Considering the weight Tarcy only brought on pack back, but now it becomes the saver! Thanks dear uncle!!

好不容易看到米架上有米了，價格卻很驚人！(=_=)：

The long waiting rice is on the shelves with astonishing price:

感謝台東的叔叔送的米：
↑塔嘻的老媽還一直碎唸說：當初叫你兩包都帶去你就不要 <`ヘ´>
塔嘻：我哪知道日本會買不到米啊～千金難買早知道～現在有一包可以吃就要偷笑了 (ー_ー)!!

Thanks for uncle’s rince from Taitung:
Tarcy’s Mom keeps saying that “I have asked you to take 2 packs back but you didn’t!“
Tarcy replied “who knows rice will be gone in Japan someday?! Now I am very happy to have one pack!”

這一波食物與日常生活用品的搶購風潮真是讓塔嘻跟艾迪看傻眼，但我們決定不跟著大家囤貨，能買到什麼就吃什麼。增加享用義大利麵的次數是其中一個方法，真的想吃飯當然還是吃，本來就會把白米跟發芽玄米 (2:1) 混著一起煮的塔嘻，最近把比例變成1:1，再加買地瓜來煮成地瓜飯/粥以增加量(^○^)，反正地瓜也是澱粉類啊～我就不信每個人家裡都可以囤幾十斤的米！真買不到牛奶，我們就改喝黑咖啡。買不到超市的便宜麵包也沒關係，塔嘻正好有藉口可以去百貨公司買喜歡的麵包來吃ヽ(^o^)丿

Although we’re shocked by the panic buying, we decided not to follow the same way and eat what we can get normally. Having more spaghetti is one of the solutions, and cooking rice with increased amount of germinated brown rice or sweet potato can do as well. We believe those people will stop buying rice when they already have tons of rice. We can also have black coffee when milk is unavailable. It’s also fine not to buy the cheap bread in supermarkets, then Tarcy can go to buy more delicious bread in the department store ;p

焗烤蕃茄義大利筆管麵：

Gratin Tomato Penne:

趁此機會可以理直氣壯的去買我們喜歡的 BIGOT 的麵包來吃囉！：

Taking advantage of the opportunity to buy our favorite bread – BIGOT:

因為東京電力那非常沒計劃的「計畫性分區停電」，很多店家的營業時間都會「臨時變更」：

Many shops are forced to adjust their opening hours due to TEPCO’s unplanned “planned rotating blackout”:

除了根據每天停電時段不同得要跟著調整的營業時間之外，有營業的時候還要減少用電：

They reduce the usage of electricity when open:

非常有氣氛的賣場：

A very romantic shopping mall:

 

冷藏櫃的燈都關了：

The fridge’s light is turned off:

反正也都沒貨，關了燈也好：

Since nothing is on the shelves, it’s better to turn off the light:

這麼昏暗的超市還真不習慣：

Can’t get used to such a dark supermarket:

雖然很暗，但很慶幸還很多菜可以買，只是貴了點…：

Although it’s dark, there are still tons of food, just a bit expensive:

 

因為限電所造成的諸多不便、大家搶購民生物資的景象… 不管是身為外國人的我們還是在地日本人，誰都沒料到日本會有這一天吧！ (@_@。

Inconvenience caused by the blackout, panic buying… Foreigners like us and Japanese people would never think about this day’s coming in Japan…

總之別想這麼多，睡前來一杯自釀梅酒，慶祝今天也很平安喔！

Anyway, take it easy and have a home made Umeshu to celebrate one day has passed as usual!