It took me 6 months to take up pen and paper again, but little did I know that within a week of penning my experience of the earthquake I would be shipped back to the ole' friendly United States halfway through my study abroad with a broken heart, too upset to admit it to the Internet world. Now here I am again, writing one last time to put an end to this blog with a brief summary of my last days in Japan.
Shortly after the earthquake we were informed of a nuclear crisis going on at Fukushima 1. This led to what was called "brown-outs," or controlled power outages to conserve energy and help the crisis. Since trains run on electric power, this made it extremely difficult to get anywhere, therefore my host-family and I were confined to our immediate area. Basically, my (unknownst to me) last week in Japan consisted of boredom. I was unable to meet my friends or go into the city; activities were limited to those that you can do at home, such as reading and watching movies - in a crowded house, no less. Then, after almost a week of this, I received an e-mail from my university informing me that they had cancelled the program, and "strongly advised" me to come home as soon as possible. A few of my friends resisted and were allowed to stay, and though I wished to do the same, my family and friends were horribly worried due to the impending nuclear crisis, so I decided to pack my bags and head to the airport. My dad, the engineer that he is, was worried more than everyone else about the power plant, meaning that he wanted me on the next plane he could get me. Despite my pleading for more time in the country I loved, he was the one with the credit card buying my way home, so I didn't have much room to negotiate. Thus, I was on a plane two days after I got that horrid, end-of-my-life e-mail. In two days I had to pack everything, say goodbye to my host-family who I had come to love dearly, and try and see as many friends as I could. In the end, I was only able to meet with three friends. I boarded the plane trying desperately to keep from crying (but failing miserably) over the friends I never got to say goodbye to, some of which I will probably never see again.
Now, 6 months later, a year has passed (to the day) since I left for Japan. My host-sister is now living here in America with my family and studying English, and a few weeks ago the rest of my host-family came to visit. Even though I left Japan filled with regret over all the things I had planned to do but never got the chance, I know I'll go back. Japan will still be there, and the relationships I've made will last forever. My Japan adventure is not over yet.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Welcome Home
I left a rainy Seattle yesterday after a two week visit home, and Tokyo gives me a nice welcome home present the day after I get back - it did a little dance for me. Only, this dance was in the form of THE BIGGEST EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN'S RECORDED HISTORY (M8.9). Ha, thanks Japan. Love you too.
But in all seriousness, the death count is a little over 20, missing persons over 50, and probably more to come. The tsunami aftermath was about 7 meters at its highest, and it's supposed to make it all the way to South America by tomorrow. And we're still feeling little baby aftershocks 8 hours later. That means there's thousands of people who are stuck in emergency relief shelters away from home tonight, because all the trains have stopped running until there's no danger of more earthquakes. The quake happened about 2:50 pm on Friday, a few hours before work gets off and people start heading home. On top of that, there's too much traffic on the cell networks so many peoples' phones don't work.
In light of all that, I'm thankful that my host-family and I are all safe, the house is in tact, nothing is broken, we're far enough from the coast that tsunamis won't reach here, and that by chance (if you want to call it that) my friends and I postponed our plans today, meaning we stayed home and didn't get stuck in the middle of Tokyo unable to get home again until morning (if even that). Not only that, but if I had flown in a day later I wouldn't have been able to land in Japan (because most airports were closed by the time my plane would have got here), and probably would still be stuck in a Korean or Chinese airport. I think there just might be Someone looking out for me :)
It was a really interesting experience actually, because I didn't realize the seriousness of it until an hour or two later, when the estimated magnitude kept rising and the news started showing video footage of boats being pushed inland (and into buildings) by the tsunami.
