My designs

I had some spare time at work so I have been playing around with some t-shirt designs for those how <3 Japan. These are them:

My First Natural Disaster

So as the entire world is aware, well except maybe for Charlie Sheen, the biggest earthquake in 100 years took place 300km from the coast of Japan. The result was 8.8-magnitude quake with repeated after shocks and tsunamis reaching heights of 10m.

The result has been the total devastation of Japan’s east coast. Too many people have lost their lives. More have lost family and not to mention their entire world has been swept away in debris.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote an article about the quake, which almost perfectly sums up my views on how Japan has handled the event. I am not going to quote the entire article; you can read it for yourself by clicking here.

The one quote that stood out for me was this: “Uncomplaining, collective resilience is steeped into the Japanese soul”. And it is exactly that which I admire in the Japanese people.

Life for me has continued as normal. Saturday I cleaned my windows. Yesterday I did my washing. Today I had work. I am continuing to think about and plan my next vacation. It is life as normal.

Don’t be fooled into thinking I am the insensitive foreigner that doesn’t take notice of things that don’t affect me. I had friends that were out of contact for hours and potentially missing (though all have, at this point, been accounted for).

I live on Kyushu, the most southern of the 4 big islands, and life on Kyushu has continued as normal, for both myself and those around me. We are all incredibly aware of the whole disaster but it is the Japanese way to deal with what nature gives you and get on with your life. Disasters here do not end the world they are just a part of it.

Schools have not been closed, people continue to do their shopping and buy new cars. The Japanese people have not allowed themselves to be overwhelmed or allowed their world to come to a grinding halt. One of my teachers told me today how he went shopping this weekend to prepare for his son entering university. His son is studying in Yokohama – which is right next to Tokyo. The tsunamis have not washed away the excitement he has for his child’s future.

And somehow all the hope around me is very calming. One of my students went to Shikoku this weekend and brought me back omiyagi. She will study nursing. This morning her thoughts are on her new university life, which like all teenagers she is really excited about. 

It is something that I admire but at the same time, as Nicholas Kristof mentions in his article, it is not without its problems. Though if I am going to be caught in the middle of huge natural disaster there is no other place that I would rather be. As they say the sun always rises in the east, and I will do so again tomorrow.