Earthquake and Tsunami

As most people already know, Japan was hit with an immense earthquake and tsunami wave on Friday afternoon. We were incredibly fortunate to be in an area far to the south of the quake. Although we did feel it, we suffered no damage and other than a few cracks in the plaster, life has continued as normal for most people in our region. However, we are heartbroken and appalled by the images that we see from the north of the country.

A couple of people have asked, so hear is our story:

Last Monday, I attended a class on disaster preparedness and first aid. We're so isolated in our foreigness and lack of knowledge of the language, when I saw the class I couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn a little bit about what we are supposed to do.  I knew that a huge quake hit our area about 16 years ago. When we moved here, we were assured that the big ones only hit every 50 years or so. Our building withstood the 1995 quake, so we assumed we'd be safe and honestly we didn't really give it much more thought. We've experienced a few small tremors since we've been here. The biggest was a few weeks ago but nothing that significant.

The class was incredibly informative and a little scary. We were told that 1/10 of the worlds' earthquakes happen in Japan. The instructor also spent a long time discussing first aid for disaster victims. It shook me up enough that a friend and I actually set aside some time on Friday morning to put together disaster preparedness kits. Things like water, plastic bags, toilet paper, work gloves, copies of all our important documents, etc. It's quite a list. A list of items that I pray that I never need to use. I left everything on the bed and headed to school around 2:30 p.m. to volunteer in Katie's class.

 I was sitting in a room across from her classroom, waiting with another mom volunteer when I started feeling a little lightheaded. I actually thought I might pass out. I caught myself on a table and the other mom said "I think it's an earthquake". We sat and looked at each other for a long moment. Then the principal made a " Duck and Cover" announcement.  We ran across the hall to Katie's class and crawled under the little tables in their room. The students giggled, assuming it was just another drill. In a few minutes, the principal called an all clear and asked us to stand by while he checked to see if there was a tsunami warning. A few seconds later he called a tsunami all clear and the class headed over to the multipurpose room to practice their sensory motor skills.

The kids were bouncing on balls, wiggling through tunnels, throwing at targets and my cell phone was going crazy with calls and texts. Matt called to make sure I was okay.  He was at P&G talking on the phone when the window blinds in his conference room started banging against a window. It took him a minute to realize what was going on. He didn't get worried until he realized that it wasn't going to stop right away. Instead of a few seconds, this quake lasted for several minutes, something none of us had ever experienced. He also looked out his window and saw our apartment building swaying back and forth.

My friends at our apartment building were texting me that the building was moving and that they were supposed to stay in their apartments. (The building is built to sway in the advent of earthquakes, it helps release the energy without harming the building). The kids were laughing and yelling when all of a sudden I felt light headed again. The duck and cover announcement blared and since our room had absolutely nothing to duck under, we ran for the classroom. A few minutes later, it was over and the class started getting ready to dismiss for the day.

My friends at our apartment building were panicked. The elevators weren't working, the building was still swaying and the staff was asking them to stay in their apartments. I agreed to try to find their kids and hold them at school for a bit. It was quite a challenge. There were 15 of them, ranging in age from 4-12. The kids were spun up from the earthquake. Many hadn't even felt it and thought it was just a drill. Finding out it was real freaked them out. Most of the kids were used to going home on their own. They wanted to check on their moms. They wouldn't agree to stay until I told them that the Entente was still swaying. That scared them even more. Several broke down in tears.

The day before, I'd arranged a play date for Katie after school. The mom arrived to pick her up and I was kind of stunned. The mom seemed so matter of fact and calm that I finally decided to let her go. After 20 minutes or so, I started home with my crew of 15. Some took off like bullets, a second group went ahead but then turned back. I was struggling to watch all the older bikers while still staying close enough to the walkers and the preschooler just learning to ride his bike. I was afraid to let them go under the train tracks, unless something fell on them. I was terrified that another quake was going to hit while I was responsible for these 15 children, who were strung out over 2 blocks. I can feel my blood pressure shoot up every time I think about it. After 3 blocks I realized that one of the boys wasn't with us. One of his friends told me that he'd gone ahead. I tried to text his mom to see if he'd made it home and realized that my phone wouldn't work. I could receive calls and texts but couldn't send them.

