Harvard Workshop at ASIJ: Remembering 3 / 11

I still recall the moment every single ski lift in the vicinity came to an abrupt stop, and every ski, snowboard, and sled skidded to a halt to listen in on the announcement that echoed throughout the snow-covered hills. My mother and I were enjoying our Spring Break at a ski resort in Nagano, and to think about it now, it was quite a fortunate coincidence that school was out for the majority of the ES families at ASIJ. I can't begin to imagine the amount of chaos on the streets of downtown Tokyo. Frankly, I didn't feel much of the actual quake itself–probably due to the fact that the surface beneath my feet (my snowboard) was already moving. After the announcement on the loudspeaker notifying all visitors of the earthquake, the hills were shut down for the rest of the day. I remember walking into the lobby of the resort hotel shortly after and seeing all TV screens on fire as they showed helicopter footage of neighborhoods up in flames due to abandoned houses with lights, stoves, heaters, left on as their occupants fled to safety. It felt as though I was watching some sort of disaster movie. Crowds and crowds of people, still in their dripping skiwear, were glued to every screen in the building, heeding to every piece of information that the new casters shared, anxious to know if their hometowns were safe. Some were frantically searching for their phones to get in contact with their friends and family back home to assure their safety, but their worried expressions indicated that they were left in the dark due to all the phone lines being down. My memories of the day are less of the physical damage of the disaster, but more of how much effect that such a catastrophic event can have on a mental, social, and emotional state of a society / community (mass hysteria).