Waking up today to the news that there will be 輪番停電 (rinban-teiden) or cyclic blackout/power outage. We are divided into 4 groups in Tokyo and each group will take turns in getting a controlled power outage as to prevent overloading the electric power system.

This is due, as I guess most know, to the problems with the Fukushima nuclear power plants. The power production has been significantly reduced to that. In addition, people are asked to reduce conserve power as much as possible.

Chie and I are lucky as we live in one of the few areas in Tokyo that is not part of on any of the rinban-teiden groups. This means no power outage for us.

And as I am writing this the building is shaking gently by another after-quake. Epicenter is closer to Tokyo but “only” 1 in magnitude [JMA] .

[Update] They seem to have changed the cyclic blackout scheme since the morning and we now have a fifth group. It is not clear if our area of Tokyo is included in any of the groups or not. I guess time will tell anyway.