We finally made it back to the building and the kids scattered immediately. The lobby was filled with people and the elevators were not working. Rumors were flying about cracks in the ceilings and walls but the staff was asking people to return to their apartments, so Nathan, Laura and I climbed the 28 floors to our apartment. Another aftershock hit while Laura and I were in the stairwell. We went out onto that floor and talked to a friend for a while until it stopped and then kept climbing. Laura was pretty calm. It wasn't until we got home that she started crying a bit.

Katie's friend's mom called to see if they could take her into the city to go out to dinner. I wasn't sure what to think but I finally said okay. Then Matt called to say there was a tsunami warning for our area. It wasn't supposed to be anything major but they wanted people to stay off the streets. I tried to call Katie's friend but couldn't call out. I felt so helpless! I finally reached Matt and he called.  The family decided to wait until after the tsunami warning expired and then go anyway.


The mix of "no big deal" and "totally freaking out" was incredibly surreal. I didn't know what to think. P&G asked it's employees to remain at work until after the tsunami threat. We both watched out our windows but the tsunami never appeared. Our little island is in a fairly protected position in Osaka Bay. Matt said that when the all clear was announced at his office, he couldn't get his people to leave! It was 6:00 p.m. on a Friday night, but everyone was too busy working to go home. Definitely a different reaction than he would have seen in the U.S.!


When he got home, he poured each of us a stiff drink. Neither of us felt up to cooking, so we decided to go out to dinner at the restaurant at the foot of our apartment building. We ran into a number of people from our building, several of whom were extremely upset. The further you were up in our building, the worse the quake felt. Our apartment is on the 28th floor, near the top. I'm so grateful, for many reasons, that I was at school instead. (Early the next morning I was  awake for one of the strong aftershocks. The swaying and creaking of the building was much worse than my experience at the school, even though the event wasn't nearly as strong.)

Katie arrived home from her play date in a great mood. I don't think she realizes that any of it was a big deal. The school was so calm about it that she never got scared and since she went on a play date after school she didn't experience our creaky, swaying building. 


Nate has been a total rock! I could never have managed bringing all the kids back from school without him. He's been pretty stoic about it all.

We've done our best to shield the kids from the news. We've talked about how much worse the earthquake and tsunami were in the north in a general way but haven't gotten into any specifics. We haven't let them see any of the pictures either. Maybe we're over protecting them but I'm not sure what good scaring them even more would do. As far as what is going on in northern Japan, you probably have a better idea than I do. We can't understand the local news and I don't want to turn on CNN in front of the kids. I'm mostly just checking the CNN and AP news sites and the Japan Meteorological Association site.

The images and stories that I have seen from the northern parts of Japan are heartbreaking and so incredibly sad. I feel so helpless and guilty, since life for us is continuing on as normal. I'm the  having trouble sleeping. I keep having nightmares about an earthquake hitting while I'm trying to get all the kids home from school. I'm also feeling very dizzy whenever I'm in our apartment. I'm not sure if it is mental or if the building is still swaying slightly with the mild aftershocks hitting our area. Another friend is feeling the same way, so I'm hopeful that I'm not just losing it!

Life goes on for us though. Yesterday we went on a tour to Ninja Village. This morning Matt left for a business trip to China. The day was warm and sunny, so the kids and I spent most of it outside playing/talking with friends. Tomorrow we go back to school.  A few hundred miles to the north of us, people's lives will never be the same. They are still in fear of strong aftershocks, tsunami, fire, nuclear reactor melt downs. They've lost lives, homes, businesses and entire cities.  I'm still trying to grapple with the reality of it. I can't even imagine what their reality is.


Ninja Village - March 12, 2011


We had made plans several months before to go on a tour sponsored by our local foreigner community center, CHIC, to Ninja Village in the town of Iga in Mie prefecture. The morning after the earthquake we received an email saying that since none of the area we would be traveling through had any damage, the trip would go on as planned. 

Map of the town

Matt and I discussed it and we decided that the distraction might be a good idea. Otherwise, we thought would have spent the day glued to CNN and the kids would have gotten much more exposure than would be good for them. It felt very weird to be leaving on a trip to a tourist destination the day after such a devastating disaster but several other families made the same choice and about 25 of us headed out on a bus for the 2.5 hour trip to the theme park.

