everyday, people ask me “how’s japan? is everything ok? are things normal? my answer is “still bad, no, and no.” 6 months later, some places are still the same. on one side of the street, things are perfectly normal, then the other side looks like a bomb got dropped on it. thousands are still living in shelters, and thousands are still missing. do you think it’s ok? do you think it’s back to normal? no, not me. there isn’t a day that goes by that i don’t think about what i saw, what i experienced, and the people i met. i try to block it, but then somebody asks me “how’s japan?” everything comes back.
there are mothers that ran to the schools after the earthquake to see if their kids were ok, then the tsunami came and they never left the school since. 6 months later still living with strangers, still using portable toilets, and still no help. there are billions of dollars tied up in the government red tape that will probably end up going to the wrong people.
and the main thing i’m concerned is the radiation. yes, still leaking out from the nuclear plant. day by day, we’re finding out more things that are contaminated. and what they don’t test, we don’t know. no end to fixing that problem, and no end to the cleanup.
there are 100 years worth of rubbish piled up in cities with nowhere to go. the list goes on and on. people still ask me if it’s safe to go to japan. honestly, i don’t know. you can eat the food and after it’s digested, the government might say “opps, sorry, the delicious beef you just ate was contaminated with cesium.” kind of late yeah?
anyway, if you look at the negatives, it will take you down a dark road. i try to think of all the positive things i saw. the happy kids, the families trying to recover, the positive attitudes, and the smiles. japan is a solid country that sticks together in times like this. if that happened in america, everybody would leave the country for sure. japan will recover and even thought it will take time, i have faith that things will be back to normal. please don’t forget about japan, i sure won’t.
