Japan

Over the weekend a terrible tragedy occured in the small country of Japan.  An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck, which is believed to be the largest earthquake in history to ever hit Japan.  It was so strong, analysts believe that it may have actually moved Japan's main island eight feet, and shifted the Earth axis four inches.  Not only were they struck by a record breaking earthquake, they also had to endure a gigantic tsunami that reached six miles inland.  This horrific tragedy is expected to have a death toll of over 10,000.

When I heard the news late Friday morning it really hit home, because I traveled to Japan three summers ago.  My family also has hosted 6 different Japanese exchange students from Kamogawa that we still stay in contact with.  I immediately ran to my computer to check and see if the tsunami had hit Kamogawa, which was located about two hours away from Tokyo right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. As I began to surf different news sites I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  There were already videos posted of the fierce water whipping trucks around as if they were play tonka trucks.  People were fleeing to the highest ground or running as fast as they could for shelter as the water rushed in destroying their homes.  I was relieved to find that the Tsunami had hit farther north and had not damaged Kamogawa, but felt terrible watching other parts of Japan being destroyed and not being able to do anything. 

On Sunday afternoon I recieved an email from Aya, an exchange student that had stayed with us a couple years ago.  She described the mass hysteria that was going on in her country.  She also told me how she had been in Tokyo when the earthquake occured and had to walk four hours to her aunts house for safety, because the public transportation had been shut down.  On her long walk, she came across a nursing home that had completely crumbled to the ground.  There were many people already helping drag people out, and they begged her to help too.  She said it was the most horrific thing she had ever seen, and prayed that there weren't to many other buildings left like this.  It wasn't until she got to her aunts house that she found out about the tsunami that devastated the coast. 

Everyday I hear terrible stories on the news that I think about for a couple of minutes, and then I go on with my day.  It wasn't until getting insight from someone who was there that it really effected me.  It actually became reality for me rather than some guy on the news telling me a story about something that happened thousands of miles away.