Inside the shrine to Matsuo Bushu

Exterior

Moat and walls surrounding the castle

Iga is a former castle town ringed by mountains on all four sides. With its residences of former samurai and temples, the city retains the look and feel of ancient times. It is famous as the birthplace of Iga-ryu school of ninja. Iga is also known as the birthplace of Matsuo Basho, the poet who transformed haiku. Ueno Park contains a restoration of Ueno Castle and the Ninja House, a replica of a ninja home. It looks like a typical old-fashioned farmhouse, however, it has various clever tricks such as revolving walls, secret passage, reversing doors, hidden stairs and hidden guard chambers. The park contains a museum of Ninja weapons and clothing. They also offer a demonstration of the use of ninja weapons. There is also a shrine to  Matsuo Basho, the poet.

Ueno Castle with Ninja Laura in front

Ninja wearing ninja vest

Ninja armor

Inside the Ninja house - dummies showing the hidden passage in the roof

Weapons demonstration

 
The girls loved that the lead ninja fighter was a woman!

The best/worst part of the park is the opportunity to dress up like a ninja! The kids loved it. Matt and I felt ridiculous, especially since other than our group, there were very few adults dressed up. The Japanese tourists only had their children dress in costume. The ninja uniform was not at all flattering to the western female body! However, there were lots of cute lady ninjas dressed in pink demonstrating the Ninja house. Some how, the outfit looked much better on them!

Ninja family Fitzpatrick

Ninja fighting sisters

Ninja Nate

The crazy gaijin group dressed as ninjas

Katie and her friend Nayla

Eagles Concert

Last Tuesday, Matt and I went to the Eagles concert in Osaka with a group of friends. Neither of us had been to a concert in years and we thought it would be fun to see a classic American band in Japan. Since there were 16 of us going, we rented a bus and driver, rather than taking the extremely crowded rush hour train.

The concert was on a Tuesday night and started at 7:00 p.m., a little earlier than we were used to. The venue was an indoor baseball stadium called the Osaka Dome. It wasn't sold out but it was a massive crowd! The Japanese manage crowds very efficiently though. There definitely is some pushing and shoving (mostly by older ladies) but lines are generally pretty orderly and quick. Since Matt and I decided to go at the last minute, our seats were waaaaaaay far back. The pictures were taken with my phone, so the camera wasn't great from that distance.

The Eagles sounded great, despite their age. They are all in their 60's now. By contrast, when we saw Billy Joel 7 years ago his voice sounded terrible. The Eagles gave a full 2.5 hour concert with no opening act and only 1 short intermission and sounded great all the way through. I suppose it helps to be able to rotate the lead vocals.

The concert experience was kind of odd though. The Japanese yell, whistle and clap for the band to come out and after each song but during the songs they sit in their chairs and quietly watch. There is no standing, no dancing and no singing along! The concert hall was really dark but when there were occasional flashes of light, it looked completely surreal. A huge stadium size venue of people quietly listening! It was more like being at an orchestral concert than at a rock concert. Honestly, it kind of drove me crazy! I wanted to be able to dance and sing! I never realized how important that is to the concert experience, otherwise you might just as well be sitting at home watching it on TV. Especially with a band like the Eagles where you know all the words to their songs. (I kept thinking that Jimmy Buffet must never tour in Japan!) Towards the end of the concert, the people on the floor did stand up and people also clapped along when the band asked them to, but it still felt very foreign.

The other thing that surprised me was that all of the band's commentary was in English. I would have expected them to at least have a Japanese translator. Nobody seemed to care much. However, the band members didn't get many laughs at their jokes. :)

I'm glad we went. However, it was another reminder that no matter how comfortable we get here, our culture is very different from that of the Japanese, in both big and small ways.

Plum Blossom Festival Tea Ceremony

Stone lanterns surrounded by plum blossoms. The plum trees bloom earlier than the cherry and are much more fregrant. They come in white and various shades of pink. Actually, I like them better than the cherry blossoms that are so celebrated in Japan.

Each Feb. 25 the Kitano Tenmangu shrine holds the Plum Blossom festival. We were lucky enough to experience a tea ceremony and be served by geisha and maiko (apprentice geisha). This outdoor tea ceremony is called a Nodate and is fairly unusual. The festival is held to celebrate the anniversary of the death of Sugawara Michizane. He was a famous scholar, politician and fan of the plum blossoms. He is considered the god of study. The festival goes on for one week but the tea ceremony is only offered on one day.

It's fairly unusual for foreigners to see geisha outside of specific performances or tourist traps. Other than a geisha dance I went to last year, I've rarely seen them. This setting was very informal and it was fun to see them with more natural expressions and gossiping together. However, it was very crowded! Over 3,000 tickets are sold to the tea ceremony.

