Day 324: Saturday, January 28, 2012

Big earthquake this morning like the one on New Years- maybe it was even bigger... When it hit, I shot right out of bed. To my surprise, Ian and Yuki were already downstairs by the front door. Yuki was whimpering while Ian comforted her. When it was over, they mentioned that there were actually two earthquakes, which explained why they were there so fast- I must have slept through the first one.

Later in the day, a ragged-looking Yuki came downstairs and joined me in the kitchen. She told me that because she couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards, she spent the morning reading about earthquakes on the Internet. She read somewhere that scientists predicted that another big earthquake is coming like the one last March, which made me recall, at a dinner party a couple nights back, our friend Emi showing us her emergency pack that she had prepared since she had heard something similar from someone else… Sitting in the kitchen feeling a bit unnerved now, I asked Yuki when it was supposedly going to happen. When she answered, “Within the next four years,” I couldn't help but laugh and blow it off because there was no use worrying even if it were true.

Since it was nice out, I wanted to do something, but after being so busy for so long- I had finished designing my book the day before- I was now clueless on how to spend my day. After skateboarding aimlessly for a bit, I decided to finally make the print that Akimoto-san had asked for of his grandma and Willy together.

When it was done, I brought it over to him, and then went back home and watched Fringe on TV. Near the climax, there was a knock on the door, which annoyed me. When I opened the door and found out to my surprise that it was Akimoto-san’s cute, little old mom with flowers, those bad feelings went away. At that moment, I realized that the best thing you can really do during times like these is just to be kind to one another.

Akimoto-San's Mother