I'm not sure if anyone on here knows, or is even reading this to realize, but I'm a teacher in Japan. That being said, please don't worry. I'm fine. Shizuoka, where I live, is far enough south that we felt the earthquake, but had little to no damage. We were under a tsunami warning for about 36 hours but the water only rose about a meter on our coastline and in the rivers in town.
For the non-otaku that might still read this blog, I appreciate everyone's concern thank you so much for all you've said. I heard from many people who I haven't in a few years and even got an offer to fly me back to the US from my "niisan". It's nice to have people thinking of me. If anyone would like to help the rescue/relief efforts over here I recommend donating to an established charity such as the Red Cross, not buying something from a celebrity or special interest group.
That being said....all of this is amazingly hard to write. I keep looking out my window and seeing the city, same as always, and then glancing slightly left at the TV full of scenes of destruction. It's too surreal to comprehend. I think I'm still a bit shellshocked. I keep getting sick to my stomach out of nowhere.
When the world falls apart, it seems to all happen at once for some reason...it's the end of the school term and I'm ridiculously stressed, people back home are having major life problems that I feel guilty about not being there for, my "big brother" is moving away, and my "girlfriend" is most likely mad at me b/c she's not really speaking to me. I expect it's something I said that was misinterpreted b/c I can be pretty blunt and uncaring when I'm stressed out. Oh, yeah, and there's good possibility of another large earthquake.
I don't want to think about anything....but that's never an option, is it? I can't stop anyway....
I suppose the advantage(?) here is that overwhelming bouts of emotion tend to make me more artistic so I'm likely to not only make my deadline (tomorrow!) for the last 3 drawings I need to do before break, but also do a pretty good job on them....
Never look away - not from nightmares or the truth
