"Just heard tat one of the biggest earthquake hit tokyo this afternoon. I'm so glad you r back here."
I was at the firm's International Women's Day (IWD) today, rather relieved to be able to get away from the client for awhile and enjoy the talks and booths that the committee had planned to make us "look good and feel good". Just when IWD was wrapping up in the afternoon, I decided to check to catch up on work emails when some colleagues messaged me about Japan.
I had no idea the extent of the devastation until I watched the video feeds on CNN. It was surreal because I had never seen anything like that before, and yet brought back memories of the 7.4 earthquake I experienced in Niigata.
My friends and family are glad I'm here and not there.
I wish I could be there for my Japanese and Japanese-based friends whom I have come to call family.
Sometimes I tell people that I miss the tremors that we get now and then. It's so common that we hardly bat an eyelid anymore. Kinda add thrills, sadistic I know. But that's how frequent we get it there.
Observing how calamity strikes one after another, not to mention the brewing dissatisfaction in the Middle East/African region, one has to expect that the worse may not be over, but still pray that their loved ones will be spared.
My heart goes out to Japan. It has been brave in facing natural disasters all these while, surely its people can depend on their experience to weather this through.
The eastern dragon may have reigned in the past, now it's battered in all aspects; financially, economically, physically. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the heed of the King, a call to bow down to a more sovereign Being. I pray that His strength will be yours as you go through this difficult period.
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4 comments:
I was following this as I saw it on the news just as it happened. was in touch with many US colleagues who were there on biz. as phones didn't work, was getting many emails asking to help call their wife/family to let them know they are fine. many were stuck at narita/haneda (one was stuck in narita express overnight just 20min from the airport). lots of fb updates, emails and glued to the tv for updates. tokyo colleagues and friends mainly stayed at the office or tried to walk home. but all are safe. all my colleagues managed to confirm flights for home.
west coast US was also on tsunami alert, hawaii had a 7ft wave. here was just 2-3ft one.
just devastating what has happened there. surreal to see the waves just swept everything in its way. hope all will calm down and no more major aftershocks.
ya its amazing how everyone gets to fb immediately when it happened, and i'm trying to catch up with them over fb/gchat as well!
at least some of them have sense of humour to post up pictures of how they will survive next aftershocks and can joke about their experiences.
since you're in the west coast (if i'm not mistaken?) i hope you're doing well too.. heard they extended the alert to california counties and even oregon!
yes i'm on the west coast, california. just some damages up in Santa Cruz and Oregon, but nothing to the extent of Japan.
I was reading about some tweets about people commenting really good things about the japanese who were so calm, collected and caring, despite the disaster.
this is something i really admire about the japanese. organized chaos i would say..guess that's the big cultural difference compared to other countries (looting, grabbing, every man for himself etc if such a catastrophe happens)
it's just surreal that nature can be so soothing, yet so destructive.
licheng : even though the japanese disaster has somehow been overshadowed by recent events in libya, and the earthquake in myanmar, i hope people will still want to help and donate.. :/ have to agree with you on how calm the japanese can be. i like to tell people that i never feel danger when i'm amidst drunk japanese people, because in essence they are not violent even when they're drunk! calamities like these will really show a person's true colour.
i hope you're doing okay on the west coast! :)
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