It turns out I do know someone who was directly affected by the Sendai earthquake and tsunami ２０１１年東北地方太平洋地震. Masanori, a former student of mine back when Pamela and I were living in Yokkaichi 四日市, is attending a civil aviation college next to Sendai Airport 仙台空港, training to become an airline pilot. He was there on Friday afternoon when the tsunami 津波 rolled in. Fortunately, he was fine, but the same could not be said for his car. Apparently, he was evacuated by raft from a building adjacent to his school, and was taken to an evacuation center. His mother expects him to be back in Yokkaichi in a few days' time. I'm not sure what the long-term effect will be on his pilot training, but the school's light planes were damaged by the wave, and the dormitory has been closed to the students. But at least he is safe and sound, which is the most important thing, of course.
Far away from the troubles in northeastern Japan (though not far from mind, especially when remembering that such a disaster could easily happen here, as well), we enjoyed this absolutely beautiful not-yet-officially spring day by going to a local park, and letting Amber take a few swings at some balls. We'll probably be doing a lot of this, at least for the next month or so, as crunch time has arrived after our extended Lunar New Year 春節 vacation back in Washington.
My little Fēngyuán 豐原 Slugger prepares to bash the ball.
Amber also worked on her fielding skills.
Dad prepares to apply some wood to the cowhide...er, put plastic on plastic.
The first time Amber and I went by this house (she on her bike, me following behind on foot), everyone sitting around outside turned round to give us (well, me, anyway) the Hairy Eyeball. The second time around, no one but the little kid paid us any attention. From somewhere inside the home came the (prerecorded) sounds of aboriginal drumming.
No comments:
Post a Comment