Day 7 – I'm leaving!! for now...

March 17, 2011

I’m leaving!!! Yes, this was the final decision.

It was quite a rushed decision. A few things contributed to my decision…

1. I heard on the news that US had expanded the evacuation zone to 80km. (Sendai was about 100-120km from the plant…)
2. They were trying to spray water into….something, and the spokesperson said something like “this is the last thing we could try…” That sounded kinda scary.
3. Somehow when I heard “there would not be any immediate effect to human health”, the question “what about long term effect?” came to my mind…
4. I wasn’t really able to positively contribute to the company. I was only using their resources. While I did have options to stay or go, I should save the resources for those who have no choice but to stay in Japan.
5. My family was very worried and I guess the only thing I could do for them from worrying about me was to leave that environment.
6. I was very tired of living day by day…and watching the news every 10 minutes for possible bad news. I needed a break.

Haha, that’s all I could think of right now.

I called my supervisor before the decision was “official”. I was fortunate that she was very supportive of my decision. It was too bad that I couldn’t go to school before leaving, but I didn’t want to miss the China bus.

My decision became official at about 9:30am. I contacted all related people about my plan so some of them would be able to assist me. I really had to thank my aunt for finding me all those information on the buses and flights back to Taiwan. I went home, took the most accessible suitcase, threw all the clothes & previously bought omiyage, and left the house at 11:30am.

It was nice that I was able to talk w/ Iain and Kumagai sensei before I board onto the bus. I was initially going to board on the China bus going to Niigata airport, but I decided to take the Australia bus that was supposed to leave at 6pm. A representative from the Canadian embassy kindly offered me a spot on the Australia bus. I was sooo lucky that I saw a few ALTs waiting for the New Zealand bus! =)



I was extra lucky to have a spot on the New Zealand bus that left at 2pm. We arrived Narita airport at around 8pm. I grabbed my first super “relaxed” meal after a week at the airport. =)



Then I headed to the hotel that my aunt booked for me. I still felt aftershock in the hotel. In fact, according to the stat, we had more than 220 aftershocks within 4 days after the earthquake. I still still feel like the earth is shaking now. However, everyone, myself included, is a lot more relaxed.

Thanks to my aunt, I was able to take a plane at 4:30 the next day to Taiwan.

My early vacation starts now. =)

Thanks everyone for reading..haa! I know these are loooong posts. =P

Day 6 – Decision made!......or not....

March 14, 2011

In the morning, I had the opportunity to chat with my sister more about my decision. She had carefully analyzed the situation with me to help me make an informed decision. She also al so advised me to pray about it. Just when I was praying and washing dishes at the same time, Mr. Saito called me to tell me to go back to school next Tuesday. Somehow, from that moment on, I felt like I wanted to stay to help the community, and to do something for school since it would be the last few days of the school year. Therefore, I decided to stay. =)

I was very sure that I wanted to stay, so I instantly called my mom and chatted with her. It was very nice chatting w/ my mom because I knew she was very worried. She really wanted me to leave as well. I really wanted my mom to understand what I was thinking and what made me to have that decision. I told her something like I wanted to help w/ the community since God had put me in that situation. Also, I really wanted to attend school. My principal had been very good to me and next week would be her last week in the school. I really wanted to be a part of it. After my phone conversation with mom, I also talked w/ my aunt, who was uberly worried about me. It was very nice for them to understand me and gladly accept my decision. =) Well, of course my sis and a few awesome ppl back home had always been very supportive of whatever decision I made. =) I also called our Sendai educational advisor to let him know that I’m available to help.

Haha, I guess it was a bit contradicting because although I was telling myself that I would be staying, I went to the Australian info session on ways to leave the city if one chose to do so. I had the opportunity to hear many people’s opinion on leaving or staying in the city... Then I started to doubt myself.......Why was I still there???? It was kind of frustrating.

When I went home, I saw a friend who was going to leave the city but ended up staying! We started to have a little discussion on what we were thinking and why we did what we did. Yeah, what he said actually resonant with what I was thinking. I felt like I shouldn’t be leaving the city leaving all the other Japanese people here. I do somehow feel like I’m part of this community. I might be an outsider, but I feel like I should be here with the others. I didn’t like the idea of leaving just because the city was in trouble. I told many people that if I were either a visitor or a student, I would have left. However, I work with other Japanese teachers and I felt I should be there to “fight” with them… Some people think these are stupid things to stop one from leaving, but yea.......it was those stupid reasons that kept me from leaving. Well, I’ve also heard a lot of stuff about the whole nuclear thing....I didn’t really know what to believe anymore......