The older woman is the geisha and the younger is the apprentice. As geisha get older they wear less makeup and fewer ornaments.

 

Part of our group of 19 that went to see the tea ceremony together. 

 Afterwards we visited the temple sale (kind of like a big flea market) also held on the temple grounds. I bought a few Japanese souvenirs. One was a carved wooden panel that was 6 feet 
long. It was very light but a little awkward to carry home on the train!

Hokkaido - First (and Probably Last) Fitzpatrick Family Skiing Trip and the Sapporo Snow Festival

Hokkaido is the top light orange island. Look for Sapporo city.

Last week we took the kids out of school and spent a few days in Hokkaido, Japan. Hokkaido is the Japanese island furthest to the north and is known for it's wonderful winter sports and for the Sapporo Snow Festival which takes place for one week in February every year.  Matt was looking forward to a ski trip and I really wanted to see the Snow Festival, so we decided to combine the two trips.

We flew into Sapporo airport on Sunday afternoon. It was about a 2 hour flight, followed by a 1.5 hour bus ride to our resort Kiroro Snow World. The resort was recommended as a good place for families. It's not as crowded as some of the major ski resorts in the area and has a good kids ski school combined with a lot of other activities for kids. The skiing piece of the resort was great, the hotel was not! It was clean but incredibly shabby and the rock hard beds in Japan make sleeping a chore. We still had a good time though!

Laura couldn't wait to get out on the slopes so as soon as we got there, we had to go straight to the ski shop to get outfitted. Luckily, they provide everything! We did have our own gloves and hats but the rental shop provided everything else and it was pretty decent quality. Matt, Laura and Nathan immediately hit the slopes, even though it was getting dark by the time they were all geared up.

Geared up and ready to try skiing for the first time.

Nate and Laura both made it down the bunny hill a few times. Next Matt convinced Laura to try riding the ski lift up the family slope. She made it about 1/4 of the way down before she fell and hit her nose. They ended up walking the rest of the way down.

Laura and Matt walking down the family slope

 I was sure the trip was doomed after that!

Instead, we signed Nate and Laura up for Annie's Kids Ski Academy the next day. It was wonderful! After 2 hours they could both ski! However, the cold, wind and constantly falling snow wore them out and we retired to the hotel room for an afternoon of watching movies on the iPad!

Matt spent the morning reacquainting himself with skiing and was able to get in a number of great runs during the afternoon. Katie did try skiing once, but quickly decided that she didn't like falling.

Katie getting ready to try skiing

I decided well in advance that attempting to ski for the first time at age 39 was not a good idea, so Katie and I spent the morning sled riding, snacking at the cafeteria and taking pictures.

She quickly decided sledding was more her thing!

Katie joined Nate and Laura in watching movies in the afternoon and I finally got to sit down and spend a little time relaxing!

The next day morning we watched the workers groom the slopes for the day as we ate breakfast. It was really an amazing operation! Several inches of snow fell overnight, and they had to use bulldozers to clear off the ski runs. After breakfast, Matt took Nathan and Laura skiing again.

Laura skiing

They took the lift up the family ski slope and went down several times. Next Matt talked Nate into trying one of the beginner runs. It took about 45 minutes but they made it! The constant wind and snow made visibility pretty poor, so Nate decided he was done for the day. Matt decided to get a few more runs in before our afternoon bus to Sapporo and the kids and I went to explore the rest of the resort.

We got back to the ski cafeteria and few hours later and found Matt with a seriously injured arm. He tripped and fell forward onto his face and shoulder during his last ski run. His face must have hit powder, since he wasn't even bruised there, but his shoulder hit something hard and he was in serious pain. He refused to go to the first aid station and instead took lots of Advil and we caught the bus into Sapporo for the Snow Festival.

The Snow Festival was amazing. There were three different locations. The main location was a 12 block long park in the center of the city. We headed there as soon as we could. Despite our rush, it was dark by the time we got there. However, the sculptures were lit up at night and it was a really fun, festival atmosphere.

From the World of Dinosaurs block

We went to the top of the Sapporo Tower to get an overview of the festival and then walked about 8 blocks.

