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welcome to our podcast. we are Daiki and Misaki! this program is about”hoe the people from overseas felt after the Great East Japan earthquake. you know, about the earthquake , of course, and the a big disaster in March 11th and after. we went to around compus and found two people from overseas.
now misaki is taliking with first person, can you hear me? misaki?
Hi this is Misaki! I’m at Meimei-kan now. I’m gonna ask some questions about March 11th earthquake to my friends Jeremy. Hi Jeremy!
Hello. My name is Jeremy I’m from university of Hawaii
Thank you. First I’m gonna ask some questions about earthquake. Where were you at the moment?
When the earthquake happen, I was in Florida in my hometown. Visiting my family actually on my way to Japan. It happened few days before I went to New York to get my VISA and paper works so it was kind of strange because I was on my way to here ,and you know that was going to be happen.
Q)How did you feel about the news of earthquake?
Well at first I was pretty shocked. It was pretty surprising. I called my friends to make sure everyone was ok. And the really just watch the news to see what was going on but the news in America isn7t so reliable so more I called people in Japan ask them and try to get best news I could. Just uncertain about whether I be able to come to Japan or not.
Q)Ok, can you tell me more about the differences between the news of Japan and America about the earthquake?
Ah, the news of America relies on sensation so there was a lot of video of the tsunami but even after weeks after the tsunami and earthquake happen the news keep showing the same video and they only talked about japan was been like a disaster, most people thought like Tokyo was destroyed. People they don’t have much knowledge about Japan, so when they see on the news what their showing, they think that all of Japan things were just disaster everywhere, so everyone was really scared about that and that I wouldn’t come to Japan. But they didn’t know that the earthquake was outside of Tokyo and that Tokyo was safe. Everyone was just kind of nervous, but the news kind of makes people more nervous in America. I don’t feel like i’m getting good information when I watch the news.
Q) Some of my friends from overseas went back to their countries. Were you hesitant to come to Japan?
…I knew I still wanted to come to Japan, and so I tried to watch the news a lot and more so wanted to stay in contact with people in Japan to find out what was going on. I still went to New York to file my visa paperwork and…. I wanted to come here but I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to, because in America they were on the news that people weren’t allowed to go to Japan and that a lot of people in Japan were being sent back to their own countries. Some universities didn’t allow students to travel to Japan, but I wanted to come and I had a ticket so I was coming until they made me stop.
Q) The question I really want to ask is, How did your friends and family feel about you coming to Japan after the earthquake?
…For the most part, my friends and family trust my judgement because I’ve traveled before and been somewhat reliable….. so, they were worried but they knew better than to trust just the news and so I would tell them what was really happening in Japan… especially the Tokyo area with the power outages and the information that wasn’t really on the news in America. They were worried, some of them didn’t want me to go because they thought it was more dangerous than it was, like my sister, she lives kind of far away, so… she called me and was worried, she said “Don’t go to Japan, it’s too dangerous” and all of these things but I asked her, “Where did you get your information from, who told you how dangerous Japan is?” …she said, “Oh I don’t know, it just is…. I know”. I was like, “No, you don’t know ….anything.” So, it was kind of weird. Anyone, a lot of people I met who found out I was going to Japan were like “Oh, you don’t want to go there. The cities in ruins.” …but, it’s just a lot of people that didn’t know any better. They also knew that even if they told me not to go, I still would go, because I wanted to….. and they can’t stop me.
I invited special guest, she is “Carolyn” could you introduce yourself little bit?
Sure, My name is “name” I come from San Francisco California, and I teach at a in the ELP at Oberlin University.
Thank you. And I want to talk about Great East Japan Earthquake in March 11th. I’d like to ask about some questions.
Sure
First of all, Where were you at the moment?
At that moment, I was in California San Francisco
When did you go back to your country?
I went there, 2days before the earthquake, so fortunately I missed it.
Have you experienced earthquake in your country before?
Yes, I experienced a big earthquake in San Francisco
When?
I think it was 1989.it was 7.4 or 7.6 earthquakes in the city, so it was pretty devastating there was lots of damage and lots of houses that fail.
Where were you doing there?
It was about 5 o’clock in the evening so I was work and I was in a office bulding in downtown San Francisco I was on 28th floors so it was very high, so the bullding was sway back and force, so I can see the other building in the city and moving. That was interesting feeling.
Is that shaking?
Yes, I think all of new buildings are built so they move a little bit, so they don’t break.
I see, could you back to your home?
I tried to back home but my home was one of those building that has crap so I couldn’t go back to my home. So, I just stayed with friends.
that’s funny or interesting experience
yes interesting experience
Ok thank you “Carolyn” head back to studio.
Thank you
Actually I heard many ppl went back their country. It is natural thing. I guess it was really hard to come to Japan at such a bad situation. But he made it!!!! He is such a Japanese lover! Hope many ppl will come back to Japan! And also we got many support from all over the world .we really appreciated it!
I found we need to cooperate with many people of genders, color, races, home country…. whatever! We’ve already learned how to communicate with people, so we can help with English speakers, That’s why, I want to communicate with them more and more.
Thank you for listening our program. This program is presented by Obirin University ELP.
See you next week!