Why is everyone going home?

        It's been one week now, almost exactly, since the quake that started all of this and, while eastern Japan has not recovered, here in the west of Japan we are still barely affected by the disaster. Despite all the fear of radioactive fallout, radiation levels hardly rose in Tokyo and are on the low end of normal here in the Osaka prefecture. Kansai Gaidai keeps this table updated and easy to see (although it's always about 24 hours behind) to try and keep the foreign students from panicking.

This data comes from the Ministry of Education of Japan
(click on image to view larger)

        A lost cause if you ask me. The French government has pulled out all their students (except one who refused to leave) and most other European countries are doing the same. The US Consulate issued a travel warning for eastern Japan, and is providing free transport out of Japan to US citizens in Tokyo, but has not recommended that US citizens leave Japan altogether. However, when the US announced that they are providing this transportation out of Japan, people all over the world started to panic and even more American schools decided to bring their students home, even from Osaka and other unaffected areas.

        It seems to me like this is a little late. This morning, power was restored to at least one of the nuclear reactors in Fukushima, and it shouldn't be long before all the reactors have functioning cooling systems again. (Japanese Newspapers have not translated the news into English yet, and I'm a little wary of what any other country has to say about this, but here's a link anyway).

        So why are so many schools terminating students' programs now? Why did these students have to stay in Japan this past week and deal with the anxiety and the stress of not understanding the media only to be taken home when things are getting better? It makes no sense to me. Everything is so normal here, it's hard to believe how bad things are in Tokyo.

Kansai Gaidai Japanese Garden at Night

        If I listen to reliable news sources instead of my classmates I can easily remain calm, realizing that all I can do is wait and see what will happen. Unfortunately, most of the foreign students have not figured this out and are freaking out; many of them are choosing to go home, and seem to think the fact other people are going home is a reason they should go home too. It is like a contagious disease, all it takes is a few people going home to make the majority of the remaining students panic and think they should leave too. And the US Consulate's travel warning did not help, even though it never says anything about leaving western Japan.

        One of the things that surprises me most about all of this, is how it's not only Americans who trust the US government. Suddenly I'm aware that a lot of people are looking to the US government and -- even more surprising-- US citizens, for guidance. A few days ago, I was talking to one of my friends from South Korea, Sarah, and she asked if I was going home. I said no I was not, and that most Americans weren't (which was true at the time), and she said she wasn't going home either but, if American's started to go home, she would probably go too and she didn't think she was the only one who would have that response either. And one of my other Korean friends, Jung won, responded to my statement that most Americans were not going home by saying that "Americans are strong." Which really surprised me because I think of Americans as weak and easily scared. It seems like somehow the fact that I'm an American and I choose to stay in Japan is reassuring, although I don't know why. But, unfortunately, it's become significantly less reassuring after the US issued it's travel warning and so many other US students began to leave, either because they or their family's were scared or because their schools made them go home.

        At this point, most of my friends have gone home. Some intend to return after spring break, but others do not and some have not yet decided. I don't know which of my friends will be back to take midterms with me and which of my friends I will never see again and, for me, this is one of the hardest things about this whole situation.  I know that things are a lot worse in eastern Japan but, for us here in Osaka, the thing that has had the worst negative impact on us personally is people's inability to control their fear. We are not directly affected by the quakes, tsunamis, nuclear fallout, rolling blackouts, lack of food and fuel or any of it. So why are people so scared? Why is everyone going home?

Daily life and a national catastrophe

I finally got a camera last week so I have pictures to post. Well, actually, I had some before from my phone, so I'll post those as well. But first a little about the current state of Japan:

I am living in Hirakata city (枚方市) which is in the Osaka (大阪) prefecture, so the earthquake has not directly affected me. I personally am not even sure if I felt it because I was in a building that shakes a lot anyway, but a lot of people here did feel it. The tsunamis also spared the Osaka area, although they were absolutely devastating in other parts of Japan. Due to the earthquake and tsunami, several nuclear power plants have been damaged and radiation has been released into the surrounding areas of Japan, displacing thousands of people. The death count is still rising, and it looks like it will be quite a while before things go back to normal for the people in eastern Japan. I would give more details, but I'm sure you've all been following the news, so you probably already know what's going on. Maybe even better than I do since I keep trying to get my information from Japanese TV and newspapers, although I have been online also. It makes everything seem even worse when you're watching TV with a family who understands it, but all you can understand is the family when they say かわすぎるね！(too scary, isn't it!) Yesterday, I tried to read this newspaper:

This is just fire in a flooded area, but later on TV there were burning houses being swept along by the tsunami

The headline (東日本地震 大津波) means "East Japan earthquake big tsunami," which I can actually read, despite it being in kanji, to my host family's surprise. Unfortunately, that was about all I could read. Still, the pictures show what's going on well enough, and it isn't pretty.....

*   *   *

I was going to start this blog with a description of my trip to Hiroshima (広島), but given the morbid nature of that trip and the already not very uplifting start to this blog, I think I will leave that for later and talk about my everyday life here first. I am currently living in Hirakata with my host family, the 日下部s (Kusakabes). It only takes me 20 mins to walk to school, and the Kusakabes are very kind to me so I'm definitely glad I chose not to live in a dorm. There are challenges too of course, no one in my host family speaks very good English, although they all know a little, and they have breakfast at 7:20 most days, which is way too early for me. I think getting up that early is taking it's toll on me, or maybe it's the fact I have to speak so much Japanese, but I feel like I'm always tired even though I don't do that much. Even so, I'm really enjoying Japan, and have already learned more than I thought I would in the entire semester, so I do not regret coming here.

This is the first picture I took of the Kusakabe's house, it's 3 stories tall but each floor is tiny so it's actually not very big.

My home while in Japan

Looking through the doorway into my room

Note the "God Bless America" plaque on the door, not what I'd have picked at all, but still kinda sweet. My room isn't that large, but it's definitely big enough for me, especially since I get to fold up my bed every day. 

My room during the day

The carpet is heated, which is nice since it gets pretty cold in Japanese houses

My host sister practices the piano in my room, but makes sure it doesn't bother me

My room at night

りな (Rina), the Kusakabe's cat, in her favorite spot in front of the heater, although it was off when I took this pic

Everything is all squashed together here and the Japanese idea of what needs space is very different from the American one. For example, there are shrines all over but they're right next to trash and grocery stores:

I pass by this shrine on my way to school every day.
You can't see it in this pic, but there's a trash collection place right next to it.

The roads are very narrow, but I haven't been hit by a bus yet (pic taken on my way home from school)

Beautiful Japanese roof next to an ugly water tank (pic taken near Kansai Gaidai)

Soon after I got here, it snowed (which it hardly has since). This is what my school, Kansai Gaidai (関西外大), looks like in the snow:

View out of a window of CIE (Center for International Education)

And another

Flowers covered in snow

A closer look at the same flowers

My host brother and sister were very excited by the snow, and I spent quite a while outside with them and the other neighborhood kids, who didn't seem to mind that I don't speak much Japanese.

Snowball fight

The kids always want me to juggle
(Yes, I know I'm about to drop, but snowballs stick to gloves pretty bad and this is the only pic my host mother got of me juggling)

I made a "yuki neko"

It was pretty ugly, but the kids loved it...

....and somehow carried it back to their house without too much damage
Although the legs and tail had to be put back on

It's been a while since it's snowed now though, and the weather, while not warm, is a lot warmer. About a week ago I saw the first うめ (plum) blossoms:

うめ (ume) at night

Now there are ume blossoms everywhere, but it'll be a few weeks before the sakura is out.