Randomness from this week

While I was planning on posting about climbing Mt. Fuji this week (in part to reward U.B. for his undying patience since last July), several events have completely thrown me off my blog-posting-plan.

First, the thing that everyone would have to have slept through the past week to have not heard about: the unreal 8.9 earthquake and devastating tsunami that hit the Tohoku (northeast) region of Japan last Friday. Oh, and the power stations that are releasing minute amounts of radiation, too.

While the disaster happened during my school day, no one's watching TV at school. There were no annoucements; if any of the teachers knew during the day, they weren't talking about it, even in the relative privacy of the teacher's room. I found out, ironically enough, from an e-mail of a premodern Japanese list-serve that I'm on. The message basically said, "Whoa, shit's going down in Japan. Is everyone okay?" ..which prompted me to turn on the news. And yeah, the disaster was all over the news.

I checked that my island wasn't in danger-- we weren't even on the initial high-waves list-- shot off an e-mail to immediate family that I was okay, almost as an afterthought, and went off to taiko practice as usual. It was an ordinary day, guys.

I was pretty busy last weekend with various things, so I wasn't sitting in front of my TV (as, it seems, most of my fellow teachers and American friends were), but gradually it started to sink in that the disaster was huge. People who I haven't spoken with in years tried to check in. Even though I'd sent out an e-mail before my family heard the news, I still got frantic "Are you okay? REALLY?" e-mails from them, nearly every day as the Fukushima plant radiation stories mutated; I don't think mom will be convinced until I see her in person this summer.

Apparently, the American media rather ran away with the story... and while it's their job to report the news, can you really blame them? Biggest earthquake in Japan since the Meiji Period, giant killer tsunami wave, and radioactive material being shot into the air. It could be a best-selling end-of-the-world style movie, and they get to talk about it! No cats-stuck-in-trees rescue stories today, folks-- we've got exclusive Japanese Armageddon footage for you! Here's the kind of wreckage that an 18-meter-tall wave can create-- just look at those houses floating along, the cars bobbing under!

I'm not trying to poke fun at the tradgedy. I don't know what people are saying now, but at least earlier in the week they were saying that this is much, much bigger a disaster than Hurricane Katrina. I don't believe in comparing suffering, but just looking at the numbers I'd say it is. Less than 2,000 people died during the actual Hurricane Katrina; with the double earthquake-and-tsunami, the current numbers are about 15,000 people dead or missing. Not all of the JETs (other foreign, English-speaking teachers here in Japan on the same program as me) are accounted for yet. (So while I'm fine, really, guys... it could've been me out there, missing.) And like Katrina, some areas where the water came in may remain that way; the earth sunk under the pressure of the tsunami to be below sea level. Some areas may not be able to reclaim their turf.

While the actual disaster didn't physically affect me, and Tsushima's probably the safest place in Japan in terms of earthquakes (we really don't get them), I have been watching the ocean recently. I've caught myself thinking, out on a run-- if an earthquake happened now, I'd have to get away from those telephone wires. I could run up those concrete steps to the ancient burial mound at the top of the hill to escape a tsunami. I could scale the concrete meant to prevent landslides and get to the top of that mountain. In other words, I've been trying to convince myself that I'm safe or could get myself to safe place quickly. Which, obviously, isn't always the case, even if my island is basically a bunch of mountains.

I'd like to thank my Nanyo middle school teachers and kids for helping to get me out of the safety-funk. Yesterday, they cancelled two regular classes to make plans for how to raise disaster-relief money. The kids made signs and boxes to put the money in. And while money is the best way to help Japan right now (especially for people abroad), I thought-- what else can I do?

Second Harvest Japan is an NPO that, in its normal line of business, gathers food for orphanages and women's shelters (www.2hj.org for English and Japanese-language options). They've taken their food-distribution skills and applied them to the Tohoku disaster. The Second Harvest center in Tokyo is currently accepting all kinds of donations, everything from toilet paper to baby bottles. Looking around my apartment, I've got a bunch of stuff laying about that I'm not going to use and they certainly could use. I also translated a list of high-priority, easy-to-ship items into Japanese and handed them out at a few schools this week; I'll see many people tomorrow at the Nanyo Middle School-Closing ceremony and asked them to bring their donations then. I'll make a package manifest and ship everything together. From Tokyo, Second Harvest has a couple of tractor-trailers that make a run into Sendai every other day, so hopefully the stuff will get there soon. (Earlier this week, everyone was just begging for money because the infrastructure wasn't really set up yet for futher disaster relief; the area doesn't have much gasoline or ways to get gasoline in, so if a truck went to Sendai then it'd get stuck in Sendai with an empty tank. It looks like the Second Harvest people have fixed that problem somehow).

And now, on to lighter subjects. Also this week:

--I had my chest bound by a middle-aged Japanese woman. Twice. She was quite effective.
(She then dressed me in a furisode, or really long-sleeved, young unmarried woman's kimono, with hakama to boot. Once as a trial-run and once on JHS graduation day.)

--A conversation I had with a second-grade elementary student at Higashi Elementary (translated from the Japanese by moi):
Student: "How old are you?"
Homeroom teacher: "You know, in America it's rude to ask that question."
Me: "How old do you think I am?"
Student: "Uhh... 16?"
Me: "That'll do."
Homeroom teacher (to student): "Oh, but dear, 16-year-olds are still in middle school."
Student: "Umm... 22?"
Me: "That'll do, too."
.... personally, I don't mind being thought of as 16. It certain beats many of the other answers I've gotten to "How old do you think I am?" .... the average is mid-30's.

--Sometimes, reality is stranger than soap operas. Turns out the school-lunch-planner/J-mom who I've been making meals with FOR TWO YEARS-- yes, I'd say we were getting to be pretty close friends-- is pregnant. And due in June. (And here I thought she was just putting on some winter pudge). It's really great news, though. I think it's common for Japanese women to keep pregnancy a secret until they get a few months away from the due date (or until it becomes way too obvious to hide)... I'm not sure why. But I was way surprised.