Fukuoka Marches On

I wrote an email to my mom a few minutes ago and thought I'd repost. It has some extra details about what it's like to be here in Fukuoka in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Hey Mom,

Life as normal in Fukuoka, weirdly. It is so strange to see Japan in the news everywhere but for none of it to be true about us. No tsunami here, no earthquake, and now, based on the prevailing winds, we are less likely to see nuclear fallout should something happen than the US and Canadian west coasts. This is a colossal blessing of course, but still very, very strange. They're telling people on Honshu to perhaps expect some rolling blackouts as they divert power to the affected areas, but on Kyushu we just sort of sit and want to do something. I read a lot of news coverage because I feel like if I can't help, at least I can know. I don't know if that's something or not. Then I keep reading about people sleeping in concrete shelters and high school gymnasiums and here I am with a spare room and a futon and a full stomach, not to mention my toasty heated blanket and my windows open out of choice for the nice fresh air. What did we do today? Grading, and a bike ride to the park. Grocery shopping in full stores. Used the functional internet. Load of laundry. For hours at a time - or at least for significant periods - I didn't even remember to think about the earthquake.

Our head of school said they got a call from EARCOS, the East Asian Council of Overseas Schools, frantically asking all the Japan schools to check in. Most of the schools even in the area are trying to open tomorrow for regular days. There's an international school in Sendai which from a rudimentary check of Google Maps appears far enough inland to be okay from the water, although I don't know for sure that that's the case - just that our boss said he reported in ok. I would happily have kids from that school come down here for a bit, but I doubt that's the best solution. I just feel so weird not being able to think of something to do.

I gave money to some schoolgirls today outside of a department store - they had a banner that said they were from the Rotary Club, and although I couldn't understand what they were saying, I could deduce from the open newspaper pictures that they were fundraising for the earthquake. A coworker reports that he went downtown for blood donation and the turnout was so big that they are asking people to hold off on coming in. All the teachers want to go up and do something, the way you can go wash ducks after an oil spill, but at this point the last thing they need is more people to try to sustain on the food, power, and infrastructure they have left.

When this whole thing started, of course I had no idea how big it was, so it never occurred to me that Fukuoka would be affected. It reminds me of September 11 that way. My Chinese teacher came to class and said she heard a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and I had visions of a little four-person Cessna smacking into a wall. Then Saturday we woke up to so many messages from around the world wondering if Fukuoka was okay, and things were so completely okay that it felt sort of funny to have to respond - it felt as disconnected from our daily lives as the Pakistan floods. Now it's Sunday and to be frank, I feel kind of guilty that our lives are so normal.* I look back at the post I did on the blog about the tiny earthquake we had in January and just think, man, how arbitrary is it that our earthquake was a funny bed bobble, and theirs took whole houses out to sea?

I did buy bottled water today and made a little stash in a backpack, along with some granola bars, as an emergency kit. We should have done that when we first got here but didn't. And it's woefully inadequate - it should have more food, some first aid supplies, a heat-reflecting blanket, and more - but it's a start.

Surreal. Just so surreal.

xoxo

Nana

* 0f course by that I mean during the times when I stop to think, since it's true that a long time can go by here without me thinking about it. And then I feel guilty that I don't think about it all the time. Not that it helps anybody for me to think about it, I suppose.