Safe in Tokyo

It's Sunday.....things seem to be pretty normal now. There are intermittent after shocks but nothing too major.

I met a colleague for lunch and he said he was returning to Singapore since the work scheduled for the next 2 weeks in Tokyo was called off. Another colleague was coming from China this afternoon. So I'm not the only foreigner here.

During lunch, he said he was pulling out because his parents in England were worried about him. But we acknowledged that there is a degree of guilt about leaving people "behind". I was concerned about giving the wrong impression that the company cared only about the foreigners.

The news has been depressing, showing signs of the most devastated areas. Sendai, the worst hit area, is very very far from Tokyo. This is the message I kept telling my family. It is about 230 miles away. That's almost 400km away. BUT...somewhere in between are 3 nuclear plants which are threatening to face a meltdown. 22,000 people have been evacuated from a radius of 22km from the plants. Tokyo's still very far away from that area. But it's difficult to picture it.

After lunch, my boss called me and asked me to make arrangements to go home if my family was worried, especially now that there were news of leaks at the nuclear power plants about 200km away from Tokyo. Then she called to say maybe I should bring forward my plans to China so that I don't create panic by pulling out.

I was actually having my nails done when she called. It may seem that I'm crazy to be doing something so frivolous when there were many suffering the aftermath of the tsunami and there is still a chance of another earthquake. One of my acrylic nails fell off in my sleep and I had to get my nails fixed. Sorry but it's just something that would bug me for the longest time until I get them fixed.

I will get my travel arrangements sorted when I go into the office tomorrow. I hope nothing major happens from now till then.

I cannot stand to watch the news because it's all in Japanese and those that are not in Japanese are simply too depressing. Which reminds me that I have to register with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.....later.

Earthquake in Japan....again!!!

I'm now in my hotel feeling an aftershock from this afternoon's earthquake.

There was a massive earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan this afternoon. Magnitude of 8.8! I was in a meeting when it happened. The building started swaying before it started to shake quite violently. Things started falling off tables, filing cabinets starting to open. What made it scary was that my Japanese colleagues told me that they've never felt anything so strong before. It was unlike Wednesday when they were all quite indifferent to the minor swaying we felt.

An announcement came on to ask us to inform us the elevators were being shut off and that we were to wait for further news. Then another came to ask us to evacuate the building. Then as we were gathering our belongings, yet another announcement came to ask us to stay in the building which was apparently safer since it was anti-quake reinforced or something like that.

Everyone was getting the news on the phone. Some people were panicky. Others were pretty calm.

The news showed terrible happenings....vehicles and houses being swept away by the tsunami. Some boats washed ashore and you could see many roads were affected. In Tokyo, where I was, there were certain buildings which started to evacuate their occupants. So hordes of people started to gather next to their building. Some people started to wear hard hats.

We tried to take it easy by not panicking and cracking jokes. But I think that all of us secretly felt a lot of relief that the center of the disaster was 230 miles away from us.

My colleague went to the airport much earlier than planned because it was evidently very difficult to get a taxi. The traffic towards the main road was almost at a standstill. The trains stopped operating. People couldn't go home if they lived far away. Some people would take longer to walk home.

A couple of us left the office and walked back to the hotel. The crowds were pretty massive. Imagine the people who are usually on the train being on the road. It was crowded. When we went for dinner, we found a lot of Western restaurants, like Hard Rock Cafe and Outback Steakhouse closed. I guess the staff couldn't make it to work. Fortunately TGI Friday was opened and we were early. The queue for a table started to get long after a while...natural flow over.

As I was typing this, I felt an aftershock.....I called the receptionist, upon the advice of a friend, to check how I would know if I had to evacuate the building. She said that if I felt the building shake again, I was to get under the desk immediately. Once the shaking stops, I have to make my way to the lobby to await confirmation of the next step.

The good thing that came out of this was that I found out that a lot of people actually cared for me. I received a continuous stream of emails, IM, sms and calls to check on my safety. Ok, maybe not continuous, but good enough.

It was hilarious as I was sending IM broadcasts while the building was shaking very hard in the afternoon....creepy for the recipients!

I wish I had chocolates with me now.....bad time to try going on a diet!

Tremors in Japan

There was an earthquake off the east coast of Japan yesterday. Actually there were several quakes, the strongest of which was magnitude of 7.2.

I was in the office and felt the building moving for what seemed like near eternity. But it was only a few seconds, one minute at most. It made me feel giddy though. I was pretty surprised and was asking an American colleague whether we had to evacuate the building. Funnily, only the foreigners stood up and looked around to see what we should do next. The locals just continued working without batting an eyelid. Earthquakes are that common in Tokyo.

I was quite touched when my hubby called to find out how I was. Some of my colleagues also asked about me. It's good to feel cared for.

I also feel lucky that I'm a Singaporean. The only quake I felt was a few years ago when we felt the after shocks from an earthquake in Indonesia. This is something that I will not take for granted again.....

Reflections

A colleague's dad passed away this week. Another colleague shared her experience of her mother's passing last year.

I guess most of us would have encountered death one way or another by the time we are half way through our lives. My first encounter with death was the passing of a great grandmother. But I was not close to her so all I can remember was that I took part in the final rites on the last day of her wake.

When I was about 13 or 14, one of my friends' mother passed away because of diabetes. The 3 sisters were in our school and that event hit almost all of us in school because we were either classmates or friends with at least one of the sisters.