I had been taking a power-nap in my room when the house started shaking. It woke me up, even though the quake was still very subtle. But it didn't stop. It kept going for at least 10 seconds before it started getting bigger. It kinda felt like I was on a boat that was rocking back and forth on semi-rough waters. But it didn't stop there either. It got bigger, until finally I could hear the grumbly shakey noise that you always hear in movies accompanying earthquakes. This whole time I had been thinking it was going to die down any second, and so I just sat on my bed without moving. It wasn't until my room light started shaking, making me afraid it was going to fall down and shatter, that I finally got under my desk to wait it out. I should mention that my room is on the second floor, which is a scary thought when the whole house is shaking. Books started falling off my shelves, and my desk mirror fell onto the floor (but thankfully didn't break because I randomly have a sheep-skin rug right where it fell), but everything else stayed in order. The quake lasted for about 30 more seconds after that, and then died down. I put everything back in order, not thinking too much of it, until my host-mom got home.
I had been home alone at the time, which is kinda scary, but my host-mom opened the front door not even a minute after the quake stopped. She came looking for me all worried, saying it was the first time she had felt such a big earthquake. It thought she was exaggerating, because I knew that big earthquakes were not uncommon in Japan. I just hadn't realized how big it actually was.
We turned on the news, but there wasn't anything big on it yet. They were saying it was a number 5, at which point I was noticing it was bigger than I had thought, but still not a big deal. I found out later though that the number is different than the magnitude - the magnitude is much bigger. After several hours of watching the news showing the tsunami and the fires (especially the oil refinery one 2 hours away), I realized that this was a big deal.
I'm thankful that I'm safe, but I'm praying that all the people taking the brunt of this (with collapsed homes - some of which are in areas that still have a lot of snow - or flooded streets, or people stranded in the city) stay warm and safe, and that this crisis will be relieved soon. As well as that there's no more big earthquakes. (As I'm writing this I'm still feeling more aftershocks).
Stay safe, Japan. And I hope that the Pacific Islands aren't hit too badly by the tsunami.
But in all seriousness, the death count is a little over 20, missing persons over 50, and probably more to come. The tsunami aftermath was about 7 meters at its highest, and it's supposed to make it all the way to South America by tomorrow. And we're still feeling little baby aftershocks 8 hours later. That means there's thousands of people who are stuck in emergency relief shelters away from home tonight, because all the trains have stopped running until there's no danger of more earthquakes. The quake happened about 2:50 pm on Friday, a few hours before work gets off and people start heading home. On top of that, there's too much traffic on the cell networks so many peoples' phones don't work.
In light of all that, I'm thankful that my host-family and I are all safe, the house is in tact, nothing is broken, we're far enough from the coast that tsunamis won't reach here, and that by chance (if you want to call it that) my friends and I postponed our plans today, meaning we stayed home and didn't get stuck in the middle of Tokyo unable to get home again until morning (if even that). Not only that, but if I had flown in a day later I wouldn't have been able to land in Japan (because most airports were closed by the time my plane would have got here), and probably would still be stuck in a Korean or Chinese airport. I think there just might be Someone looking out for me :)
It was a really interesting experience actually, because I didn't realize the seriousness of it until an hour or two later, when the estimated magnitude kept rising and the news started showing video footage of boats being pushed inland (and into buildings) by the tsunami.
I had been taking a power-nap in my room when the house started shaking. It woke me up, even though the quake was still very subtle. But it didn't stop. It kept going for at least 10 seconds before it started getting bigger. It kinda felt like I was on a boat that was rocking back and forth on semi-rough waters. But it didn't stop there either. It got bigger, until finally I could hear the grumbly shakey noise that you always hear in movies accompanying earthquakes. This whole time I had been thinking it was going to die down any second, and so I just sat on my bed without moving. It wasn't until my room light started shaking, making me afraid it was going to fall down and shatter, that I finally got under my desk to wait it out. I should mention that my room is on the second floor, which is a scary thought when the whole house is shaking. Books started falling off my shelves, and my desk mirror fell onto the floor (but thankfully didn't break because I randomly have a sheep-skin rug right where it fell), but everything else stayed in order. The quake lasted for about 30 more seconds after that, and then died down. I put everything back in order, not thinking too much of it, until my host-mom got home.
I had been home alone at the time, which is kinda scary, but my host-mom opened the front door not even a minute after the quake stopped. She came looking for me all worried, saying it was the first time she had felt such a big earthquake. It thought she was exaggerating, because I knew that big earthquakes were not uncommon in Japan. I just hadn't realized how big it actually was.
