The Year Anniversary

Sunday marked the year anniversary of the Niigata Earthquakes

So, It has been a year since I was wildly rocked atop the second floor of Jusco, admist swinging bras and crying kids, full of the fear that the wire racks were going to fall on my head, taken back with the realization that amidsts all the other shopping Japanese ladies, I was the only one who seemed to have learn the duck and cover technique beacausse they were all just looking up and holding on to large heavy pillars or racks. You can read my account of it back in my archives of last year. But here is a picture I never posted. This one I took on my ketai as a crowd formed around the televisions so we could see what happened. The initial report I saw was that the epicenter was in Nagano, people were buzzing that they thought Asama had erupted. Asama is an active steaming volcano about 2 hours from where I live, and when volcanos erupt, earthquakes tend to happen. I can't believe it has been a year, and on top of that I can't believe that this quake was my first of what has turned out to be many while I live here in Japan. I must say that it instills a certain type of fear in you, There are times, like when Sara, Jan, and I are in Tokyo and the ground started to shake, that you fear the worst. I honestly fear being in that city when the predicted "Big One" hits. After seeing photos of the quake that hit Kobe, which is a city, I never want to be in a city when one with the magnitude of the quake I was in last year hits. Even now, a year later, you can still see the aftermath of last years quakes. There are still schools gone, fish dead, mountain sides missing, people struggling to get their life back together. ..even though Niigata is out here in the inaka in the city like Tokyo you still can see the aftermath of that quake, since the quake, I still have not been to Tokyo without seeing people out fundraising for the Victims of the Niigata Earthquake.

My friends and I are all so lucky for our safety last year. And in a year of Natural disasters that have hit so close to home, friends, and family so many times, I am lucky that it is not just times like this that make me think of my blessings, but it sure helps resurface the feeling of "look at what has happened in the last year", what a year. I am so thankful for my safety, blessings, opportunity, friends and family that have surrounded me in my life.