An Emotional Evening

And to think that my day started off so well.....

Over the last few weeks, I've felt more earthquakes than I have in a long time. Most of them have been almpost unnoticeable, but then there was a large one in Chiba on the Thanksgiving weekend. That jolt shocked me and my ladies as we were preparing dinner and I wondered if it was a sign of things to come.

Then late this afternoon while I was teaching, a 7.3 quake hit the Tohoku region again, shaking Tokyo pretty violently. It wasn't the strength of the quake which sent alarm bells ringing in my head. It was the duration. When a quake doesn't stop after like 10 seconds, I start to get REALLY nervous and as it got stronger me and client stating packing up our stuff and reaching for our coats in case we needed to evacuate. 

As the shaking continued, my heart leapt into my throat and I got sudden flashbacks, one after the other, of the devastating pictures of the destruction of the March 11 quake. All I could think was that this couldn't be happening again. The next thought was at least I was in Shinjuku and closer to my home than last time!

As the shaking subsided, there were sighs of relief all around my the office and my client removed her nails from my arm. LOL! Even if the lesson hadn't of been nearly over, neither of us were in the right mindframe to continue. I was able to put those feelings aside for the remainder of my shift, but on my journey home, I was plagued by the awful memories of last year and I had to bite my lip as I thought about my dear friends who were swept away by the March 11 tsunami and all the panic and uncertainty and aftershocks that followed that horrible day - the scariest of my life.

Everyone was saying that another big earthquake was going to hit - I'm just hoping it was that one. I have a friend in Aomori who I haven't managed to contact yet, but the news has said there hasn't been any major damage or reported fatalities so I have to trust that he is OK. I'm not sure I'd be able to go through all of that drama again. 

So if THAT wasn't bad enough, I called home to tell my mum that I was safe and to get an update on my grandad. I don't wanna go into details but it's not good news and I'm embarrassed to say that I am related to some of the greediest, devious, heartless ******* in the world and what they are doing is shameful, disrespectful and just selfish. My heart goes out to my grandad, but even more to my parents who are breaking their backs to do everything that they can to take care of him. My uncle, my cousins - they don't give a **** and then they think they can just take, take, take. It's so sad to see my family get torn apart because all these damn people care about is money and all my parents are trying to do is make sure that my Grandad is well looked after. It's being taken to court. It's disgusting. 

I feel guilty about taking a trip to NZ, but my mum has assured me that it's OK and there's nothing I can do. I'm sending letters and photos and getting updates every week which my parents tell me are cheering him up. I'm so mad at my uncle that I'm not sure if I'd be able to control my temper even if I was there. He's NOTHING like my dad, it's unbelievable. 

Horrible, horrible man.

Emotions running high this even - memories and worry.

Ufffff.

xoxo