Tomorrow is my halfway point of this retreat. Since I was asked specifically by one of my fellow Shippers (what's up Angeline!) about my time living in Penang, I'm going to switch things up a little. I'm going to try doing part WR Day recap as I've been doing because I'll enjoy having the log, and part a smol Life Story too.
WR: Today I got up about 2:30p, after having gone to bed again at 7a, chatted with D & B some, did my quick lifts and headed out right away for a walk toward the road, in part so I could use my cell to pay my cc's. On the way back I started brainstorming what I'd want to write Vignette or Sketch stories on (Events/Moments, People & Places) in chronological order, got home and got to work on listing it out. Also copied over the pieces I had on my phone from my first walk. Explored a chunk about my views on "Time Travel", and building a Self. Played a little guitar to take another pass at it; it's getting better. Got back to listing and organizing. Tried to remember to eat food.
Storytime: In March 2011, I was 18 mos and 12 of 19 countries deep on mine & Ray's 3-year backpacking trip to Asia. We were in Hakuba, Japan, living in a beautiful lodge with about 12 other seasonnaires, most from the UK and one from Australia, and us two, the lone Americans (and the only seasonnaires who were there independently, not booked into the lodge on a 3-month package deal like the others were). We were all meant to be there basically from the first week of Jan til about the first week of April.
On March 11, at 2:46p, as I was walking home from a day snowboarding on the mountain, a mind-blowingly huge 9.0-9.1 (the most powerful ever recorded in earthquake-prone Japan, and 4TH MOST POWERFUL IN RECORDED HISTORY (ie since record-keeping began in 1900) undersea megathrust earthquake struck 45 mi off the coast of Japan, lasting about 6 minutes, and causing a tsunami. The powerful tsunami waves may have reached heights of up to 133 ft, traveled up to 435 mph, and up to 6 mi inland. Residents had only 8-10 minutes of warning, and more than 100 evacuation sites were washed away. On top of that, it was 32 degrees that day when the tsunami hit, and snowfall followed. 19,759 people were recorded dead, with an additional 2,553 people missing, and leaving 6,242 more injured. It was a truly, truly Awful day.
Compounding the tragedy was the damage caused to the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor, causing meltdowns of 3 of its nuclear reactors, and ultimately leading to explosions, spewing radioactive material into the ocean and air.
Ultimately, it was this nuclear disaster that affected us, living in the mountains, approximately 250 miles away. No one was much in the mood for snowboarding at this point anyway as this national tragedy unfolded in our beloved host country, but with this unprecedented and volatile nuclear disaster also unraveling by Tuesday, our lodge owners decided to button up the lodge, and we all headed out of the country.
To regather our wits with this sudden unexpected change (my 14-year-old cousin Sam had been meant to meet us in Tokyo for some traveling at the end of the season in about 3 weeks, which would use the rest of our travel funds saved for the trip, necessitating probably a year teaching English in Korea to rebuild the funds to finish the last 7 countries on our itinerary), Ray & I gave an open invite to our lodgemates to go with us to a beach hut in Thailand to figure out "what now"; Andy from the UK & Joel from Australia took us up on it. To be Continued...