View of the main venue of the Snow Festival from the Sapporo tower

 On every block were sculptures made of snow, performances (snow boarding, bands, etc.) and food stalls. We snacked as we walked along. After a few hours our toes were getting numb and the kids were getting crabby, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up bright and early. We had brunch at the hotel and shipped our suitcases to the airport. This service is available all over Japan and is WONDERFUL for travelers - for $25 they take your bags to the airport and you don't have to worry about schlepping them around. You can even ship them all the way home if you want, but that is a bit more expensive. We checked out of the hotel and took the train to the second Snow Festival location. This location was down the middle of a street in a busy retail area. It was a 5 block long display of amazing ice sculptures.


Afterwards we had to stop at Starbucks and warm up with coffee/hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. Next we headed back to the primary festival area to see the last few blocks.

A replica of characters from a Japanese cartoon called Sazae-san. L and K are the two little figures in the bottom left!

A snow version of the Temple of Heaven from China. It was huge, 1/2 the size of the real thing!

This was actually my favorite part of the whole trip! There were ice slides, more performances on stages made of snow, a train ride and the international snow carving competition.

The "A-Z Dream" show that was playing on one of the snow stages. Teen girls acted out the various letters of the Roman alphabet. My girls LOVED it!

Ice slide

The cans of hot chocolate that warmed our hands, noses, bottoms and bellies and saved the trip! (L is sitting on one after going down the ice slide!)

These snow sculptures from the international competition were amazing!

This is from the International Snow Sculpture Competition. They were still working on them when we went by. These were some of my favorite sculptures of the entire festival. This is from the China team.

Indonesia - my absolute favorite!

We decided to skip the third venue which focused on activities like snow boarding, sledding and skiing. When we finished looking at all the snow sculptures, we took the train to the airport, picked up our luggage and flew home. Matt had some difficulty driving home from the airport but he managed.

By the next day, Matt's arm looked very bruised and the pain was getting even worse so he went to an orthopedist who X-rayed his arm and discovered that he'd broken his upper arm, near the shoulder. He gave Matt a sling for his arm and referred him to an orthopedic surgeon.  We saw the surgeon a few days later. He ordered a CT scan of the shoulder. Based on the results, he recommended that Matt  keep the arm in a sling for 6 weeks to let the arm heal followed by physical therapy. This recommendation matched that of our neighbor in the States, who happens to be an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine (how crazy is that!) and was nice enough to review Matt's X-rays for us.

The crack is on the bottom of the of the shoulder It goes up rather than across.. It's more like a chip that isn't completely detached rather than a full break 

The arm isn't slowing Matt down much though. He's spending this weekend in Macau, China with some guy friends. Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia. I'm looking forward to hearing about the trip, and hoping we don't have to sell the house to cover his gambling debts! :)

Setsubun

February 3rd was a Japanese holiday called Setsubun or the  Bean-Throwing Ceremony. It  is the day before the beginning of spring in Japan. It is a celebration of the new year. Roasted soybeans  are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the people say "Demons out! Luck in!" and slam the door. The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them. Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat roasted soybeans, one for each year of one's life, and in some areas, one for each year of one's life plus one more for bringing good luck for the year to come

They celebrated this holiday at the kids' school as part of their Japanese classes. It was lots of fun!

Katie's class throwing beans at the Oni

Another Setsubun custom that has become popular in recent years is eating a  big roll of sushi known as eho-maki in the evening while facing the direction in which the spirit of the harvest is said to reside. This direction changes each year. Then you then make a silent wish. This is Matt's favorite part of Setsubun. We still haven't convinced him to let us throw beans at him!

Oni mask Katie made in class

Rokko Island Marathon

http://fitzpatricksinjapan.blogspot.com/

Last Sunday, January 30th, Matt and Laura ran in the Rokko Island Marathon. Laura can now brag that she ran her first marathon at age 7!

 Actually, the Japanese call almost all road races marathons. Matt and Laura ran in a parent/child 1.3 km race. There were so many entrants that they divided them into two groups. Some of the teams were really competitive! Laura and Matt were supposed to go with the second, slower group but (thanks to language difficulties) they ended up at the very back of the first, faster group. They actually came in about 3rd last, however, since their bibs indicated that they were in the second group, the race officials thought they were the winners for that race. They got to run through the winners tape and everything! Matt just assumed that everyone got star treatment and couldn't figure out why a race official with a clipboard accosted him with questions afterwards. It took us a while but we finally figured out what  happened. Of course, we had no idea of how to explain it all to the race officials. We're just hoping they figured it out on their own!

Matt then ran the 10K race. His time was @43 minutes which was a few minutes slower than he would have liked. Of course, that's faster than my 5K pace!