嬉しいできごと~Happy Happening~

Being out of Japan,  it sometimes feels as if the earthquake and tsunami never happened.
At times, it feels almost like a nightmare, not reality.

This is because there is not a trace of news of the devastated areas
or news of how the victims are moving forward...

Today was August 11th.
To me, sometimes, it just feels like time has stopped since March 11th.
I can not believe already 5 months have gone by.

Even though at times, I am saddened by the lack of care for Japan here, there was something that made me happy today.

During international orientation, I played soccer with some of the new students.
For some reason, I happened to be around many Japanese students so basically,
our team consisted of many Japanese students, some Chinese students and also a student from Australia.

Since I was the only girl on the team, I ended up being the team captain.
I had to think of  a team name so I asked my team what we should be called.

The Australian guy suggested,
"We should represent one of the hardest struck regions of the tsunami, we should play in their honor."

Just the simple thought that he cared-made me so happy.

Five months may seem like a long time ago for those outside of Japan,
but it is still something that we, and I personally greatly care for.
And all this time here, it just seemed like nobody really cared about what was going on in Japan, which is understandable.

Since I couldn't think of the hardest struck area as many areas received great damage, our team name became "Team Tohoku"

The fact that somebody cared, someone who was not Japanese- made me happy.

Thank you :)

In Japan,  on the 11th, mournings were givin to those who lost their lives and fireworks wishing for recovery were displayed alongside the ocean at 10 locations in Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima.