HOPE

After a restless long day of trying to contact my family and friends in Japan, my saddened feeling has never stopped. What nature brought to Japan on Friday has begun to appear far worse. 

Firstly, thank you for those who were concerned about my family and friends via emails, phone and facebook etc. They are all safe, including my close friends who live in Hachijyo island and in Sendai where tsunami hit directly. My parents were trapped in underground at that time but luckily managed to get out and ‘walked’ home for 7 hours from Tokyo in the black out. 

I hear that the energy of this earthquake was 8000 times of recent Christchurch, 22000 times of atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Tsunami was as if dropping a boulder the size of Isle of Wight into the ocean. These are not just numbers and metaphor that scares me but also a horrible reminder of what beautiful nature could do to powerless human. The earthquake has not stopped yet. My family still feels the shakes every minutes today, people in North in particular, in much high level of magnitude. Fear and tsunami warning will continue. 

My heart aches so much for people who lost their life, of loved ones and homes, after seeing devastating scenes. Soon after the earthquake yesterday, I received so many desperate voices via RT twitter from people who were still stuck in cars and buildings, and were unable to escape from tsunami. I could only hope they are now rescued safely. Due to the massive damage of Fukushima nuclear plant, which is supplying major amount of electricity to many areas of Japan, many cities are still shut down. In many areas, including Tokyo, there will be ‘scheduled black out’ again to save energy from this Monday till they don’t know when. In the most effected areas, survivors who lost homes and loved ones have to face the after effect in still dark and snowy-cold weather. In Fukushima, people continued to evacuate from one place to another, each time the radiation warning spread, without getting much information. Hearing what they experienced was terrifying, even though I have ‘grown up’ with earthquakes in my whole life, it was beyond belief. Devastating. 

All my feelings and thoughts are for the people in Japan. 

HOPE is all I can do.