Nippon gambatte! (Good luck Japan)

It's in times like these that I wish I believed in God. That way maybe there would be something he could do to help. I wish I had any faith in religion, but I don't. I do have faith in people though, and it's people we are going to need now!

I will not write an inane article this week, about some little silly London adventure of mine. I wish to change gears a little and quickly talk about my home away from home, the place that I grew up as an adult, that place is Japan. As my online nickname may suggest, I am a lover of the country and people of Japan. I lived in Fukushima and Tokyo for almost four years from the age of 22, up until I was almost 27. These were formative years for me and I feel like I really became the person that I am today through my many good and bad experiences living and learning in Japan. I still have many close friends in Japan and this has broken my heart more that I can possibly communicate through mere words. They seem cheap and hollow as I write them, but feel I must, if only for my own sanity. I am generally not the kind of guy who can really talk about such things, so this is a little strange for me and a kind of therapy as well. I have the same sort of feeling I had as I sat horrified and watched planes crashing into buildings in New York on live television as I sat helpless in my Tokyo apartment.


I can only wish my friends, and all of the people of Japan for that matter, nothing but strength, courage and fortitude in this time of national disaster. Of course, these are all traits that the Japanese people have in great abundance, and I have no doubt they will show amazing resilience and bravery en masse. I can only imagine what it must be like for them right now living through this nightmare.

I read online the names of towns, cities and villages where I have been and have so many wonderful memories of and I wonder if the nice lady who I talked to at that izakaya in Izuwakamatsu is going to suffer the effects of radiation poisoning. Is my friend Adam, a teacher in Sendai, still alive? Are my old friends in Tokyo alright? These are only some of them!

I did hear from one friend who is from Iwate Prefecture and lives in Tokyo, he was traveling with his wife in Hiroshima at the time and therefore had no contact with the Quake or Tsunami. I was very relieved to hear that he and his family are fine and out of harms way. I really don't know what else to say except, if you are reading this and have the means to donate, do it. If you do not, please keep your thoughts and, yes, even prayers with the Japanese people. They are going to need it. We will be here to help when they need us.
I know I will be.



Be good to each other. Peace. Love.

 

      One of my tattoos I got some years ago to show love to Japan.

P.S. Negative comments about the media below.

I have one comment on the media before I continue. They are callously talking about the NIKKEI and Stock exchanges and economics of this disaster and you know what...I don't care right now! The time will come to deal with this, I realize it is a necessary evil, but people are fucking dying out there, man! I wish every stock broker and any person cashing in financially on this terrible disaster great guilt and shame, you're the one's who have to live with it!