Regarding the Tohoku earthquake.

I have been so emotionally exhausted these past 4 days it is unbelievable. I seem to have this routine now of waking up and immediately getting on to www.ustream.tv in order to check what is being reported on the Japanese news channels, and checking my mail for new emails from my host family and friends updating me on the situation.  I don't feel like typing it all out again, so here is an email I sent to my penpal (who lives in Gifu so she is fine) describing how I heard about the earthquake and reacted:

"I have also been carefully following the news. I was sleeping when I first heard about the earthquake. I listen to the radio while I sleep, and the DJ's reported the news on their morning show, I heard it hit Tokyo so I got up right away even though it was an hour earlier than I usually wake up at. Ironically, I wasn't sleeping good that night anyways.

I came downstairs and asked my father if he had heard anything about it on the news, since the radio didn't give much detail. He asked me what my friend's name is who is working in Japan, this really scared me because I thought she was being reported as hurt or dead or something, but no he just told me that she had called into the local news channel here to report on what was happening there. I don't think I have ever been so relieved in my life. (note: this friend happens to be Spooning with a Schoolboy author Caroline Josephine)

So I turned on the news and got on my computer. To be honest, I started crying right away as soon as I saw all the video clips and pictures on TV. I got in touch right away with my friend in Tokyo and talked with her for a while. I also sent emails to my host mother and sister's cellphones. I got a reply from my host mom within minutes which I was very grateful for, because at the time I didn't know if the Tokyo area had been seriously affected or not, so I was very worried about people's safety. She told me that she had not heard from my host sister but that the cellphones were having trouble working. But I did receive a reply from my host sister later in the day.

I thought about not going to work, because I was very emotionally distressed and I was hurrying to email some of my other friends and teachers there also, but I thought it would be better for me to work so that I would have some distraction through out the day. I work at a library as you know, and we were very busy... more than is usual, so it was very frustrating! I wanted to follow the news as it was happening and I was watching both twitter, BBC news, and some Japanese news sites trying to gather as much information. The more I learned the more heartbroken and shocked I became.

I know a guy who is working as an English teacher in Sendai at the MeySen Academy. We have never met face to face, but I am friends with him on facebook and we talk since he doesn't speak Japanese and doesn't know very much about the culture like I do. His mother works with my mom, and his father works with my best friend at a radio station. His parents were very worried because they had not heard from him, so they were asking me if I knew of any sites with streaming Japanese news in English. I thought this is the time I can really put my skills to use, so I tired to search for as much information as I could about where MeySen is located in Sendai and what was their condition if known. Well, their website was down and I didn't have very much luck finding anything until I got the idea to search twitter! That is when I found a tweet by a woman who also has a son teaching at the same school and she said that he was all right and that the children were all right, I figured the same must be of this person I know. So I showed the tweet to his parents and they were relieved. Also, a lot of my Japanese friends on facebook were posting statuses that they were okay during this time. I was also posting news and donation links on my facebook and twitter too, because I know that not everyone would be paying as close attention as I was so I wanted to spread the message. I think it is amazing how social networking sites can be used this way. I am glad I live in the era of the internet. I would have gone crazy without hearing from my host family, friends, and you so quickly.

In the afternoon my best friend who works for a radio station here asked me to do an interview on the phone for her radio station. I honestly felt very dumb doing it since I am not in Japan, and at first I actually refused because I didn't think I could talk about it without crying but she kept insisting that I do it so I agreed. Originally, she wanted our friend who is working in Japan to call but it was in the middle of the night in Japan at the time. I really don't know if the interview was very good, I just answered the questions as best I could, but they asked me things like what is the Sendai area like which I know nothing about. I let them know that earthquakes are common there (but not big ones like this one) and that as a student there I had to go through a earthquake training session. At the end I asked everyone to give to the redcross so if just one person donated because of my message then I guess it was not a waste of time.

By the end of my work shift I felt very very stressed. I was almost shaking, I felt so wired and worried about the whole situation. Even though I had heard back from most of the people I knew, it was still hard for me to process what was going on in the Tohoku region. Also they had started reporting about the nuclear plant by then, so that was a new problem.

When I got home I called my friend who was in the same study abroad program as me. We were very close there since we had 3 classes together. I had talked to her online since I left Japan, but this was the first time I called her on the phone. I was nice to hear her voice again, and we talked for about an hour about many things. It was nice to have someone who was in the same spot as me. We are here in America where all we can do is watch, and we are not sure if the news we are receiving is accurate or not. We also talked about other things to get our minds off it and that helped calm me I think. After I got off the phone with her and ate some dinner I got back online and started researching again. I discovered www.ustream.tv, and I started watching TBS news, NHK news, and Yokoso News a program that is normally just for fun cultural stuff but since the guy who does it speaks English he decided to report on the situation (using many news sources) in order to help foreigners in Japan and those outside Japan who may have family in Japan. Since I could only understand a little from the TBS and NHK reports (I used to be fairly good at listening to the news! I need to start studying again!) I found the Yokoso most helpful. I watched late into the night and drank some alcohol to take the edge off. I know this is bad, but I ended up taking some cold medicine (that makes you sleepy) before bed because I didn't think I could sleep well without it.

I am much more calm and reassured today because I feel more informed. I watched Yokoso news streaming when I got up till about 3 in the afternoon here (when the guy left for a sleep break because no new news was coming in. This was like 5am there.). I am now waiting for him to start streaming live again to see if there is any new news.

He talked about the intentional power blackouts (what we call them here) or "rolling blackouts" and when I emailed my host sister today I asked her if they were having them there in Tokyo, I am sure they are since the Nuclear plant is not working right now. He also talked about how much we should trust sources and what the government says, especially when it come to the Nuclear situation, because sometimes we get false information. I was glad to see he was encouraging people to use their own judgment and to check many different sources before believing anything. He is also sometimes funny, which was nice to relieve the heavy mood, so I think I will continue watching his reports.

Right now I am concerned about Minamisanriku, where 9,500 are reported missing still. That is such a large number it is unthinkable! I hope they find some of those people very soon.

The aftershocks are crazy too! It isn't normal to have this many is it? It is so strange what is going on geologically there. Nature is so scary sometimes."

So things have calmed down a bit from Friday, and I have been receiving regular email texts from my host sister Maki so that has been easing my mind. The damage though is just unimaginable to me. complete towns are wiped out, thousands are still missing, bodies are still being recovered, and rebuilding isn't going to be magically complete in a few weeks, months, even years I'm guessing.  This problem isn't easily solved so I hope people will keep thinking about Japan in the coming months when it no longer makes the nightly news and helping out any way they can.