Part 2
Arriving in Japan I found that there was a permeating atmosphere
of disarray in the people. It was hard to put a finger on what exactly this was
if you weren’t there. But anyone could tell that these disasters had severely
wounded the internal functions of the Japanese people. At the first concert I
went to the least likely performers left a lasting impression on me in their
MC. The vocalist told the audience how much a shame it would be if we all stood
there like statues not doing anything fun in the audience. “what if this was
your last day? None of us know when something bad will happen to us. We might
not be here tomorrow. If we aren’t, and this concert is your last, wouldn’t it
be horrible to think you stood there and decided not to have fun? Don’t let
that happen” is the gist of what I remember him saying. It was so cliché for
people to make these statements now, but I thought about it, and the audience
must have given it some thought. People in the disaster might have been at a
concert the night before just like we were, hanging our heads and thinking not
to have the time of our lives. They never saw another band come to their town.
Later, as the vocalist for another band jumped into the crowd, he reached out
his hands to people in the scattered audience for help to hoist him on top with
their hands. I wrestled with the words I had just heard and ran up to him and
lifted him as high I could. I still remember his hands reaching out to the
audience and the look on his face. The band I came to see was awesome and I
felt a sincere passion from the singer as he was happy to see me that he gave
me a big hug after the show.
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| My visit to Kyoto station. Still the same, even after the disaster. |
Kansai was incredibly enjoyable, ten times more than I had
imagined, and slowly the effects of the earthquake started to appear less and
less. People occasionally asked me from home how Japan was and if there was
radiation everywhere and if I had seen Godzilla yet, but I declined. One
memorable effect of the disaster that had reached all the way to Okayama was
the water situation. Not used to drinking from the tap, I obviously made it a
point to buy water from the bottle at the supermarket once I got there. My eyes
were met with empty rows of where the water would be. Apparently, water being
unsafe was one of the affects of the nuclear crisis and people all over Japan
were not trusting the tap. This lasted for some time and it was a matter of
weeks until I saw the row filled with rows of bottled watered again. Not long
after my arrival a quake hit Okayama as well, with its epicenter in a nearby
prefecture. It was a rather big earthquake and I sat there in awe, at 2AM in
the morning, as my shelf shook and some of my books fell of the case. I rushed
outside after thinking the entire city would be awake and buzzing out of their
beds in confusion only to see the dark streets, as usual, completely empty. Maybe
they wanted to forget. Or maybe they were just all asleep at that ungodly hour.
 |
| Shelves are void of any bottled water after radiation warnings. |
Although reports on the ongoing situation did not get
phenomenally worse, efforts continued. Banners around school announced protests
on nuclear plants. Fundraising was always going on somewhere to help disaster
victims. Books were published chronically the tsunami ravaged towns in
pictures. At the concerts I frequented, new posters came up with a world map
and nuclear power plants dotting it, clearing aimed at stopping nuclear power.
Vocalists still made it a point to say something about the disaster in between
songs once in awhile, but even this started to get scarce as the week passed
by. In my classes, renewable energy and numerous other topics were discussed.
This all happened over the few months I was there but still, it was clear that
the worst was over and the “hype” was dying down.
-
~hideki~
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