Again, a night of uncertainty...a night of frustration.

Day 5 – to go or not to go…?

March 15, 2011

Ever since the 2nd day of the earthquake, my family has been telling me to leave. I had numerous telephone/msn conversations with my family. I knew they wanted me to be safe, but I simply didn’t feel like a right time to leave the city.

My sister asked me a few times why wouldn’t I leave. Hmm, it was a good question. At the time, I didn’t really know exactly why I didn’t want to leave. Perhaps since not many us left and I heard that there were many misinformation floating around in the news, I didn’t feel like it was the time to leave. However, the more I heard about leaving, the more I was considering of leaving. It was quite frustrating actually. In the morning, my family and others heard of some “bad” news about the nuclear plant. A friend was a bit nervous about it and had decided to hold a “meeting” to talk about the possibility of leaving. However, after I went back home to get some stuff and went back to the friend’s place, everyone was a lot calmer and the idea of leaving somewhat disappeared again.

I actually didn’t do much during the day. I basically stayed at my friend’s place and we were trying to learn more about the nuclear plant thing. A few more people joined our dinner, which was a very good tasting kimchi soup, thanks to Daniel. I continued to get a lot of “evacuation reminders” from my relatives and they had even invited different people to convince me (and even beg me) to leave just for the sake of my family. It was some stressful and frustrated moments. I had really considered of leaving and even asked one of our JET coordinators for advice. I was thankful that my sister and my other 屬靈長輩 were very supportive of whatever my decision would be.

It was a tough night and I didn’t know what I should do…

Day 4 - Friends are valuable 共患難~ =)

March 14, 2011

It was Sunday in Vancouver. As “scheduled”, I was “attending” my home church’s afternoon service with Skype. THANKS SIS!! YOU ARE AWESOME! =) It was an emotional one for me. I guess I wasn’t feeling emotionally well the previous night, I couldn’t stop from crying during P&W time. I miss my home church. I miss the bros and sis back home. Although we don’t chat as much now and I sorta feel out of it now, I still really miss them. The good thing is that the Sunday service actually really encouraged me to be strong and continue to walk with God’s strength! =) I was very very happy to be able to chat w/ one of my lovely bros in church. It was soooo awesome to hear his voice! Add oil ar! =)

The day then followed with Emily and I going to Daniel’s for a shower and stopping by a grocery store for food. Before we headed out, we put all our important stuff in front of the door so in case we had to evacuate, we would be able to grab all we needed and flight.



Wooooooo…the line up was soooooo long for the grocery store! Emily and I probably lined up for 2.5 hours to get into the store! Surprisingly, the store still has a lot of stuff available. In order make sure the most people can get food, there was a 10 –item per person policy. Since we had heard about the radiation thing, we purposely bought a bag of seaweed to get our iodine. Since Daniel had water at his apartment and he was kind enough for us to stay at his place, our camp at his place had started. =)

As what we’ve constantly been doing, a group of us didn’t stop watching news from all over the world about the nuclear thing. We just chatted and had snacks for the night. I still remember the only “healthy” food I ate for the entire day was the banana in the morning….. Yeah, it was pretty bad. However, all of us somehow felt a lot better about the nuclear incident since we’d seen some assuring articles. Although my family continued to tell me to leave, I wasn’t too afraid of telling them that I didn’t need to leave. I knew my family was very worried and I talked with my sister on the phone for many times during the day. However, I did have everything ready just in case we had to leave.

Even though Emily and I were sleeping on the floor, we (or at least I) had a good night sleep…ish. =) It was awesome chatting and staying with friends during this kind of time. =)

Day 3 - Panic mode......

March 13, 2011

Emily and I had our most nutritious food for the day – banana. We followed by eating some more delish food like the following:



Yes, DRIED APRICOT and Sendai kitkat. They were good. =) Emily and I actually didn’t do much on that day. We first went to a park somewhat near her place to get water, dropped it off at her place, then we went to the international centre. I met a few people in international centre. They were all very nice people. =) The international centre had some food and drinks for foreigners to have and it was a little place for people to rest. Many people from abroad called the centre to find their family or friends in Sendai or in Miyagi prefecture. There were a number of volunteers who went around the city to jot down names of foreigners in different shelters.

One of the workers at International centre was a Japanese with very good English. It was very sad that her grandparents’ house got flushed away…..along with the people in there. After hanging around in the centre, Emily and I went to another person’s place for a shower. Yeaaaaaaa…shower. It was cooooooold, but it was nice to feel somewhat clean. =)

We then went to Daniel’s place for a little gathering with a few more people. We actually didn’t do much. We just chatted, discussed the possibility of leaving the city, talked about the possible ways of leaving the city, watched the news, and ate snacks. Haha, we actually thought of different ways of leaving. We thought of driving half way up to Yamagata and have the other Yamagata JETs to meet us; we also thought of taking the Yamagata bus together, then go to Aomori… Oversea relatives were very nervous about my condition. They kept on telling me to leave the city, but I was not sure… They actually told me to leave as soon as they could get in touch with me. Initially, I wasn’t really worried about the nuclear plant thing because I didn’t really think it was a threat to Sendai since it’s about 120km away from the plant. However, I guess the more news I saw and the more people, including friends, telling me to leave, the more I was thinking if I should really leave. I brought up this “leaving” discussion on the table. Man, I was so bad for bringing up the nuclear thing because that actually made some people worried… =(

Well, I guess at least we had a great time chatting and we had some good food! =) 2 of the ALTs just came back from Yamagata and brought a lot of food from there. We had some sort of yogurt w/ granola and chocolate PROTEIN POWDER (it actually tasted pretty good…=P ), roast wild boar, and pasta with wild boar stew.



The food was gooooood, but unfortunately, many people were somewhat in their panic mode about the nuclear thing.

I didn’t have a good sleep that night. I was sitting on the couch…and the tear of fear and “helplessness” rushed out of my eyes.

I was in my panic mode…

Day 2 – Perhaps bad things come in 3s……

March 12, 2011

In the morning at like 6am, my co-worker drove me home. From this incident, I actually learnt a bit more about the Japanese culture. On Monday, female teachers didn’t have to work but male teachers had to work…

Anyway, when I got home, I was like….WOW….WHAT A MESS!!!



Well, just that the shelf by the door was broken…many things fell, like my tv, kettle, shelf, toaster oven. However, there was no major damage. Only 2 things were broken: a cheap plastic tray and the cap of my parsley. My phone died, but luckily I had an usb thing to charge my phone w/ my laptop. I packed up all the important things that I would need if I needed to leave the city. Then, I went to Emily’s place.

She had been my earthquake buddy for the week. I still remember we went to our nearest refuge area to go to the washroom, drink water, and eat dinner. The shelter near her place wasn’t as crowded as I thought. I was very impressed that there were water and warm wakame rice, so we had our dinner there. It was a very good meal. =)



Our evening ended with UP to cheer us up. =) While I was watching a part that was very touching, THE LIGHT CAME ON!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! We literally screamed for joy!!! I couldn’t stop from crying. The electricity actually came back a lot earlier than I thought, but I was definitely not complaining for its presence. =P

We went to the nearby shelter for washroom, then we went to bed WITH the heater on.

Sweet dreams~

Day 1 (part 2) – A “good” day has changed…..

March 11, 2011 (2)

Japan is a country with many earthquakes. I have undoubtedly experienced a lot of small earthquakes since my arrival in August. I still remember I was msning w/ a friend when “my first” earthquake happened…probably back in September. It was a small one, but it was also a bit nerve-racking. After experiencing a few more small earthquakes, I got somewhat “used” to small earthquakes. Earthquakes weren’t that frequent. We would get an earthquake about once a month or once every 5 weeks. However, On March 9 (Wednesday, 2 days before the biggie), we had 3 earthquakes in a day. I still remember Winsy, Amanda, Emily, Sophie and I were planning to go for burgers on Wed., but we cancelled because of the earthquake and possible subway closure. After the 3 earthquakes day, I was telling myself that it might be an warning call for me to make an earthquake kit. Since it was Friday, I was going to go to town after work and prepare my earthquake kit…. Ha, how ironic eh?

