Two years and two days ago, March 11 of 2011, an earthquake (now called the Tohoku Earthquake) and tsunami brought devastation to Japan. I was asleep at the exact time it happened, but I sure do remember getting the news almost first thing in the morning. We were getting ready to go to Japan, scheduled to fly in a mere two weeks after all the destruction hit.
The area we came to is relatively far away from those areas affected, and I was still determined to go, but that didn't stop our families from worrying. I was worried that the airports might not open up again in time, but a few agonizing days later they were re-opened. The main worry was the proximity of the Fukushima nuclear plant. The tsunami had come nowhere near Oyama in Tochigi, though I heard that the few minutes of quaking was rather frightening even here.
As soon as I was able to contact my future employers at the time a few days later, they were clearly worried that we might have changed our minds about living in Japan. But come to Japan, we did, and it has been amazing!
My school had a moment of silence on Monday in memory of the disaster and those affected.
It's been a long time since I thought about the "Ganbatte Nihon" banners I saw everywhere for several months after we got here, but I'll post one in memory.
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