Emotional Rollercoaster

So ever since the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and "nuclear meltdown" it has been pretty hard for me to keep calm with everyone here at home exaggerating information that they are hearing from other people that heard from the news. Yeah usually stuff like this are called rumors, and these rumors tend to morph by the time it is passed down to the third or fourth person.  Mainly my family has been getting the worst of me because they are doing things without consulting me. I am pretty much the baby of the family because I am the youngest (for my mom) and she still treats me like a little kid.  She pretty much try to force me to stay by exaggerating information from an email that I received from Nihon Dai.  The email clearly states that "spring semester is going to  start as scheduled" and " there still are possibilities of cancallation or suspention of the semester that may occur at any time after your arrival." I had to point out the fact that there are only possibilities of cancellation or suspensions, not that the school will cancel for sure. My parents also called my school last night and Nihon Dai said that there was a high chance that the spring semester will be cancelled. Well, look here, it's not. My mom started going on like some splurge and trying to see when to book my flight to California so I can attend my old brother's wedding (yeah I know I should go but I will go into detail later) and to get a tuxedo for the wedding. My step-dad also has a brother in Japan that he called and talked to my mom.  I am pretty sure they over-exaggerated a good amount of information because my mom was telling me that everything in Japan is in a state of crisis and that it was super dangerous and that Japan is getting non-stop earthquakes. Seriously now? Are you serious? It is not as bad as it seems. I have been able to contact people in Japan, both from Osaka and Mishima and things are not that bad.


As for my brother's wedding, I really wanted to go. However, because I would have to buy another plane ticket and skip out on classes in Japan I decided that it would best not to. My mom tried to pretty much force me into cancelling this semester because it was so "dangerous" and what not and that the Fukushima power plant "WILL" go into a meltdown.  And againt, are you serious?! Has she been looking at the news...besides CNN? No! I have been looking at news from all over the world to look for information pertaining to the Fukushima power plant and what not. Things have started to stabilize a little bit and a chance for a meltdown has been lowered greatly.  What the people at Fukushima power plant are worried about now is to find out where radiation is being leaked and how to stop it.


In the end, after being super hard-headed and stubborn, I was able to convince my mom that I will be ok in Japan, that nothing bad will happen to me. The worse thing that could happen is the Fukushima power plant going into a meltdown, intense amounts of radiation will be released, or another earthquake will happen. If either of those happen, then my semester will cancel and I will just be on my way back to America. 


I will be leaving for Japan this Saturday, at 6:30 a.m. on April 2, 2011 and will arrive at Tokyo Narita Airport on Sunday, April 3 at 1:05 p.m. From there I will check in and take the train to Mishima, stopping twice. Now the countdown and packing commence.


Until next time, じゃね！

Random

Hey there all of you, if there is any at all, readers! I don't really have much to talk about because I still do not know when I am exactly leaving for Japan yet. However, I would like to let you know that I have uploaded some pictures from Japan onto my photobucket. You can find the link to that album above under the "Links" section.  I have almost over 1,000 photos, if not more, on my computer that I need to upload, but it would take a really long time.  When I have time, which I do have alot of now, I will use my other computer to upload all the pics onto photobucket. The pictures are all from last semester when I studied abroad at Kansai Gaidai University. If you have any question feel free to leave a comment or contact me via e-mail.

Until next time, じゃね！

What? I'm not going to Japan anymore?

Haha fooled ya didn't I? Well it's not like I'm not going to Japan, but I have to reschedule my flight due to the current situation in Japan. By now everyone should know that Japan was shaken up by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and many of Japan's cities were destroyed or effected by the tsunami caused by the earthquake.  There is also worsening fears of one nuclear power plant, the Fukushima Daiichi plant, that has been releasing high levels of radiation.  Workers are trying to cool down the power plant as fast as possible. However, almost 800 employees were evacuated. Only 150 of those 800 people decided to stay back and help with the situation. Those 150 people are real extreme heroes. These heroes are risking their lives in order to save Japan from contamination.  If the cool-down does not work, there is a chance that the power plant might go into a meltdown, which will cause high levels of radiation spreading over a 30km (50 mile) distance. Ok, enough with the information that yal have probably read off the news 100 times.

So like I mentioned earlier, I will be rescheduling my flight because Nihon University - Mishima (Nihon Dai for short) does not know for sure if they will begin school on April 9.  I was originally intended to leave America this Sunday on March 20 and arrive in Japan on March 21. My parents decided to call Nihon Dai (my step-dad can speak fluent Japanese) and ask them what I should do because of the crisis happening in Japan. Apparently, they advised that it is best that I do not arrive in Japan just yet and that they will most likely reschedule the orientation to a later date, which was suppose to be for March 23. They also said there is a chance that school may not start April 9 and I should wait until I hear news from Nihon Dai.  I was really looking forward to coming to Mishima early so that I could explore the city a little bit and get settled down. I also wanted to experience the stuff that the Japanese citizens have to face.(rationing, forced power outage, messed up train schedules, etc.) It's not like I want to experience every single thing, but I just wanted to get an idea of how the Japanese citizens are feeling, even though I most likely know how they feel. If you don't know by now, I live in New Orleans and I dealt with Hurricane Katrina. I did not lose everything but my house was damaged, mainly my room (-_-").  Because I live across the river from New Orleans, my house did not get any flooding.  Because of Katrina, many of my friends were either misplaced or moved away from New Orleans. My family decided to stay back after Katrina and recover with the rest of New Orleans. It was a really tough times, especially having to evacuate, then coming back and seeing literally everything destroyed, roads filled with debris, and cities that have been pretty much turned into a ghost town. I'm sure many people have helped out New Orleans through donation and I am hoping that you are willing to help donate to Japan. Some people might find my blog one, two, or even five years from now, and Japan should be recovering quickly, but whoever comes across this blog, I am hoping that you could show some passion and donate to Japan. There are many organizations to donate money, but the best way is through Red Cross.

Donate to Japan through Red Cross

I have provided a link for yal and I am not sure if the option to donate to "Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami" will still be there years after this post. Anyone that does donate or have donated already, I am really grateful and I hope that everyone would try to spread the word to others to help donate money. 

To all those Japanese people, don't give up fate and keep on fighting!　頑張って！

To all those Non-Japanese people, pray for Japan and hope for nothing worse to happen! (in Japan or anywhere else in the world) 日本の為に祈りを！

Until next time! じゃね！

Another shot at Japan!

So I have been given another shot at Japan! This time I will try my absolute best to update on a weekly basis when I arrive in Japan. I will also be re-editing my blog slowly when I have time to this week. My layout will stay the same but I will be editing alot of information. But until then, じゃね！