Now the stories are coming out

Hello again.  I just finished my work day and have been collecting stories all day long.  First off..there was a magnitude 5 earthquake in Ibarakiken today.  Everything was alright fortunately.  

I promised you some pictures.  I don't have anything gory like you are seeing in every news paper nor do I have anything on the state of their home town.  I do however have some pictures of some of the folks I have been writing about.  He said that he won't go to the dangerous places for the sake of a blog as his life is more important.  He had a funny sense of humor but did say that he would try to get us some pictures soon.   

This is Mayumi's father, Katsumi, and my children Benji (little one) and Joseph (bigger one).  This was taken last Summer on our last visit.  

Here is a picture of (from top left to right)...Mayumi, Mayumi's Mom..Emiko, Brian (me), Joseph, Benji, Brother Yoshikazu and son Shintaro.  Lastly is Ahmed who is Emiko's 2nd Husband.  Note that the red framed glasses were the ones that Yoshikazu broke.  He mentioned they were his favorites and apparently hasn't taken them off for an entire year.

So now that everybody has been properly fed, their sense of humors are coming back and they have been sharing with us where they were when earthquake hit.  Here is a quick update:

• Emiko was in their second hand shop which is on the 1st floor of their home.  All the shelves have fallen and most of their merchandise has been destroyed.  Ahmed was at work and raced home. 
• Yukari (Mayumi's sister) was in the grocery store.  She told us today that the ceiling fell in, the shelves were spilling and she thought that she was going to be trapped in there.  She seems to be a little better this last day but  that the experience was why she has been so exhausted.
• Katsumi (dad) was working in an electric store and was busy clocking his time card when it hit.  
• Yoshikazu - I stand corrected as he was in his office.  He said everybody was trying to keep all the items on their desks from falling off.  His son Shintaro told my kids today that this was the scariest thing he ever experienced.

Mayumi has 2 other brothers.  Yuki who is 23 and works at the fish counter at the local grocery store and Hiro who is an engineer for Hitachi.  Yuki lives with his father and was the one sleeping in the car.  He for some reason has stopped coming home.  He probably is staying with someone as the house is not in a good state.  Hiro... we have yet to get into contact with but he has a wife and a son.

Lastly, still no water.  Electricity has been restored but the water guy comes around every so often.  Also, the grocery stores have these earthquake kits they are distributing.  Not sure what is in them but hope to have some pics later.  

Good night from Hong Kong.  

Brian

PS - let me know in the comments section if you have any questions you want me to ask.

More from Yoshikazu and a little more positive...hopefully this will continue.

Last night we managed to finally speak in length with Yoshikazu.  This had to do with the power being restored at his home.  This is a good sign.  They seem to be in better spirits.  We spoke with him for several minutes.  Fortunately he experienced little home damage as his home was relatively new with modern specifications.   

He had pretty bad hiccups which he said was due to the surprise of the electricity coming back on and eating rice so quickly.  It was a funny conversation as every 5 seconds there was the pause.

One story he shared was the experience of picking up his Son, Shintaro from school during the earthquake.  He was in his car on the way when the earthquake hit.  When he finally arrived, he ran up to the campus and fell and ended up messing up his knee a bit.    

We also spoke with Mayumi's mom and she also was better spirits.  She made light of their situation by saying that one benefit of the Tsunami was they didn't have to go far to get fish.  Um er ah. 

I hope to have some pictures to send later today.

Contact with 1 brother

We finally made contact with one of Mayumi's brothers, Yoshikazu.  He and my Nephew, Shintaro are healthy but they are just dealing with the situation.  Still no electricity and all the shops are closed.  They said they are hungry.  Very glad that we finally heard from them despite their state.

Getting Started

Dear Readers,

In light of the devastation of the recent earthquake in Japan, I, like you, have been empathizing more and more on the terrible situation that is left behind.  My wife (Mayumi) is Japanese and grew up in Mito & Hitachi Naka City which is along the east cost of Japan half way between Tokyo and Sendai.  This is also about 40 to 50 Km from the Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima that you are reading about and about 15 minutes to the ocean.

Here is an interactive map from FT that I found that illustrates where I am writing from (it is labelled  Hitach on the map which is a typo on FT's part!).

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/385881ee-4bcc-11e0-9705-00144feab49a,s01=1.html#axzz1GT3E5ZmX

Mayumi has a 3 brothers and 1 sister who all have families of their own.  Over the past week, we have been doing our best to be in contact with them all but it hasn't been easy.  The phone lines were not always working.  It is hard to imagine what they are experiencing and how we can help.  We concluded that until their basic needs are met, it will be really difficult to understand their situation and how we can best help.  We therefore decided that we would create this blog and start documenting the stories they are sharing with us.

The purpose of this blog is to ultimately raise money and resources to help her family and neighborhood.  Over this past weekend, we have heard from so many concerned friends from around the world and are  extremely grateful for all requests to help.  Thank you Thank you and Thank you!  We appreciate all of the tremendous support that you have given to Mayumi's family.  Despite us being in Hong Kong, we will do our best to keep you posted on what type of help is most needed and how you all can participate.

Here is a quick update on how things are:
So far, we have been able to speak with her mom, dad, sister and nephew.  We are still trying to reach her 2 brothers who are on the other side of town.  To date, we haven't managed to reach them.  We have heard they are safe though.

Today we were told that the ground is still shaking as their area experienced a minor one with magnitude of 4.  A lot of the infrastructure such as roads are damage/destroyed so just getting around is making it quite difficult.  Most of the grocery stores are without any food now but there are community centers for everybody to eat.  Mayumi's family home has a severely damaged roof and they are all sleeping in various places like cars, community centers or areas within the house after they clean up the mess of all that has fallen.  Gas is limited so everybody is conserving what they have and not driving.  Her Mother has been able to secure water from a neighbor and also from a natural spring.  Most people have gas to cook with if they have local tanks.  Her sister has been so traumatized that she is just sleeping during the day.  Her father who is nearly 70 has been climbing up to the roof to fix things which is extremely nerve wrecking knowing how unstable things are and how easy it is for him to slip.

Thanks again everyone and please stay tuned for our best efforts with daily blogs.  Feel free to send this out to your networks and hope that we can provide you with as close of a first hand experience that we can.  As said, once we can determine the best way to help, we will be let you know.