Japan

As many readers of this blog know, my wife Miranda is from Japan. Of course she has family and friends there, so the whole tragedy over there has been very much part of our daily life for the last week. Luckily, she is from Mie Prefecture, just southwest of Nagoya, quite far from the earthquake and everything else. We called her mom as soon as we woke up and saw the news last week. She was fine, as is everyone else so far away.

Our daughter Kristine, who is 8, is of course half Japanese. On the weekends goes to a Japanese school in a nearby city. It’s a pretty huge program with something like 800 students attending. Most of the families are, like us, a mix of Japanese and American. We’ve become pretty friends with a family of one of her classmates, getting together for family activities outside of the school. The mom is from Yamagata, just west of Sendai where the volcano and tsunami was at its worst. She has several relatives living right in Sendai. It took a while, but finally they managed to reach everyone and they are all good.

Anyway, despite all family and friends being safe, it’s been pretty stressful here. We have had NHK streaming full time, getting up to the minute news on what’s going on. Seeing the destruction in towns and villages that look so much like the places we stay when we are there, is heart wrenching for me. I can only imagine what it is like for Miranda. The other night I woke up after 3 a.m. and she was still downstairs, glued to NHK. I had to drag her away to get some sleep. But as things slowly get under control over there, things seem to be getting calmer here too.

Today, Kristine had a playdate with the girl across the street. We found out after the fact that they made cookies and went up and down the street selling them to neighbors, raising $32 to send to Japan. Two 8 year old girls. On their own. It kind of leaves me speechless.

And to close, I caught this video tonight, which left yet another lump in my throat.