The next encounter was when I was 16. I was starting my junior college days when my principal from secondary school passed away. It was emotional for a lot of us because she was a very nice lady. She was my principal for almost 10 years! Mrs M. M. Joseph. She taught us how to be decent people who treat others with respect, how to have compassion and how to help those in need. After the funeral, we found out that she personally oversaw the preparation of a montage of the graduating class. I was one of the selected few she chose to feature and I was very touched.

A couple of years later, my uncle passed away. He was the husband of my dad's sister. Our family would visit their family every Friday since we were kids. He was a kindly man who took care of his family well. He was stern but jovial. I still remember his face till today. He was a taxi driver who drove the morning shift. He would stop work in the afternoon to wash his car, fetch my auntie from her drink stall and then turn in the car to the night shift driver. My auntie shared with us that my uncle took care of everything in the house and when he passed away, she was at a loss. She didn't even know how to buy groceries!

When a person passes on, the people left behind have to go through a period of mourning before getting on with their lives. During that time of griefing, a lot of people will try to comfort them and ask them to be strong, move on, blah blah blah. Personally, I think that the best thing to do is not to say too much. The worst thing to say would be "I know how you feel" if you have never lost a close family member before. I always tell the people I know, when they lose a loved one, that I'll be here if they need me and to take care. What more can you say?

I don't know how I would react if any of my loved ones passed away. So I never tell people to get over a death of a loved one. But I can only say that if the person passed away suddently, at least they didn't suffer. If they passed away after a long period of sickness, at least they are free. I can't claim to say that death is a release because I don't know what we will get after death. I'm afraid that I will end up in hell. I pray that I won't but I wouldn't know, would I? All I can do is to do my best to be good....and pray.

What I love about my life in Singapore

Before you think this is going to be about me discussing the pros of Singapore compared to Japan, it's not.

I want to share what I find so comforting that I took for granted until I spent 3 weeks in Japan.

I miss driving to work.
I miss listening to my favourite radio station while driving. Gold 90FM.
I miss my kids running to me and hugging me when I return home.
I miss my mom calling me almost everyday.
I miss driving out to lunch from work.
I miss reading The Straits Times. The paper version.
I miss HBO.
I miss mioTV free home movies.
I miss Yakult.
I miss having egg sandwich from office canteen for breakfast.

The terrible twos....

I will share some experiences about the terrible twos. To be honest, the twos portion is just a guide, and with a big margin......the terrible twos can start anytime before the one and not end until the fours! And you won't know until it's over! That's the challenging part.

Just like the other night when a group of coworkers and I were having dinner. Some folks did not turn up until much later. I said that when the last person came, we would have to simultaneously say "Drink! Drink! Drink!" and make the person drink a beer or something. But some intelligent person said "how would you know if that person is the last or not?". The saying "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" doesn't apply here cos there definitely wasn't a fat lady present.

Back to the twos....

Ryan is really intelligent and I'm saying this without any prejudice as a mother. He is totally manipulative, like all kids. He knows when to pull at your heart strings with his pout, cries or tantrums.

Recently, he plucked all the fruits of our orange type plant at home, leaving 2 hanging. There was no reason for him to do that and we didn't understand. It was probably attention seeking behaviour. It was also him trying to test his boundaries. That's why I'm very insistent that we have to correct the child immediately after he does something unacceptable. Any later, it will have no effect and may confuse the child - he wouldn't understand why he is being corrected. Any sooner and he will not learn from his mistake because he wouldn't have made any mistake. That's what the terrible twos are about - it's about the child testing his/her boundaries which will affect his principles in future.

Ryan has his principles which he follows. He is not greedy. When you offer him something which he already has, he will tell you that he has it already and refuse to take your offer. If he has already tried something, he will make sure he knows. You need to convince him that something which you need him to do makes sense before he will comply. He likes pretending to be performing lion dance but he is afraid of the real lion dance costume.

Each person is unique in his/her own right. To me, Ryan is the epitome of unique.

Home sweet home.....

I arrived home this morning.....it always warms my heart when the stewardess ends her arrival announcement with "and to all Singaporeans, a warm welcome home".

I had quite a good sleep on the flight, considering that I wasn't able to make it through an entire movie. I was very tired and very ready to go home after 3 weeks in Tokyo. Fortunately I bought a net book and brought it with me during this last trip. I was able to use Skype to make free video calls home. The kids were ecstatic when they could see me on the computer. It made the distance easier to manage.

When I reached home, Ryan couldn't get enough of me. I think he is the most dependent on me. It's natural since he is still a toddler. He clung on to me most of the time and we couldn't give each other enough hugs and kisses. My parents came over with breakfast, groceries and plants.

Despite being tired, I made sure I brought Keane for his music class in the morning. Much to my embarrassment, I almost dozed off in class. But fortunately Keane was able to manage, as usual. Keane is one year younger than most of his classmates at Yamaha. So sometimes his behaviour came across as an inability to control his emotions. He is easily excited and highly participative. However, he has difficulty controlling his voice volume.

I feel that my kids have come to accept that I'm not going to be very much around during their daily routine. I know that may sound terrible but I'm glad that they are beginning to have lower expectations. Lower expectations mean lesser disappointment. Hence, I try to increase the quality of the time I spend with them. I also try to impart values of big eldest brother to Xavier so that he can help me impart them to his brothers through his ways. I hope this will work.

Despite the fact that being away from home gives me some respite from the bickering and sometimes over demanding behaviour of the children, there's no place sweeter than home.