Close, but no cigar...

Hello!

Wow I can't believe my last update was a whole month ago - jeez where did the time GO??? This year just seems to be racing by so fast! And so much has happened since my last update I don't know where to start, but I'll try to keep it brief.

FIRSTLY, I felt the biggest earthquake ever in my life today - freeeeaky! I would HATE to experience what a really big one is like I tell you, it must be truly terrifying indeed.

I was in the middle of a voice lesson, which is a room full of people, when they started screaming "Earthquake!" and clutching each other coz the entire building was shaking from side to side in huge jolts so I had to hold onto my chair like I was on a theme park ride or something!

Crickey it was a bit nerve wracking to have a whole building MOVING so erratically like that, especially for someone from the country - it's just not natural I tell you! We could hear the huge neon sign outside thumping against the walls, those in upstairs classrooms of our seven story building were desperately huddled under desks and our elevator stopped working.

As did all the trains! Sheesh it was a nightmare getting home, SUCH a backlog, never seen so many people try to squeeze onto the trains before, seemed to defy the laws of phsyics! Was just standing there watching these people stuff themselves into a train that to me looked already full, and yet one more person would come along and hang out the door by their fingernails hoping to somehow stuff themselves in when the doors closed - bit risky for my liking!

So anyway am home now and not so bothered, but I can understand how the locals feel so much fear after the destruction the last one in Nigata caused and the fact that Tokyo is overdue for a big one by about ten years so it's kinda just like we're waiting for it to hit.

Everyone thought of their families afterwards because it's impossible to tell early on if what we felt was the worst of it or simply an offshot of where the centre was.

It made me think of the people in London recently when I was surrounded by so much chaos at the train station and how vulnerable they must have felt not knowing the full impact of what was going on at first or how wide spread it was.

Thankfully nobody died here in Tokyo, but to me the biggest difference between here and the bombings is the cause of that destruction was MAN MADE.

I can TRY to understand a conflict between two parties, but to me NOTHING can justify killing innocent people.

It's a tribute to the human strength of character that the people living there refuse to let that kind of cowardice and bullying get to them.

Each day that any of us lives on this earth was MEANT to be lived and nobody can ever take that right away from you. Make the most of every single one.

Kia Kaha.