Flying Home to a Different Japan

The effect of the most recent earthquake in Japan was initially devastating and continues to rock the nation and the people connected to it to the core. For those readers I don’t know, I have been in Japan for 10 years. My wife, Asako, is Japanese, and we have two young children ages 8 and 5. Last Wednesday, I left a very peaceful Yokohama on a crisp, clear spring day and flew to Calgary, Alberta for a four day counseling seminar with a large part of the agenda set, ironically, for skills and theory related to mental health counseling and trauma.

On Friday morning at 3:30am I woke up to jet-lag and my blackberry email light flashing. Asako had written to say, “We had a huge earthquake. Don’t worry we are ok.”

I’ve been through a couple of sizable earthquakes with the biggest up in, now devastated, Miyagi prefecture about six years ago. Not yet overly concerned I opened Twitter and turned on the TV in the hotel room as the first images of the tsunami rolled forward out of the screen. Very quickly desperation set-in to confirm that our family, friends, and our house were alright following the earthquake.

I already knew enough to know the tsunami didn’t hit our area. After about an hour of trying I finally reached Asako, thanks to Skype on her smartphone as the electric power and our internet service was still out, and could put my mind somewhat at ease. Confirming that our immediate community was alright, I was concerned only about our friends and the other residents of Sendai.

That was three days ago. The incredible devastation from the tsunami is starting to become painfully clear and the threat of a nuclear meltdown looms eerily like a torturer. I know it hasn’t been easy on my family and friends who have been in Japan through it all. After all, they endured the biggest earthquake in the country’s history and their bodies have been sleeping restlessly less than 300km away from a potentially deadly nuclear killer and through incessant aftershocks. As much as others might comment how lucky I was to be away, with my shaken and threatened family there, no place but with them would have been more desirable.

With thousands of foreigners fleeing the country and outgoing flights over-booked, I write this as one of just a few non-Japanese on an unusually empty aircraft several hours from landing at Narita. The pilot has let us know we will be flying through Russian airspace on the way into Tokyo, as a deviation from the normal flight path that usually takes us right over the now dangerous Fukushima power plant. This is one precaution I am happy to take but after that, put me on the ground – unstable as it is. – AC

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