Major news organizations such as CNN, BBC and Reuters reported that an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan and accordingly, the strongest that hit the country since the Great Kanto Quake back in 1923. Before writing this possible long blog entry, I am both watching the local news reporting the incident and checking the internet for possible updates.
I was at school when I first heard about this earthquake news in Japan. The local school TVs that were found in our campus started streaming news updates coming from a well-known local cable news channel, ANC (The ABS-CBN News Channel). While watching it, I was both stunned and amazed on what it happening. Stunned because this is worse than the earthquake that recently happened in Australia, amazed because its been a while since I saw this kind of strength being emitted by Mother Nature, the last one was the typhoon that hit our country two years ago.
Asides from those emotions, I was scared after hearing that a tsunami might struck our country, the Philippines due to the intensity of the earthquake, that is why I tried to lighten up myself by saying to myself, "The earthquake was caused by Godzilla and Ultraman fighting while the 33 giant robots from the Super Sentai franchise are watching." But it didn't work. The fear is still there.
I returned home, worried on what is happening in Japan, that is why I switched to one local TV channel who airs its nightly news update earlier than the other stations. Listening to a few bits of the update cause me to do other things, such as going to the market and buy fish from the fish monger for me to eat. I returned home, and went channel surfing till the other local channels will start airing the news. This is when I learned more on what is happening and saw more footage on the event.
An oil refinery exploded because of the earthquake, people are crying and saying to each other, "Everything is going to be alright." and people stuck on top of buildings. It was a devastating sight. Because of it, I am starting to wonder, are there any heroes around to save them? You might say, sure, Japan has an army of bug-faced heroes in which we cover in this blog along with men wearing colorful spandex and saving the world every single week, but those are fictional heroes, created to inspire others to be heroes in their own way.
I tried looking for lighter news related to this one on TV but I failed on looking one which cause me to be a bit depressed along with the possibility that a tsunami might hit the Philippines (while writing this post, Russia was hit with a tsunami caused by the Japan earthquake). Asides from that, I am starting to wonder, is our country prepared in case this level of magnitude will hit our country?
It turns out that there are heroes around when the earthquake happen. In an article from Kotaku that I just read, a gaming exec rescued a helpless junior high school girl. Sure, it was just minor act of heroism but we are not sure if there are more people like this gaming exec but we don't know.
What also lightened up my mood while learning more about this news is that, even if the communication lines are cut in Japan, they have other ways to communicate with others, such as Facebook and Twitter... and they say that Facebook and Twitter ruins some people! If they have a webcam, they might use Skype to communicate with their relatives outside Japan to tell them that they are safe. Also, local government agencies here in the Philippines are opening hotlines regarding the situation in Japan.
Even in the midst of the catastrophe, there is a ray of hope, a silver lining that everything will be alright. That is why local channels in Japan decided to cancel local anime and tokusatsu programming for a while the sake of updating about this news. So that everyone in Japan will be updated so that everyone in Japan will be safe and asides from that, anime/manga/game events were cancelled.
If you started rambling about having no Super Hero Time for next week, think about this, how many people in Japan are worried sick about their relatives being alive after the earthquake and what if you are in there position? Guess what I am trying to say is, let's pray that everyone in Japan are safe right now.
I was at school when I first heard about this earthquake news in Japan. The local school TVs that were found in our campus started streaming news updates coming from a well-known local cable news channel, ANC (The ABS-CBN News Channel). While watching it, I was both stunned and amazed on what it happening. Stunned because this is worse than the earthquake that recently happened in Australia, amazed because its been a while since I saw this kind of strength being emitted by Mother Nature, the last one was the typhoon that hit our country two years ago.
Asides from those emotions, I was scared after hearing that a tsunami might struck our country, the Philippines due to the intensity of the earthquake, that is why I tried to lighten up myself by saying to myself, "The earthquake was caused by Godzilla and Ultraman fighting while the 33 giant robots from the Super Sentai franchise are watching." But it didn't work. The fear is still there.
I returned home, worried on what is happening in Japan, that is why I switched to one local TV channel who airs its nightly news update earlier than the other stations. Listening to a few bits of the update cause me to do other things, such as going to the market and buy fish from the fish monger for me to eat. I returned home, and went channel surfing till the other local channels will start airing the news. This is when I learned more on what is happening and saw more footage on the event.
An oil refinery exploded because of the earthquake, people are crying and saying to each other, "Everything is going to be alright." and people stuck on top of buildings. It was a devastating sight. Because of it, I am starting to wonder, are there any heroes around to save them? You might say, sure, Japan has an army of bug-faced heroes in which we cover in this blog along with men wearing colorful spandex and saving the world every single week, but those are fictional heroes, created to inspire others to be heroes in their own way.
I tried looking for lighter news related to this one on TV but I failed on looking one which cause me to be a bit depressed along with the possibility that a tsunami might hit the Philippines (while writing this post, Russia was hit with a tsunami caused by the Japan earthquake). Asides from that, I am starting to wonder, is our country prepared in case this level of magnitude will hit our country?
It turns out that there are heroes around when the earthquake happen. In an article from Kotaku that I just read, a gaming exec rescued a helpless junior high school girl. Sure, it was just minor act of heroism but we are not sure if there are more people like this gaming exec but we don't know.
What also lightened up my mood while learning more about this news is that, even if the communication lines are cut in Japan, they have other ways to communicate with others, such as Facebook and Twitter... and they say that Facebook and Twitter ruins some people! If they have a webcam, they might use Skype to communicate with their relatives outside Japan to tell them that they are safe. Also, local government agencies here in the Philippines are opening hotlines regarding the situation in Japan.
Even in the midst of the catastrophe, there is a ray of hope, a silver lining that everything will be alright. That is why local channels in Japan decided to cancel local anime and tokusatsu programming for a while the sake of updating about this news. So that everyone in Japan will be updated so that everyone in Japan will be safe and asides from that, anime/manga/game events were cancelled.
If you started rambling about having no Super Hero Time for next week, think about this, how many people in Japan are worried sick about their relatives being alive after the earthquake and what if you are in there position? Guess what I am trying to say is, let's pray that everyone in Japan are safe right now.