Tsukuba in the news, life WILL be okay

Today the Daily Yomiuri Newspaper has an article about Tsukuba. It explains how many research centers were damaged or had trouble because of the electricity cuts.

You can read the article here: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110401005103.htm

Many, many people have told me their stories about their offices and laboratories. I was also at a research center when the earthquake struck, so I understand.

It IS tough, and there are no easy answers. Equipment is broken, months or years of work was lost, buildings are dangerous. But please, please don't give up!

I didn't talk about it to anyone, not even to my husband, but I had so much stress after the earthquake. The aftershocks continued many times a day. We are very, very lucky that personally nothing was broken, but when I looked at the destruction here and there, I thought "How can Japan recover?" Then the stupid foreign media got into a panicked frenzy and I was so angry. I just wanted to cry but many other people needed my help, and thousands more people have lost everything. I had no time to cry and in fact, no good reason. Then I thought, "One tiny thing at a time."

That is what we can do. Pick up one book and put it back on the shelf, then another book, then another. Help one friend, then go together and help another friend. Go and buy vegetables from your local farm-shop, that helps the shop, the farmers and their families. Go to the bigger shops you usually go to - as I wrote a few weeks ago, Starbucks doesn't need my money for 2 cups of coffee, but those young women who made my coffee that day DO need a job. When they get a salary, they will go shopping somewhere else.

I'm trying hard to be optimistic and think, "If it is broken or lost, how can I fix it or start again in a better way? Is this a chance for me to find new ideas?"

Coincidentally, I saw something on the Internet this morning about Briton in the war years. Their motto was "Make do and mend." This is exactly the Japanese "mottainai" - waste not, want not.

I don't mean to be flippant, or to hurt anyone's feelings, but all our ancestors (in all countries in the world) faced really hard lives. Modern people have really good lives and we CAN start again. Even from the very beginning.

Just one tiny thing at a time ....