A short post-quake post

by liberal japonicus

While I haven't mentioned where I live in Japan, perhaps you've now heard of it as we now have an earthquake named after us! I was in the UK when the quake struck, but the wonders of modern technology, I was able to contact my wife immediately after the first one and, when my facebook feed blew up after the magnitude 7 second quake, I messaged my wife while she was still under the table. I was also overseas when the 2011 Tohoku tsunami struck, so I'm 2 for 2 being overseas when disasters strike Japan. 

I got back last night and our house was fine and the neighborhood didn't have so much damage, so it's hard for me to imagine what had happened, but I went to my university, which is being used as an evacuation center (we have a social welfare department that deals with handicapped, so our school is barrier free and can handle wheelchairs) and saw that there was certainly more than enough suffering to go around. The death toll at the moment is 42, which to my American mind seems astonishingly small, but the news reports invest that number with a weight that makes it seem like a lot more. Anyway, in a week or so, maybe a post about disaster relief and recovery. While there has been a phenomenal amount of volunteer effort going on, if you ask me what you could do, I'd suggest you hug your loved ones or take an extra beat or three to appreciate them. 

Comments

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Super glad that you and yours are safe.

"The death toll at the moment is 42, which to my American mind seems astonishingly small"

And hope it stays that way. Perhaps not so small considering the culture of disaster preparedness that present in Japan (and sadly lacking in the US and Europe).

Some Japanese friends were shocked at the US response to Katrina. How could this be? THEY knew, from childhood, exactly how to get to their evacuation point, where they would be taking refuge, to the level of "this bed here? That's mine".

But I guess they don't have politicians that have made their chops attacking spending for "stuff that'll never happen", like hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, when that money could be far better spent on graft and tax-cuts.

[Girl from the North Country]

Yes, LJ, v. glad indeed that you and your family are all OK. Such an extraordinary few days along the Ring of Fire, like those movies where the arch-villain explodes a superweapon which sets off a chain reaction, and then contacts the "World Authorities" demanding a ransom or he'll set off more along other faultlines and DESTROY CIVILISATION. Eeeek.
p.s. I thought it was Donald Trump who was going to DESTROY CIVILISATION.

[YoursInTheSnow]

I was living in Stuttgart when the big Kyoto earth quake hit. I ran upstairs and woke up my neighbor to inform him as I knew his son lived there. He contacted his son and made sure he was OK and then contacted the rest of Japanese community living in the Stuttgart area. I was surprised at how my neighbor would always introduce me as that, "thoughtful American who alerted us to contact our loved ones back in Japan". Are there really other kinds of people?

[wj]

LJ, how did I ever get the impression that you were somewhere in central Honshu, north of Tokyo...?

But glad you and yours are safe. Living in an earthquake zone myself, I know interesting things can get.

[Nous]

Glad you are safe.

Next time you travel I think that your family needs to travel with you. This is starting to look like a pattern.

[Hartmut]

Have the usual suspects already blamed the quakes on demons and gays? They usually do.

[liberal japonicus]

Given that it is people in Asia that are receiving the brunt of this, it is probably just an assumption that they had it coming...

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Well, at least it seems like the quakes were on-shore.

I recall a series of quakes in the sea, just offshore of Osaka, some years back...

"GOJIRA AWAKENS!!"

[russell]

yikes. glad that you and yours are safe, lj!

[Nigel]

And, as ever, what russell said.

[wonkie]

So glad that you and your wife are safe.