Heart of Japanese 2011

As business owners and individuals sent words of condolences and encouragement, immediately following the earthquake, I felt miserable because the words wouldn’t come.

I was in shock after experiencing the same earthquake in Tokyo inside a subway train, and the ominous 6 hours walk home through eerie Tokyo where nothing was broken, yet practically nothing was working because everything had to be stopped to prevent accidents and fires. Sky kept on changing from clear to dark, rain came and went, then it turned unseasonably cold and windy, the effect from the huge Tsunami that was hitting the coast. When I finally saw the images of what happened to the north east part of our island, I could not process what I saw.  And from the moment I felt the quake until I saw the faces of my children at home.  Until then, my heart was frozen, already bracing myself for any bad news.

It has been a month since that day, and in addition to the earthquake and tsunami wreckage, we are now living the modern life disaster that has been discussed by many over the years. It will be a long road to recovery. I am slowly growing used to the new Japan. This experience has shown me the new way to live. And through it all, I see more of details of Japanese lives, beauty of their strength and existence, and this has taught me to see the details of the uniqueness of other nationalities as well. I hope to share many of these stories with you in the future.