First a quick note to any one who has e-mailed me in the past month: running a bit behind e-mail at the moment. Hope to bang out some replies sometime soon. Internet access limited, etc etc etc, bear with me on this one.

Tsunami and Me
When I was back in the States, a lot of people asked me if Japan was affected by the Tsunami. It wasn't, but that's an understandable mistake to make. After all the very word "Tsunami" is a Japanese word, so it's only natural to associate the two of them together.

However many of the areas hit by the Tsunami are popular vacation areas for both Japanese people and English teachers living in Japan. I knew several people who were in either Thailand or Malaysia at the time (both Japanese and Western friends). From my perspective it seems especially unfortunate that the Tsunami struck during the Winter Vacation period although Monika, who has been to Thailand in the past, assured me there is no time when the beaches are not crowded with foreign tourists.

I followed the yahoo e-mail listserves for both Oita Prefecture English teachers and Gifu Prefecture English Teachers with interest during this period. For a while there was a lot of chatter on both lists about "Have you heard from so and so?" And is "So and so okay?" But it now looks like everyone from both prefectures has returned safely.

Even at the school I work at, I knew 3 Japanese colleagues who were in affected areas during the vacation. They have all returned safely as well.