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 Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:21 pm
I'm pretty busy at college, but I just wondered if anyone else was watching the Japanese earthquake/tsunami footage... It's pretty scary. Link to Japanese news/ twitter mashup. Those streams are in Japanese, but most of it's showing disaster footage right now (which one doesn't need to know the language to understand).
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:54 pm
I have not been on here lately either while getting ready for college myself, but today has been... too much to ignore this.
I'm almost directly connected with this, and I'm one of the founders and spokesman of our school's relief fund starting next week. All the islands that were in threat/hit--I've lived on, and with family in the Philippines (which was in threat all this morning), and so many growing friends in Japan, I was shaking all day. Just yesterday, I was on the phone with a friend in Japan,... two hours before the major earthquake. I still wait for replies from friends and family across the pacific. Everyone is in a state of panic. I continuously try to calm my mother down, since I'll be in Japan in only a month or two.
As the news worsened throughout the day, I could close my eyes and see drowning bodies. I was shaking an hour into the schoolday, and was eventually sent in to the counselor's who had nothing to say. I'm considering to stay home from Japanese School tomorow, since I cannot take anymore knowing there's nothing I can do.
One of the members of my trip to Japan bumped into me and my friends this morning--while we were COMPLETELY upset--and said, "Why are you guys so upset about this? I should be the one upset! This thing is going to ruin my whole trip!!"
I was very upset at this... "You know, I'm GLAD we're going. Because while you try and make the best of those damn hot-springs, maybe I can stop feeling so damn helpless and help out! So enjoy your vacation."
I feel so helpless.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:23 am
I hope your friends and family are safe! All this reminds me of something that happened when I was in Japan... I was in class in the language school i was going to, when suddenly the water bottle on my desk started shaking rapidly, and even fell over a few times. I felt like that scene in Jurassic Park with the water shaking as the dinosaurs come. It freaked me out, as someone who comes from an area where the usual natural disasters are blizzards. The teachers kept doing their jobs like everything was normal. If they were afraid and hiding it for the students sake, I couldn't tell. I asked one of them about it, and they said it was nothing out of the ordinary. The tremors kept going on and off for the next few days. A lot of the times it seemed to be when I was going up or down stairs. It was awful. I'd stay there, clinging to the stair rail, as it felt like the world was being tilted back and forth. I'm sure that if I had let go I would have fallen against a rail, tumbled down the long stairwell and in all likelihood, died. And that was a minor quake. I think that people who choose to live in an earthquake-prone country long term, like Japan (or other places, like, say...parts of California), have to acknowledge that there are risks of earthquakes, and to try to be prepared. One of the Japan blogger on Twitter who's in Tokyo (which didn't get hit too badly, but still has no water or electricity last I checked) said something like "You know, they've been predicting that a huge earthquake would hit Tokyo for a while now, and yet not one Japanese person I asked in the area had any sort of emergency kit, or escape plan." so I guess some Japanese people aren't prepared either. Japan will make it through this in the end, though. The death rate is much lower than in other countries which had similar earthquakes, because Japan's government ( and building infrastructure, etc) is one of the most prepared in the world when it comes to earthquakes. (EDIT: Earthquake has been upgraded to 9.0, updated thread title.)
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:17 pm
I'm not directly connected to this, but I still feel helpless about it all.
I have friends who have family in Japan and it hurts to see them so down, waiting for news from Japan to see if their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins survived. Luckily, so far everyone is safe.
This event is just overwhelming, I don't even know how to describe how I feel about it. I wish I could help. I'll be buying the gaia items and making paper cranes and supporting my friends since it's all I can really do.
I hope your friends and family are well.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:34 pm
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:14 am
Beautiful crane Mistina!
Finally, the charity event I started at my school has ended, and we're now on Spring Break. We managed to raise more than 700$+ with a bake-sale and a presentation I put on with my friends from Japan, and two teachers from Japan as well. It was basically a lecture, on a stage with an almost filled theater. I had two speeches, and I can't believe how scared I was, but how good everything went!!
Except, right before the presentation... I had a bad cramp, and a bad cold/cough. THEN, I tried to step over the theater ramp (separating the seating area from the stage) to test sounds, and fell in-between into a small ditch... scraped my leg, ruined my shoes, and hit my head on the rail pretty bad... (Glad it happened though! Cramp and some of my cold were gone for a while; long enough for my speeches! Got extra time to practice too!) I got home, and my mum opened the door too fast and slammed my head, again, on the door... Jeez. There's my contribution. ><
Although, last Saturday... the other students of my school's Japan trip all had a chance to vote whether or not they wanted to wait and see what happens until June, or start planning to go to China instead. EVERYONE except me, and maybe one other, voted China. So now, my trip is canceled, and I already pulled out. I don't know what to do... this is my 3rd canceled trip. I have to get over there, but I've already missed a sponsored home-stay program. I might get over there in October with my Japanese School teacher, but is there anyway I can get there in June? (I have friends to meet, and colleges to check out down south--but I'm hoping on getting some kind of tour like my last trip.) I'm really desperate at this point. My last trip was very expensive, more than any normal trip to Japan, and I just got the money back. When I go with my teacher, it'll only be one area, nearby Tokyo. So far, it's not canceling.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:48 am
Wow, that paper crane's awesome Mistina!
I helped staff my college's Arcade Day with the rest of the Japanese Culture club there...We raised 200$ for Japan! Anyway, I'm glad to see Japanese TV getting back to normal. Non-earthquake/tsunami related shows are back on, although I hear milk and bread are still rare to find there, due to hoarding in the supermarkets...Now I just read about the 7.4 aftershock. eek
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