Hey guys. I've been living in Japan for awhile now and was here when the tragedy occurred. I live in Tokyo so the earthquake wasn't so bad. 3.5's are pretty standard for larger earthquakes. We get earthquakes daily so we get used to them. But I can tell you from a first person perspective that the images I saw on the TV, Internet, and what I was hearing probably one of the largest disasters this world has seen in many years. It was also incredibly scary. I wasn't allowed to leave my school for 14 hours. Not even to get food. We had limited water. No cell phone service to call my parents in the states. It was bad. Then hearing about what was happening at 福島第一 (Fukushima Daiichi in Kanji for those of you that don't know.) Was really one of the scariest experiences that I have ever been through. And I hope that I never have to go through it again.
I've lost a total of 14 friends in the tragedy. This is just a estimate due to the fact that none of them have responded to any of my email messages or have been on Facebook since.
I also visited the 宮城県 (Miyagi Prefecture) about a month ago. The scale of the damage is just nothing like i've ever seen before. I couldn't even bring myself to take many pictures because my colleagues and I were just in tears beyond anything I ever thought was even possible. It's just so sad knowing that in a matter of minutes. 15,000+ innocent Japanese people lost there lives. It's just something you can't even begin to describe. Sorry for not posting any pictures up but I have very limited photo's and I'd rather not post them as it would probably make me cry.
But I think props have to be given to the Japanese. Despite having one of the worst disasters in many many many years, as soon as they were able to, everything just carried on like normal. And on top of that, we all remained calm and didn't become barbaric. I've heard stories of hurricanes in Florida and things of the like where people got so desperate that they began to kill each other and steal. That never once happened here.The amount that has been cleaned up is a really large amount considering the fact that the Tsunami's went 10 miles inland (I think i read that, might be KM.) You just aren't able to clean all of that up in less than 6 months, no matter how much man power you have. I think that props need to be given to the Japanese by everyone in the world. Aside from maybe Africa I think Japan has gotten the second most amount of crap given to it. Bad Earthquakes, Tsunami's, The only 2 major Atomic Bombs to be dropped on it. And through all of this. They still remain humble and calm. You don't hear them complain as some other countries do.
But i'm done talking as i'm about to begin crying and probably nobody cares.
