Katriona's Diary

The 11th March. It's already 14 years, from the fatal day of Tohoku great earthquake and tsunami, and the nuke crisis. The TV news said more than 22 thousand people were killed or missing by them. Surprisingly and tragically, about 2500 people are still missing - their body have not been found. This is, of course, because of the tsunami. Many people, houses and precious things were wasahed away by the massive waves. (The great Hanshin earthquake in 1995 has killed over 6400 people but most of the victims were soon found, just 3 people were still missng.) Thinking about this disaster still brings tears to my eyes.

The earthquake and tsunami are the natural disasters which are essentially unavoidable but the nuke crisis was a man-made disaster, which has been forcing more than 20 thousands people into evacuation life even now.

Just after the disaster I felt, and believed that we had to change many ways of our life and social systems for the sake of the victims. But what has changed better in our society since then? I can't say. We are so stupid, lazy and forgetful. Our life and society are still on the edge of great danger but we behave as if we are totally safe. We really need to reflect our life, society and the nature. Need to think seriously, and act.

This is the gloomy day, and we should be serious and think...


At the entrance of our office.


Some building near our office hoisting flags at half mast.

Weekend. This morning I woke up late :(. Outside, there already was the mild, warm sunshine. The garden cats seemed to be quite contented in the sun.



After the breakfast I did washing, my weekly cleaning, put the futon mattresses on the verandah to air. Though around noon I noticed there came some clouds, I took mattresses in. The sky became darker in the afternoon and it has become cold, I turned on the floor heating. Andlate in the afternoon there came rain.

After the big earthquakes on the new years day, every day we see the horrible and sad news on TV or newspapers, few good news… and I tend to feel rather blue, especially on such day without sunshine :(
The damaged area by the earthquakes, Noto peninsula facing the Sea of Japan, usually they have many snow and cold rain in winter. And naturally, the victims are now suffering by the severe coldness - they still do not have electric power, water etc. i can’t imagine how they manage to survive there. I hope te winter weather would be kind to them….

The second day of the new year. It’s cloudy with occasional shower, the air was chilly.


The garden cats were curling into a ball just outside of the window.

I, mother, sister’s family were enjoyed talking much and eating too much XD Though keeping the TV news program reporting about the damages caused by the big earthquake in Noto peninsula on all the while and feeling uneasy a bit :( Sister’s family has left here late in the afternoon, I cleaned the room roughly then returned to my room to turn on my computer, opened the news site and knew that there was a horrible accident in Haneda - Tokyo international airport. The airplane from Hokkaido, which was full of passengers and had just landed, and the small airplane of Japan Coast Guard struck on the runway and a fire broke out, it spread immediately. It’s a horrible to see the burning plane on the runway of the airport even on computer screen or TV. Very fortunately all of the passengers and the crew of the big airplane - about 390 people could evacuated safely but the crew of the small plane (I heard there were 6) were dead or badly injured. And the plane of the Coast Guard was going to fly to bring the relief or other essential materials to Noto, the damaged area by the earthquake. At the moment nobody knows who have made mistake but anyway, if there was not the earthquake yesterday this accident would have never happened. Too sad.

The natural disaster first, then this fatal accident have overshadowed our new year. And of course in Noto there still are many victims waiting for help in the collapsed buildings and debris. It’s not easy to smile or feel positive at the moment…

Well… this is not easy to me, for this DW is not popular in my country I could not find any manual written in Japanese on internet :( (As for LJ I found some.) But I am here, trying to post something XD

Today is the day for praying here in Japan, the day of the great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and the nuke crisis in 2011. In many places in the east part of Japan, people gathered and prayed for the victims.

I remember my own feeling of the helplessness of 11 years ago, just watched what was happening in Tohoku on TV, watching people were dying and the areas were being destroyed, but could do nothing.
And now we feel the similar helplessness, but also the sheer anger at the same time - because, the earthquake and tsunami are the natural disasters but the disaster now happening in Ukraine is man-made, made by one mad paranoia and shameless his followers. This have to be stopped.

This is the worst 3/11 after the great tragedy in 2011…

Today, I don’t know why but I’ve felt uneasy all day, could not concentrate on my job (at home). It has been 10 years since the Great Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami, at 14:46 (the time of occurrence) I stood by the window silently, remembered the disaster. I myself have had little damage from it, though in that spring I couldn’t help but keeping watching the terrible images on TV - the Tsunami, fire, totally destroyed cities - for hours every day.
Today many TV channels and news sites on internet show the images taken 10 years ago, they make me remember the hopeless, poignant feeling I had had then and even now bring tears to my eyes at once. The newspaper says the disaster has killed about twenty thousand people, even now more than 2500 are missing(even now sometimes they find bodies, and DNA tests find who they are), and because of the nuke crisis in Fukushima more than forty thousand are still in evacuation. For them, for the ones who have lost their family or friends, the disaster is never be the past...

When I stood by the window this afternoon, I found our garden cats were relaxing in the sun. And I was filled with the gratitude for my current peaceful days, even in the pandemic.

For days we have had rather wild weather. The temperature and the humidity are high, strong south wind brings sometimes heavy rain and sometimes sunshine. When I open the windows the wind is not uncomfortable but I need to be careful for occasionally we have sudden strong rain.

