ダニエルの冒険

There were four M6+ aftershocks yesterday (the 22nd). Between the 16th and the 21st there were only 3 of this size, so it felt like a big increase. This morning between 7am and 8am there were about four big, long ones.

When in my apartment, I can tell immediately when there’s an earthquake, because my wardrobe squeaks. “Surely you can tell that your building is shaking without using a wardrobe-seismometer,” you ask? After enough earthquakes in a short period of time, you begin to think things are shaking when they really aren’t.

Sometimes people around me will ask me if I felt an earthquake, and this is one way of confirming. Another way is to turn on the TV and watch for an earthquake alert, which always appears on the top of the screen and is usually accompanied by some details about it if on NHK. Another common way is to locate a hanging object away from draughts and check if it is swinging. Cords hanging from ceiling lights are great for this.

I have never seen a Japanese person show that they are afraid during an earthquake. They usually show smile and comment that “it’s shaking.” I have been told that this is just because they are used to earthquakes, but many foreigners who have lived here for a long time never get used to them, and after such horrific earthquakes such as the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995 one would think that they would be quite frightening for the Japanese who remember these events.

I submit that keeping a brave face is an important part of Japanese society. If people are whinging and moaning, it brings the group down. NHK doesn’t have their own version of RTÉ Liveline here. That’s not to say that there is no whinging in Japan, but one thing that struck me about much of the video footage on TV over the last couple of weeks is the use of the word genki (元気).

Many buildings were painted with SOS messages on their rooftops, and these messages were accompanied by a list of what was needed (for example, “water”), and most visibly, the word genki in big letters. Evacuees living at sports centres and schools say that they are genki, and offer the best smiles they can muster while listing off what supplies they need. A group of people are rescued by the SDF and climb off the back of a Chinook helicopter, and a teenager from the group walks up to a camera and gives a two thumbs up to the camera: he is telling the world that he is genki.

The word is hard to translate directly into English, because it has so many meanings, but generally means “in good form.” These people are asking for help, but while doing so they are telling people that they are in good form. You may have seen the news about the eighty year old woman and sixteen year old boy who were recently rescued. The sixteen year old boy appeared on TV very shortly after his rescue. I thought this was very sudden, but Japanese friends told me that the father surely allowed TV crews to interview the boy from his hospital bed to tell the world that he is genki, and sorry for any worry that was caused while the boy was missing.

With everyone in the group, especially those who are going through very difficult circumstances, telling everyone else that they are in good form an attitude of optimism seems to come about very quickly. As I have said previously, the foreigners here seemed to be the only ones panicking, and especially those who do not have the benefit of understanding Japanese and therefore missing out on these positive messages from survivors, be it through messages on rooftops, when climbing off a rescue helicopter, or from their hospital beds.

There are tens of thousands of people having the worst time of their lives right now, but they are doing an amazing job of keeping positive. I hope I can learn to be like this too, and I think I am getting better at it little by little with every aftershock.