Annerose's world

As I am waiting for my flight confirmation number, I am preparing myself to say goodbye for the time being to Japan.

Never has my luggage been so light (one handbag, one backpack and one larger bag), but never has my heart been so heavy and sad. I am leaving behind my husband, my parents-in-law and our two cats Momo and Chouchou. Not to mention my friends and students in Fukushima and all over Japan. And of course a country that has been part of my life for the past 16 years.

This is only a temporary goodbye, since I plan to come back regularly for short visits until my husband and the cats can join me in Switzerland.

For the past week, I have barely slept a few hours a day. So much has been going on. Until two days ago, I had no option to leave Fukushima, as it was cut from the rest of the country.

Yesterday was so crazy and had started in the middle of the night, with a phone call from the Swiss embassy. Because of the very volatile situation, plans kept changing. Not for the fainted heart, really.

Finally, I decided to go to Sendai by bus (route open for the first time the day before) and from there, either go on the UK evacuation bus or by highway bus.

My husband went with me to Fukushima station about one hour before the departure of the first bus. A lot of people were already queuing. We managed to get on the first bus.

We arrived at the temporary UK consular location and waited for a few hours. UK citizens had of course priority and we were not told until the last minute whether we could go on the bus or not. Very understandable, since they did not want to rise hope for nothing. At the end, we got the OK and I said a sad goodbye to my husband.

We were a small group of 3 Swiss and one member’s aunt. Wait and journey lasted all together for about 18 hours. During all this time, we were in touch with the Swiss embassy, communicating in Japanese, English and French.

I was on sheer survival mode and so focused. Emotional feelings completely shut off. Pretty impressive.

Never has my knowledge of the Japanese language been more useful then yesterday. Even if it was not as good as I would wish it too be. But it will definitely be an incentive to keep studying the language .

Yesterday made me realize that although I need to move back to Switzerland and settle there, I will also need to keep my strong connection to Japan.

I hope that, with my language knowledge and my knowledge of the area,  I will be able to somehow also contribute to help the country that became my second home.

I sincerely believe that Japan will recover from this terrible ordeal. Ganbare, Nihon ! You can do it !