Sad week

As everyone in the world knows Japan had a very sad week. Last Friday the biggest earthquake Japan ever experienced hit the north part of Japan.

Mum had the afternoon off from work so I was at her place with Oliver, enjoying an afternoon snack and coffee. We were sort of watching TV. Then the earthquake report came on the screen. If you lived in Japan before you know we get these live reports quite often (Japan is an earthquake country - lying on many plates). But this time it said magnitude 8.8 (later they increased it to 9.0) which I have not seen before.

Actually we didn't feel anything where we were, so we were calm and were just checking the updates on the news.

Following the report they broadcasted tsunami warnings. They had three different categories, tsunami warning, tsunami evacuation order, and Huge tsunami evacuation order. And a wide area was covered with the latter warning.

Mum and I weren't sure if we needed to do anything as we were close to the area which got tsunami evacuation order (Wakayama prefecture) but nothing came through from the Osaka government so we decided to stay where we were. Meanwhile, incredible images came though.

The live images of tsunami destroying huge areas, swallowing the boats, houses, and cars and even people.
We just couldn't believe what we were watching. It felt like we were watching movies but it was REAL. And lasted so long.

I couldn't believe it was happening in the same country, we had coffee cups in our hands while people were washed away...

I didn't sleep much that night and spent the next few days just watching news on TV.

One of my good friends in Brunei is from the area hit badly with this tsunami. We were trying to locate her family since last week. Today we were told her parents and her brother's family are all well and safe!! I am so relieved and happy for her.

There are still so many people missing and as the world is watching we are still having trouble with the nuclear plants...

I keep updating myself with the news, but hopefully we can have a good holiday with our family here in Osaka somehow.

Thank you everyone for thinking of us, Oliver, I and my family are all safe.