I've got a former boyfriend in Cali, but he said he lives inland so he's gonna be ok. Still... it's a bit frightening to think of something like that affecting the US when we're so far away...

The Pear Harbour comments, the jokes, and the people who are solely concerned with when their anime/manga/drama is going to resume are making me loose what little faith in humanity I hold to begin with. I suppose in the latter case at least they might donate - even if it is only out of misplaced concern for one or two media names - but it's still making me twitch a little.

I've been following the news through the night, seeing the force of the quake and tsunami and the subsequent recovery efforts through videos and photographs and first hand accounts has left me feeling strangely fragile.

I've a friend in Shinjuku, Tokyo, I can't get in touch at all since she got hired by ATLUS a few months back. Under her employment she had to close accounts such as livejournal and deviantart and she rushed off from South Korea to Tokyo. At first I was comforted by footage of how, compared to other places, Tokyo seemed to remain unscathed. However I'm currently running a search on google's people finder in a hope to find her and there's a surprising amount of fatalities reported from there.

There's something harrowing about scrolling down that list to see a photograph with the words "Someone has received information that this person is dead" next to them. To those also searching for people I hope you find them.

@wish: I'm concerned too, but there's not much I can do about it. I managed to get food and some coworkers delivered water, so I'm all set for staying home tomorrow, safely indoors. I don't think I was too much at risk for breathing in the air outside all day. *crosses fingers*

My bigger worry is that we have a 70% chance of experiencing another 7.0 quake within the next day or so. I was told not to go to work tomorrow, but it would actually be safer at my school than at home. Transportation wouldn't be good, however, as it's about 35 minutes away by bus. (Assuming that bus line is even running.)

@ wish:: I don't like all the "it's the end of the world" talk... T.T

Ferra; yah I heard about that 7.0+ aftershock. :( Be safe..!

Clair awwh sorry ;___;

I keep hearing about March 19th bringing a bunch of horrible earthquakes, tsunamis and volcano eruptions! I read about that just before finding out about the earthquake in Japan.

FuzzyLumpkin: There have been some people falsely reporting that people are dead (if you check those pages, you might see that the post was flagged as spam). My own page said that I was "swimming" before I updated it. Don't lose hope. A lot of people simply don't have the means to get connected.

It just said on Twitter that Satoshi Tajiri, the guy who invented pokemon, is dead. Anyone know if this is true or not?

Don't know if this is trustworthy, but doesn't seem like it: Pokemon creator,Satoshi Tajiri, is alive! | TheGamersHub

Tokyo fared pretty well compared to places farther north, so I wouldn't worry too much. Honestly, it's kind of frustrating to try to find news reports about the epicenter areas (Sendai in particular) but instead turn up information about Tokyo only.

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With that said, I think I'm going to try to get some sleep. Hopefully I won't be awoken by another big quake. :gonk:

Thank you for that Ferra. I'll keep checking. I hope everything is okay, and that the aftershocks will start to calm.

Explodey he's been confirmed alive, apparently there was an official news release by Nintendo confirming the safety of all their Tokyo employees, if I find it I'll link it to you. On that note the current Hello Kitty creator Yuko Yamaguchi, Naturo creator Masashi Kishimoto and many others have been confirmed safe. A lot of the celebrity death reports are rumours started on tumblr and twitter apparently.

That's Twit for you. Among their trending topics at the mo are #PearlHarbor (sp?) and #howtopissoffafatperson so.... :stare:

Completely off topic, but that "howtopissoffafatperson" thing really bothers me. :\ Why does that sort of thing exist?

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the guys at Nintendo, as well as other celebrities are okay. I think it's annoying when people only care about this because of anime, but if they genuinely care for the people who make it, it's okay. I think there's a difference between saying "I hope the next chapter of ___ isn't delayed" and saying "I hope ___ is okay".

However, the Pearl Harbor comments are completely out of line. Whether you're being sarcastic or not, it's just not funny.

I'm -still- pretty sure the US took shots at the Emperor's son and that's part of the reason why Pearl Harbor even happened-- in other words, America started it-- but that's neither here nor there.

America itself is super beautiful, but a lot of your 'average' Americans and their mean spiritedness and prejudice just irks me.

I'm kind of avoiding church today too because the end-of-the-world/this-was-foretold talk and the they-deserved-it people out there freak me out. As for the otaku, well! I've always found the sort who only grab one piece of a culture and run with it uber irritating, but yes, if it means they'll toss some money at the problem, that's better than nothing.

Another thing that's keeping me from church is I often get this guy at my table who I know is going to be all over this like a vulture at a crash site. Oh sure, he'll help Japan- he may even head there himself and help firsthand! But what grosses me out about him is he's only interested in helping political causes.

Sure politics is important- even I've been re-tweeting and re-posting stuff about the situation in Wisconsin, and some of the anti-gay hatecrimes a few of the newsgroups I'm subscribed to send me. But I don't know what to make of people who persecute you if politics isn't the be-all and end-all of your life.

This dude doesn't care about Japan; he's going to be on it because it's topical. I asked him once why he doesn't do anything about homelessness right here in our town and he told me there's no such thing as poverty in America! Sure, maybe not for him....

Earthquake in Japan..
 

Videos liek this seriously wnat to make me cry
My mom has already donated 10 euros
but still, since i'm only 15, there's really nothing i can do..
and it sort of breaks my heart .____.

You can donate to the RedCross by texting REDCROSS to 90999. I have already donated $10, and I feel good inside.

This really shows the amount of devastation caused by the Tsunami.

I also heard that a volcano erupted earlier, somewhere in Japan.

Since there were a few threads on this topic, I've gone ahead and merged them together. :yes:

Hmm.. Explodey: I don't know where you read that but I've never heard of that happening. Besides in 1944-45 ish the emperor's sons were only like 10-13 years old. I don't know how logical it would've been to allow the crown prince to go out to sea or be on a boat when their allies were in WWII.

I don't know if this particular video was linked but I'll post it anyway.

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Apparently my mom showed it to my litle brothers and my 3 year old brother got really freaked out. I am too seeing that whole building being ripped away; people clinging to rooftops for dear life. :[

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My friends boyfriend just linked this to facebook and it's heartbreaking. :[

ABC News - Japan Earthquake: before and after

Dose anyone have a any new about Naoko Takeuchi and her family if they are alive? if she is dead I would so cry my heart out big time. I just pray they are all safe I know she and her husband have 2kids.

@sailor star: I doubt anything happened to her. According to Wikipedia, she lives in an inland city even farther away from the epicenter than where Tokyo is. The earthquakes outside of north-eastern Japan were much weaker. Also, most of the horrific damage was caused by tsunamis rather than the quake itself.