But all such things are OK. The serious problem is that the big and long rain clouds has not moved from over the Japanese archipelago for days, and they caused heavy rain especially in the south-west part of Japan. It is the annual rainy season now so no wonder it keeps raining. But we are not accustomed with such enormous amount of rain - the ground and river cannot afford it so in many areas they have the floods and landslides which have killed nearly 80 people, destroyed many houses and fields - and the damage is still increasing.
In our Japanese history, the typhoons (they come mostly at the end of summer, mainly in Sep) have done the countless harm to people's lives, but the rainy season at the beginning of Summer(from the end of June to the first half of July) has not been a very dangerous time, it keeps raining but rather gently - as long as we remember. Though in this last few years this annual rainy season has becoming wilder and more dangerous. Every year it kills people - like typhoon season. Our climate is clearly becoming unkind to us.
Is such situation same in other area on this earth? This is really anxious... somehow more anxious than the pandemic.

Now we are in "Golden Week", the big successive holidays from the end of April to the beginning of May, the biggest holiday season in Japan with usually the comfortable weather of spring. But this year of course no one can enjoy any trip, outing with family or friends nor any meeting. Concert, events and sports matches are all cancelled. All museums, movie theatres, libraries and shopping centres are closed. Maybe I should do the household tasks I have planed or wanted to do for years - to tidy the closets, for example. Though I feel little motivation for anything - except weeding garden, so everyday I spent some hours in our garden with not much zeal. And, because I have been at home most of time since the beginning of March, also because everyday looks like others so much with gloomy news, recently I have lost the sense of time and the track of the days of the week. Today is so similar to yesterday, or to any day of the last week or last month. This doesn't seem to be sound. Every day I look at the plants in the garden, now azalea flowers are gone and irises are blooming... and I don't know how fast or slow the time is running.




Our lily of the valley now show their lovely flowers :)

This afternoon I went near Yokohama station which is one of the biggest downtown in city of Yokohama. I didn't want to approach downtown though I need to visit the dental clinic for I have had toothache since last weekend. Fortunately it's not serious, my dentist put some medicine around my wisdomtooth.
After leaving the clinic I walked through the shopping centre to go to the train station. There most of the shops were closed except one supermarket and some grocery shops, and there were more passers-by than I've expected. But of course there are people who have to go out for their job and other business even in this emergency, and they were far far less than the usual crowd on weekend. That quietude was really odd... somewhat weird on such fine spring Saturday. I took a train to come home - it's a commuter train connecting the residential areas, usually very crowded even on weekend. But today there were just a few passengers on the train or in the station, and I noticed all the windows of the railway cars were open for ventilation. It's also very odd to see those opened windows...


(Inside of the train car. Do you see all the windows are a bit open? And just a few passengers.)

Last night it began raining, and the temperature has dropped. Today is a cold, wet day like in winter. The rain and wind were strong, during the daytime when I did teleworking in the loft (just under the roof) the sound of rain and wind was very noisy. I brought my small CD player there to play some music to drown out the sound of them.
In the afternoon when the rain calmed I went to the nearby supermarket to get some grocery. I thought that on such cold day there might be less people than usual in the shop, but there were more customers there than I have expected. To my surprise some people visited there in a small group - with their family, chatting and stand close in a queue for the register. Even now, there are many such thoughtless people with little idea what kind of danger we are in! How could we stop the infection with those idiots? This made me feel quite gloomy.
Anyway I brought some food (for I myself and my mother) and many green vegetables (for my rabbit) home in the chilly rain. Recently I try not to go for shopping often, just once a week or less. I often go out for a short walk but on such walking I don't see anyone, never approach other person. It’s been almost one month since I began the teleworking at home, I haven’t seen my co-workers for a while. We exchange e-mails every day but no real talking nor phone call, each workday looks quite similar to the other. I sometimes lose the sense of the day in the week.
And the situation seems to be getting worse here in Japan. But I think there is nothing more I can do. Recently I don't see the news program on TV nor internet much, they just make me feel blue.
Well, at least at the moment I'm fine, rabbit Tako is cute and the spring flowers are beautiful in our garden. Let's see how the things will change within the next two weeks...


(The photo I took yesterday in my garden)

In this kind of difficult days, keeping our regular routine as much as possible is important to be calm and rational. To wake up at decent time, take healthy food and do some physical exercise regularly every day, have some fun with reading or playing with our animal etc, then go to bed early. I know I should do them but now I find it's more difficult than usual. Maye because I can't go out much and see my friends, and because of the anxiety, often I can't stop eating chocolate or other sweets, reading until midnight, or looking at the gloomy information on internet. This last one is the worst. Keeping looking at those horrifying news does no good, just depresses me. I should restrict how much time I can see the internet for one day ...though this is difficult! So at least I try to go outside of the house even a few minutes every day, walking around my small garden or picking some grass for my rabbit, or visiting the local library to get the book I need for my job (in the libraries now most of the rooms are closed and we can't walk into the room with bookshelves, but can get the book we've reserved via internet).
This is spring, the most beautiful and exciting season with fresh air, the plants show their new green leaves and buds - it's great to see them in my garden or on my way to the library or super market. I often try to just focus on them, not think about the uncertain future.


(flowers in my garden)