Tag Archives: Tohoku
Ishinomaki – Then and Now
Recently arrived back in Tokyo from another trip North and still attempting to unravel my answers to the natural question of ‘how was it?’ Perhaps this will help. The following is a documentary from Paul Johannessen, which interviews tsunami survivors … Continue reading
Ishinomaki, December 2011
There is too much to tell you and not enough words. Everyone who was here on 11 March must have a story to make the hair stand on end, about where they were and what they saw, who they lost … Continue reading
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Christmas in Tohoku Part 2
We got talking at the Free Tohoku and It’s Not Just Mud Christmas party, despite not sharing much language, our ‘conversation’ drifting over the head of her small boy, who wriggled in her arms in that way that children do … Continue reading
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Christmas in Tohoku Part 1
Before I came to Japan, I wondered what Christmas would be like. It is not a Christian country and New Year is a much more important festival in the Japanese calendar. So I wasn’t expecting to see many Christmas trees. … Continue reading
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‘The most photographed anonymous man in the world’
I got a really lovely thank you from the #quakebook team, despite only doing something very simple to help with the publication of an interview with Our Man in Abiko in the Embassy of Japan in the UK’s newsletter. Take … Continue reading
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Obon festivities
Often in class I find I am learning as much as the students. While they pick up the essentials of English grammar and usage, along with certain vignettes about British life, I am gaining too. Not merely an insight into … Continue reading
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Rebuilding Japan under uncertainty
It is depressing but not surprising to learn from those back home that Japan has been largely ignored by the news recently, in favour of stories of footballers doing something somewhere to someone no-one can tell you anything about. Meanwhile … Continue reading
Jishin-yoi: the feeling of earthquake drunkenness
It usually starts with a jolt. If walking or standing, I notice the ground beneath my feet start to move, or if sitting I feel it along my spine. I brace myself for what is coming, look up at the … Continue reading
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How to help Japan
Following the survivors’ stories and video footage, here is the Tohoku earthquake rendered as numbers and facts (with thanks to Michael Soron for his illuminating post): The government estimates the material damage from the quake and tsunami alone could top … Continue reading
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Japan faces Golden Week dilemma
What is the correct response when a student offers you potentially radioactive peach sponge cake? Despite warnings of an 80% drop in tourist numbers this year, one of my students, a lovely and very generous lady, drove for hours and … Continue reading
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