Ok, back to the big earthquake day. Some students, teachers and I were in the gym setting up for the grad ceremony. Most things were prepared and ready for the big day. Kids were just doing some final touch up and chilling. Suddenly, the earth started to shake. Then, Mr. Sasaki shouted “Earthquake!! Hide under the tables!!!” (well, of course in Japanese..haha..) Luckily we set up many long tables, so many students, including myself, hid under the tables. Initially, the earthquake wasn’t that strong, so some students, mostly boys, were still sorta fouling around and didn’t do anything to protect themselves. While Mr. Sasaki was telling the kids “Head! Head”, he didn’t really do anything to protect himself. Man….that reminded me of great teachers who wouldn’t care about themselves but to save the kids.

The earthquake was looooooong. The shake also got stronger and stronger. The big huge lights on the ceiling were shaking like crazy. I think the shake lasted like….a minute? Or longer? I didn’t really know. When the earth was shaking, I was somewhat anticipating something to fall…or even the building to collapse. About half a meter in front of me, a part of a light cover from the ceiling fell! It was scary. When the quake got weaker, another teacher, Mr. Morosawa, decided everyone should evacuate. He and Mr. Sasaki quickly pushed away the chairs that were in front of the emergency exit to make a way for the students to go out. Some of the students were definitely TERRIFIED! Many students were crying like crazy. Many girls started to cuddle with each other to comfort each other. When they saw their other friends, other students yelled out their friends’ names w/ a slight feeling of relief because their friends were ok. After that, the teachers, including myself, were trying to comfort the students and get them to calm down. The students were told to get into their clubs and sit down to avoid further chaos. Many students were still traumatized and they couldn’t stop crying. It was very “fortunate” that at least the 3rd years all went home so there were fewer students.

Some people asked me if I was scared during the earthquake. To be honest, not really. I guess because there were so many students and they looked very scared, the only thing in my mind was to calm them down and make sure the evacuation was as smooth as possible. Haha, I’m not saying I am a hero or something…but yea, I was just trying to be as calm as I could.



After we have gathered all the kids at the field, they were told to sit according to their classes. After some research (thanks to 3G phone), a social studies teachers told everyone what the earthquake was called and the magnitude of our earthquake. Since it felt the safest for the kids to go home, a few teachers went to all the classrooms and got all the kids stuff so they could go home. Because trains and buses all terminated their services, the teachers grouped the students according to their locations and a few teachers walked the students home. Wow, it was truly a strange day… The thought of “the end of the world is here” hit when the heavy snow hit right after the earthquake. It was…crazy. Yes, no more grad ceremony. Yeah, the classrooms and everywhere were MESSY!!! However, I would say we were quite lucky that only small things like 1 piece of glass, plastic cabinets were broken. There was no electricity. Well, our school was lucky to still have running water. Also, this incident was considered as an emergency situation, so the male teachers stayed at school for the night. It was a very interesting phenomenon. I guess Japan is still a “men work outside, and women stay at home” kind of society. Most of the female teachers went home for the night and all the male teachers stayed at school. We constantly had the radio on to get the latest info.

To be honest, I didn’t know the earthquake was so serious…AND I didn’t know it brought something even more serious – TSUNAMI! When we were at school, we heard that a few schools were flooded!!!! It was very scary. Some teachers were chatting with each other and some teachers just slept on their desks.

Yay! Dinner time…!? We all first got a bag of cracker.



Wooo…my very first time eating emergency food! The crackers actually tasted pretty good. =) After a few hours, we had WAKAME RICE!!! (rice with seaweed!)



I was like… “where did they get that rice???” It is actually another standard disaster food. It worked like instant noodle. It was in a big box. The rice (it’s called “alpha rice”) was in a plastic bag. You would put hot water in and viola, you would get wakame rice. It was actually quite tasty. =)

My principal was very nice to me. She said, “Joyce, you must be tired! Go sleep in the nurse room!” I felt a bit 不好意思 cuz I was the only person who was sleeping on a bed…

Well, so this was my day 1. I was sleeping on a bed with no heat, but I was very “warm” because my principal was so nice to me. =)

Good night everyone and the journey continues…

Day 1 - Seemingly a normal day...

