Disaster strikes

On Friday, March 11^th at 2:45PM a terrible earthquake (almost 9 on the rictor scale) struck the ocean just off the coast of Japan near the Sendai, Miyagi region. Everyone was caught terribly unaware, as is the case with earthquakes, and as the details have rolled in over the past few days some terrible facts have become clear.

Being in Kyushu turned out to have saved me and those around me. We didn’t feel a thing; but it struck the mainland with a force strong enough to leave the earth quaking as far as Tokyo for over a minute, with aftershocks and a series of smaller earthquakes lasting for days. I have been avoiding the news for fear of the facts - which I realized last night has only been sheltering me from the tragedy. I read the newspaper this morning. It says there are over 5,000 identified deaths and over 50,000 people in severe need of aid, be it for injuries, food, or shelter. These people have spent the past few days being battered by the moving earth below them, the hail raining down on them, and the tsunamis sweeping in from the coast. All contact with the area via internet, cell phone, or television is restricted or down and no one can really say for sure how bad the damage is yet. Some 150 JETs have also gone off the grid and cannot be contacted. I could have been one of them. Any of us could.

Life just keeps moving on here but I can’t seem to move my brain along like those around me seem to be so successful at doing. Many of the people around me have never even thought of going to Sendai and don’t know anyone in the area even remotely affected. I want nothing more than to get in touch with my host family who I visited over Christmas and make sure they are OK. I spoke with my host dad who lives in Fukushima on Friday about a half hour after the earthquake. He said the rest of my host family is fine. I haven’t been in touch with him since then and Fukushima blew up in a series of nuclear failures this weekend. I’m scared.

I want to go up north and help them but I don’t know where to start. I can hammer nails and serve food and even do mediocre translation, but I need to get there first. I am supposed to go to Kyoto this weekend with A, but the trip seems null in the face of this situation. I don’t feel good spending the almost 5 hundred dollars the weekend is going to cost me when I know there are people without food and water sitting just a few hundred kilometers north of me. What should I do? Cancel the trip with A and just spend the weekend lounging around in Kitsuki, still being unable to help, or should we give some money back to the Japanese economy and the business owners of Kyoto by visiting the area and giving them our business?

It sounds trivial and in the face of an earth shifted 4 degrees on its axis and Japan, which has moved 8 feet out in the ocean, it is. I just don’t know how to wrap my head around this whole situation and where to put my feet. People keep talking of worse things to come like to possibility of more earthquakes and of course, the absurd 12/2012 theory is resurfacing. This is a lot more chaos than anyone was prepared for. Good news - my host family and most of my friends from my time in Sendai seem to be no worse for the wear. Love.

Despite everything, life moves on and I still had an assignment due today for my Japanese language course. I strayed a little off topic to discuss my own attachment to the Miyagi/Sendai region and I thought I should share it here.

The topic was why are you interested in Japan, what have you accomplished that you planned to accomplish since coming here, and what would you like to do in the time you have remaining?

Japanese:

高校生の時、日本でホームステイをするチャンスがありました。外国に行ったことがないのに、緊張より興奮していました。日本語を話さないし、文化やら習慣やらを知らなかったので、日本ですぐに困ってしまうと思いました。しかし、そのことで、英語を話せないホストファミリーと私がかえって仲良かったとおもいます。そのホームステイの経験は素敵な思い出ばかりです。アメリカに帰って、科学を勉強するかたわら、日本語を勉強しました。なぜならば、一方では、私の家族は四世代以上英語しか話せないので、私が外国語を話せる最初の人になりたかったのと、他方では、ホストファミリーと以前より親密な関係が築けたらよいと思います。

ホストファミリーのおかげで、日本により興味を持つことができました。でも、仙台地域に住んでいるホストファミリーに連絡がとれないために、以前日本で過ごしたことが現実のことだったのか、夢だったのではないかという気がします。大地震があったので、ホストファミリーと友だちに何かあったのではないかと心配です。私が知っている限りでは、無数の人々が安否不明で、私はその人々の家族に代わって心配しています。残った時間で、東北でので大地震のためのボランティア活動に参加させていただきたいと思います。

English:

When I was a high school student I was given the chance to do a homestay in Japan. Although I had never left the country I was more excited than nervous. Not speaking Japanese and knowing nothing of culture or customs in Japan, I thought I would be immediately lost in Japan. However, I found that I had an easy, close relationship with my host family who didn`t even speak English. This homestay experience is filled with nothing but fond memories. When I returned to America, in addition to my studies in science, I studied the Japanese language. I think it was the combination of wanting to be the first in my family in over four generations to speak a foreign language and wanting to have a more intimate relationship with my host family that cause me to want to study Japanese.

It is because of my host family that I have come to have an interest in Japan. But, because my host family, who lives in the Sendai area, cannot be in contact with me now, those days spent in Japan during high school feel like a dream. I am worried about what has happened to my host family and friends affected by this earthquake. As far as I know, there are countless people unaccounted for and on behalf of their families, I worry. In my remaining time I would like to be allowed to travel to Tohoku and aid in the relief effort.