3/23 and Graduation

5 Earthquake alarms since last night. Bennett and I were skyping during one this weekend. Its essentially an alarm that sounds super loud from the phone. They are starting to get annoying as the aftershocks either don't happen or are fairly mild. I still jump out of bed every time but nothing is strong enough to even rattle anything. The news seems to be good, especially for my area where the fear of radiation has been reduced to almost nothing. The trains should be running again from this weekend and the grocery stores are almost back to normal... but still not a lot of bread. Thank goodness Japanese people don't know what to do with the tortillas! ;)

More gas is available too. I grumbled a bit when I talked to the parents at the elem graduation today and they said they only had to wait 3 hours at the gas station this morning. I waited 5! Gah!


So moving on... to Graduation!

Middle School Gym on 3/11:




The day of the earthquake was also my Middle School Graduation. Lots of bowing, lots of speeches and nearly 4 hours in a freezing cold gym [no really, it was snowing]. Even my 6 pocket heaters, 2 layers of pants, blanket, scarf and 3 shirts couldn't keep me warm thru the whole thing. It was nice to see my kids graduate though.

I'll post some pictures from the sayonara outside school [notice the snow!]:







Also, today [Wed] was the elementary school graduation. Less of a big deal for me, because I will see them in April for middle school. Such a great little school tho...

View from my seat:




The graduates [all 11 of them!]:



Students saying congratulations to the graduates. Graduates giving words of wisdom:



Short video of the 3rd and 4th graders saying Thank you and we will never forget you!




Photos with their parents afterwards:




After graduation I made some veggie soup [enough to freeze for next time I get sick!] and then went down to the evac center [with Danny my neighbor and Darren, from Yabuki- whose old apt still doesn't have water!] to play with the kids again. Most of the kids were listening to stories in the kids play room.

We played mostly with these two girls from Iwaki and MinamiSoma. They let me play with their PSP so I let them take pictures with my ktai [cell phone].




Tomorrow begins the Spring Break period of school. Danny and I have "break" written on our schedules [that we got today].... so I think we will keep going to the evac center to play with kids.




I'll leave you with a Japanese cartoon that came out right after the quake.
I saw some people post links, and wasn't sure - but it is actually pretty informative!
Nuclear Boy is OK now!
Click Here to See the Cartoon!

My favourite part is "No Dice."