March 11, 2011

It was a normal day to start. I still remember Winsy, Amanda, Sophie, Emily, and I were going to Kame burger at Izumi to get our burger fix. I still remember I was telling myself… “wow, this weekend would be pretty busy! When can I study my Japanese?? My weekend “consisted” of burger in the evening, then work on Saturday and perhaps Crooners singing performance outside of Mitsukoshi for St. Baldricks. On Sunday, I was supposed to have taiko practice for Aoba matsuri, then tutor afterwards. It was supposed to be a packed weekend. I just figure there are soooo much stuff on this day that I will have to split the post into 2 parts. Here they are. =)

Our graduation ceremony would have been tomorrow! I was so bad…I went to school late again. Recently, I had been sleeping quite late everyday, so my dear sis called me in the morning to wake me out. Did the morning call work? Hmmm..a bit. I picked up the phone, then went back to sleep……XD If my memory serves me correctly, I woke up at 7:15!!! (my train leaves at 7:30). Um…yea, I couldn’t catch that train. When I was rushing into the school, one of the 3rd year students were standing outside of the staff room and WAITING FOR ME!! Wow, I have never had students looking for me at the staff room. Then the girl (awwww…I wish I can remember her name… =( ) gave me a “card” (I think it’s called “kishiki”) and she said it’s from all the 3rd year students. Awwww, that was very nice of them. Since it was the last year for the 3rd years, they wrote that card for all their teachers. After I gave their class that “lucky penny” thing, I could sense that the students figured that they don’t have that card for me. The card is a simple card, but it is a very very sweet card and act.



It was the last day of classes for the 3rd years. When their classes finished at noon, I was roaming around in the hallway, and one of the students, Rina, in 3-7 told me to go to the classroom. Since it was the last day of JHS class for them, they got their report cards and their year book. The students were excitedly seeing each others’ report cards and signing each others’ year books. After I went into the classroom, Rina, and other students, asked me to sign their year books. Sure!!! I would love to!!! If possible, I would love to somehow keep in touch with some of the students! They are cute. =) I spent so much time signing year books that I almost forgot my lunch, so I, unusually, ate lunch with a few 3rd year teachers in the staff lunch room. It was nice that we were able to have a bit of conversation. It was good. The day was good.

After lunch, 3rd year students went home and the 1st and 2nd year students were at school to prepare the school for graduation ceremony. This ceremony is, according to my supervisor, the most important event in the school year! Students were at different places of the school to do major clean up so guests would see our school in its “best” condition. I was at the gym helping students setting up the chairs and tables. Detail was important. The kids had to put a measuring tape right in front of the legs of the chairs to make sure the line RIGHT ON the measuring tape. Yes, it was THAT detailed. This kind of attention to detail actually reminded me of Nick from Sage. He is a Japanese-Canadian and he is quite detail-oriented in setting up the best presented catering area. No wonder he was so “picky”. =P Because this level of attention to detail and grad ceremony is so important to a school, this was supposed to be my “photo of the day”:



While we were still setting up, THE EARTHQUAKE CAME!!!!!!!!! =S


(to be continued…)

What a week.......!! (Earthquake speical edition)

Man, I can’t believe it had only been a week since the last time I posted something. I felt like a month had passed by. For those who don’t know, I live in Sendai, Japan; for those who don’t know (wow, it would be pretty bad for not knowing…), a magnitude 8.9 earthquake stroke Northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. So….where’s Sendai? Yup, it’s at the Northeastern part of Japan. It was quite a thing I would have to tell you. In the past week, many things had occurred. First, 8.9 magnitude earthquake (I think it was the world’s 3rd largest earthquake in the recorded history), then it followed by tsunami at the coastal area of Northeastern Japan. Finally, (maybe not finally eh? But I sure hope it is “finally”) my neighbouring prefecture, Fukushima, had some sort of nuclear plant meltdown problem. I guess bad things come in 3s? Hopefully bad things would ONLY come in 3. We don’t need more bad things in Japan. Some people said I have “chosen” a “good” year to come to Japan. Well, I guess God gave me a “good” year to come. Things have not ended yet, but I guess it had sort of ended for me personally since I am now in Narita airport awaiting my flight to Taiwan.