The Tohoku Earthquake: Introduction

 March has arrived.  And with it, the cold weather has begun to lose it's sting, and spring is in the air.

But when March finally arrived, there was only one thing on the collective minds in Japan.  Even if we didn't want it to be, it was thrust upon us upon the morning of the first, as the ground shook with yet another muscular quake.  I'm talking, of course, about the Tohoku Earthquake, which as of this Sunday, March 11th, at 2:46pm, will be one year in the past.

I've hinted at the Tohoku Earthquake in previous posts, but I haven't really delved into my experience in full, for experience I did (though I was lucky enough not be in the most heavily scarred prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima).  I want to be clear, though, that this isn't because I didn't want to talk about it: I remember when I returned home for Christmas, and my friends and family were curiously quiet on the subject until I breached it.  It turns out that they thought I didn't want to talk about it.  A kind gesture, to be sure, but I think they overestimated just how bad it was for me personally.  Sure, it was bad.  It was terrifying, unnerving and left me with a pervading sense of dread, but it wasn't so bad that I can't bring my myself to relive it.  Which I will do this week, in parts, culminating on Sunday itself.