yes, we are back

We stayed a couple of days with Jacqui which was great, the boys had fun playing together and Jacqui and I chatted our lower jaws off. The journey back was not very exciting, the trains worked well so the longest we had to wait for a connection was 15 minutes.
We have had a couple of small tremors since we got back at the supermarket most of the shelves are stocked with exception to a few odd things like natto and that was due to the delivery not getting through. There is a shortage of bottled water, we found some in Hanamasa but there is a limit to 2 bottles per person.
Of course there is now the reports of Iodine 131 in the tap water which has sent everyone into a flap, even if it is safe levels for an adult, the thought is in the back of my mind, do I really want to be drinking it? Ebi-kun hasn't been drinking tap water and we have a charcoal filter which is supposed to take out 50% of the Iodine 131.
It has also made me re-think cooking, we eat a lot of pasta and of course that gets boiled in water and rice soaks it up too, sounds like the perfect time to try out some new recipes!
I have re-opened the shop, daddy-ebi isn't likely to be able to overtime for a while and considering the state of things there will be little or no bonus. The bonus system in Japan is VERY important, the bonus is often the same as 4 months or so salary and you get two a year, so having no bonus is going to mean some serious tightening of the belt buckles round here.
I have a couple of new patterns to share with you soon and I am looking for shops/stores that will stock my patterns if you are interested or know someone who is please drop me a line and I am going to sort through the stock that I had kept for the art show and see what I can get in the shop. I have no idea when we will put the show on now, Yasuyo has gone to help with relocating families, I'm not sure when she will be back.
I will, of course keep you updated with everything that is happening but I feel that we need to get back to some kind of routine, some type of normality, as best we can anyway. For me, that means sorting out the kitchen and my fabric stash and for Ebi-kun it means tidying up his desk, not that you would know that there is a desk under all his stuff!
Thank you for all your support and help, I will be back in a couple of hours to draw/announce the winners of Ebi-kuns auction and my raffle - still time to get a bid in!