We turned on the news, but there wasn't anything big on it yet. They were saying it was a number 5, at which point I was noticing it was bigger than I had thought, but still not a big deal. I found out later though that the number is different than the magnitude - the magnitude is much bigger. After several hours of watching the news showing the tsunami and the fires (especially the oil refinery one 2 hours away), I realized that this was a big deal.
I'm thankful that I'm safe, but I'm praying that all the people taking the brunt of this (with collapsed homes - some of which are in areas that still have a lot of snow - or flooded streets, or people stranded in the city) stay warm and safe, and that this crisis will be relieved soon. As well as that there's no more big earthquakes. (As I'm writing this I'm still feeling more aftershocks).
Stay safe, Japan. And I hope that the Pacific Islands aren't hit too badly by the tsunami.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
I knew I would fall through on updating.
I'm finding that travel blogs are more for traveling. No really, it makes sense. I'm not actually traveling, so blogging is a little awkward. It's not like I have a great "bloggable" experience that often, so it's hard to keep up with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm having a great time and I love it here, it's just not really blog material.
Or something. Yeah, that's probably just a big excuse for not having the willpower to update my blog :P
It hit me the other day as I was standing on the train coming home from work that my study abroad is almost half over. And I got really sad. Like, REALLY sad. It probably looked like I was about to cry. I feel like it's gone so fast, and I don't want it to be over. I really do love this place. I mean, I miss home, and that's the truth, but here also feels like home. I'm stuck between two homes. It's an odd feeling.
I miss my crazy friends and my warm loving family, I miss my dog, I miss my room (read: bed), and I miss frozen yogurt (a lot!!!). But when I leave here I'll miss my crazy friends, my warm loving host-family, my host-family's dog, my room (read: warm cozy futon), and non-fatty foods. No matter where I go I'll miss something.
But I won't miss Tokyo prices. Nope, no way.
Today I saw a play!! It was awesome!! It was Zorro the Musical, in Japanese. It was different from the movie, needless-to-say, but I was able to follow along just fine. The hardest part to understand are the song lyrics. Sung Japanese is so much harder to understand than spoken Japanese. It's more difficult to hear the difference between words and sentences, so I was a little lost, but I could understand the basic idea enough to figure out what was happening. It really is an awesome feeling to see movies and plays in another language and understand what's going on. Makes me feel cool ;)
Speaking of movies, Social Network just came out here and I'm going to see it this weekend. I heard it makes you want to quit Facebook though. It's looks kinda dark, so I have a feeling I'm not going to like it very much. But I'd still like to see it!
Or something. Yeah, that's probably just a big excuse for not having the willpower to update my blog :P
It hit me the other day as I was standing on the train coming home from work that my study abroad is almost half over. And I got really sad. Like, REALLY sad. It probably looked like I was about to cry. I feel like it's gone so fast, and I don't want it to be over. I really do love this place. I mean, I miss home, and that's the truth, but here also feels like home. I'm stuck between two homes. It's an odd feeling.
I miss my crazy friends and my warm loving family, I miss my dog, I miss my room (read: bed), and I miss frozen yogurt (a lot!!!). But when I leave here I'll miss my crazy friends, my warm loving host-family, my host-family's dog, my room (read: warm cozy futon), and non-fatty foods. No matter where I go I'll miss something.
But I won't miss Tokyo prices. Nope, no way.
Today I saw a play!! It was awesome!! It was Zorro the Musical, in Japanese. It was different from the movie, needless-to-say, but I was able to follow along just fine. The hardest part to understand are the song lyrics. Sung Japanese is so much harder to understand than spoken Japanese. It's more difficult to hear the difference between words and sentences, so I was a little lost, but I could understand the basic idea enough to figure out what was happening. It really is an awesome feeling to see movies and plays in another language and understand what's going on. Makes me feel cool ;)
Speaking of movies, Social Network just came out here and I'm going to see it this weekend. I heard it makes you want to quit Facebook though. It's looks kinda dark, so I have a feeling I'm not going to like it very much. But I'd still like to see it!
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