March 11, at 2.46 pm our world changed.
Not just in Tohoku and Fukushima, but all over Japan - and in the hearts of many people who care about Japan around the world.
But our lives go on.
Imagine students this week are going about their lives: attending a family wedding in Tokyo, setting up sons for university life in Tokyo and Kyoto, waiting for hospital test results, preparing for new staff at the company, job hunting and taking an IELTS test in Tokyo this weekend.
Me too - home life with Okaasan is ongoing. One of our cats is sick with kidney problems and I'm waiting for the bedroom curtains to come back with their new dark linings so I have a chance of sleeping this summer.
I sent bottled water to a pregnant friend in Tokyo this week - and noticed three other people with big boxes of stuff for Tokyo area in the same post office. Now a friend in Shinagawa has asked me to send water too.
And I heard from two NHK students of distant relatives who have died in Tohoku. "My brother's wife's father"..."My aunt's husband's mother"....I heard about a former student who now lives in Sendai, luckily on March 11th she was on a trip in Kyoto...her car at Sendai airport gone of course...
Life goes on.
I HAVE applied to offer Imagine as a home to an evacuee from Fukushima. We faxed in the details to the charity group. Now we wait and see.
I may have to ask students to change lesson times or even place and I hope you will be understanding and support my decision. I use Imagine 3 days a week, and for a few hours on Monday for English - it could be a wonderful, quiet home for someone who cannot go back to their own home near the Nuclear Power Plant.
If you think YOU can offer accommodation to someone from Fukushima please ask me for the details . The phone number of the charity is:
011- 272 - 5000.