I know it's completely anti-setsuden and perhaps selfish of me to think this way, but I'm really happy that they've started turning on the giant Softbank CM TV in Shinjuku again.
It felt wonderful to walk out of Citibank today to "The Locomotion", knowing that on that screen many feet above me, my hubby and friends were promoting new phones.
It's been almost three months, but Japan is starting to go back to normal. Setsuden is still being promoted and practiced in a lot of places, but little by little, all the lights are coming back, and it's wonderful.
I think I may have underestimated my own post-earthquake depression as well. I really wasn't well for a long time, both physically and psychologically. I'm still not 100% back to normal. My body still shakes a lot, and I still feel somewhat uneasy about riding elevators or being underground. But I'm getting better.
What happened on March 11 wasn't just an earthquake and a tsunami. It wasn't just the beginning of what would be weeks of nuclear fears and months of earthquakes. Thousands of them. It was tens of thousands of people dying a few hours' drive from where I'm sitting right now. It was the disappearance of my own friends and acquaintances, as they went back home almost overnight. It was the emptying of my dorm complex. It was Shinjuku and Shibuya in the dark. It was people trying to tear me apart from the city I love.
The earthquake was not just something that happened on March 11th. It's still alive and well here. You can't go into a combini without seeing magazines with photos of earthquake and tsunami destruction. You can't go into a bookstore without passing a huge section of books about earthquake safety and nuclear energy. You can't go to a coffee shop without hearing people utter the words "earthquake" or "nuclear." You can't meet someone new without being asked "Where were you during the earthquake? Weren't you scared? Didn't you want to go home?"
And you can't let it stop you from living.
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