Thinking About Tokyo

My thoughts and prayers go out to Japan.  The earthquake is one of my biggest fears in life.  

My Thoughts are with the Rising Sun (by Enelo)

I can remember the hard mat that covered almost the entirety of my tiny room in Ogikubu, a mall sect of Korea town, just beyond Shibuya off the Chuo Line in Tokyo.  Though my flat-mates were warm and friendly, the Gaijin (non-Japanese or foreigner) house looked lonely on a quiet back street, its entryway and three-floors depressed and underwhelmed against the backdrop of one of our worlds most advanced countries.  I set cockroach traps on the four corners of my floor-level bed and from inside my cocooned travel sheet, I would often fail to take my mind away from earthquakes no matter how exhausted I was, or how hard I tried.  Vivid images from my childhood quake experiences, even though I often slept through the real thing, replayed like a film roll on a small square of the travel-sheet lit up by the impressive display of my funky Nokia phone.  A small trinket, always attached to a Japanese phone, was usually the only thing that moved as I battled my thoughts and identified the feeling of fear.

I do believe that fear can be embraced, maybe even channeled into positive energy.  But I do not envy the families in Japan, who will sleep together in their living rooms like my family once did, nervously chatting in wait for the next aftershock.  That fear can be so incredibly strong, but isn't it remarkable the power that companionship and family can have to reduce or mitigate it?  "Are you okay?" they will ask after each tremble.  "I am, are you okay?" they will reply to connect the circle.  In other words, please don't leave me alone.  Let us not endure this alone.  Together, we will face anything, but alone that fear may be too strong to handle.

We humans are resilient, strong.  I pray for the families in Japan to find that inner strength, to fight fear through familial bonds, and to endure the trying times that are sure to come with the rising sun.