“Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands.” - Jeff Cooper

                I still get questions from people when I say that I’m moving to Japan: “Aren’t you worried about the earthquakes?”  Earlier today, I found out that my Prefecture was rocked with a 5.4 magnitude earthquake this morning.  But all my life, I’ve lived in areas where extreme weather conditions are just the norm: I’ve lived through typhoons, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and earthquakes.  Yes, they happen.  Yes, they’re scary as heck (especially when you’re on the freeway and you can see a tornado funnel forming in the rearview mirror or look out the window and see all of the highrises around you buckling and swaying as a typhoon rips through), but we can’t tame Mother Nature, no matter how hard we try.

                I also get questions like: “Aren’t you worried about the radiation?”  I would be a liar if I said it wasn’t particularly a concern of mine (it is especially so for my parents), but I also live about 40 miles away from the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant here at home.  Heaven forbid if something were to happen, I’d be in a similar situation as the people in the northern region of Japan.  However, for them, four months have gone by, and the area is still completely devastated.  My coordinator with the San Francisco Consulate sent us all a link to a NBC Nightly News report which aired last night concerning other ALTs in Japan doing their part over the Fourth of July Weekend for the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami.  It’s encouraging to see a change for the better for the survivors (even if only through something so simple as fresh produce and a hug or two) and, although I’ll be in the southeastern part of Japan, I hope that I’ll have the opportunity to help out in any way that I can because, as one of the ALTs in the report said, “This is just something I have to do as a human being.”

                So of course there are concerns about my safety, but there would be concerns whether I was in Wakayama, Washington, D.C. or the Wallis and Futuna Islands.  But for right now, I’m more concerned with things like learning as much Japanese language vocab as possible and figuring out how much stuff I can cram in my suitcase while staying under the weight limit.  Twenty-four more days!