Take care Japan

Regular readers of this blog will know that Japan is my second home. Ever since living there for a year as a teenager in the late 80's, doing a university degree in Japanese language, living there on and off over the years and working as a Japanese medical interpreter, my connection with this amazing country and its people has grown deeper and deeper.

My wife is from Sapporo, my kids' first language is Japanese (which makes school here in Australia fun!) and we visit at least once every year, sometimes twice.

The scenes unfolding on the TV and the internet are beyond frightening. The wall of water crashing through the homes and lives of innocent people, the swaying office blocks, the leaking radiation. My heart just weeps.

My wife was in Japan when the earthquake hit. She flew out that night and is home safe and sound. But she flies back to Japan tomorrow with work, staying only a few hundred kilometres from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. They say the year of the Rabbit is supposed to be quiet. So far we've had a devastating cyclone, followed by floods and now vicariously caught up in an earthquake. Something tells me those Chinese astrologers are playing a joke on us.

For what it's worth I wish everyone in Japan the best of luck in these terrible times and know that the rest of the world is watching and praying to whatever higher power they believe in that you will all pull through this and go on. And of course I hope that my family and friends will all keep safe and well.

I was reading a Japanese photography magazine yesterday and marvelling at the beautiful photos of the cherry blossoms in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures. May those trees flower once again in the years to come.