Magnitude 9.0 – A Student’s Experience

Mickey Mello – Tuesday, March 15, 2011

It . . . → Read More: Magnitude 9.0 – A Student’s Experience]]>

Found this on my laptop, I wrote this a few days after the earthquake. Thought I would share it, the last paragraph really resonates with me. I wish I could’ve stayed and done more.

Magnitude 9.0 – A Student’s Experience

Mickey Mello – Tuesday, March 15, 2011

It has been about six months since I started living in Japan. I have a great host family I live with in Takadanobaba, which is near the university, I’ve made lots of friends, both Japanese and from elsewhere in the world, I’ve finished the first semester here at Waseda University, and have experienced and learned many great and fun things. I was one month into the two month spring break between semesters here, enjoying the sights and sounds of Tokyo. March 11th rolled around, which seemed like it would be another easy going day.

I slept a bit later than I wanted to, got up around 11:30am, got showered, and ate breakfast. Told my host family I was going to go walking around and go shopping, with plans to go to Shinjuku followed by Harajuku. I told them I’d be having dinner at around 6:00pm instead of the usual time of 5:00pm. Then I headed out the door, was about 1:30pm at the time.

I made my way towards Shinjuku, took the Todai train line to Seibu Shinjuku Station, which was closest to my first destination for the day, Don Quijote, one of my favorite stores in Japan. Don Quijote is the type of store that has merchandise stacked all the way up to the ceiling, and has a huge variety of goods. After looking around for an hour or hour and a half, I was currently in the party goods section; this was when the earthquake started.

At first it was just shaking a little bit, I could feel it beneath my feet and could see some of the merchandise swinging back and forth. The first thought that came to my mind was “Oh, an earthquake, how novel, I’ll just wait here for it to stop and then go back to shopping.” The problem was that it didn’t stop shaking; it started to get more intense. Stuff started falling everywhere, I could hear bottles breaking, and I could see people making a mad dash towards the exit. I looked around where I was at and decided it was best to stay put where I was at, as the items in the party goods section looked like they wouldn’t hurt me if any where to fall on me. Worse case, I thought, a maid costume could fall on me.

The shaking seemed to have lasted around a couple of minutes or so before the big quake finally subsided. Stuff was everywhere on the floor as I made my way out of the store stepping over everything. I thought to myself that this had to be around a 7.0 earthquake. I made my way out towards the street, found people crowded into the streets after making their ways out of the buildings. They were messaging people, trying to call people, and taking pictures. It still felt like it was shaking after the initial quake, sort of like the feeling you have when you’ve been on a boat, and after you get off it still feels like you’re on a boat. I decided at this time it would be good to message a few essential people to let them know I was ok. After a time, the crowd dispersed from the middle of the street and traffic started moving again. I decided to head towards the Shinjuku Rotary. On the way over some businesses were temporarily closed, others still open for business with people advertising out front.

The Tsunami happening live on TV in Shinjuku.

I made it to the Shinjuku Rotary. It was there I started watching the news on the big TV on the side of the building, much like many other people who were there. It was on the TV that I was seeing images of the tsunami being broadcast live, cars being swept away, waves knocking down buildings and whatever else in its path, boats being pushed dangerously inland. I was seeing what the numbers were, 10 meter high waves in some areas, I couldn’t read the kanji to know what areas the broadcast was referring to, but from the picture of Japan they had displayed, it looked as if the northeastern part was the hardest hit. Finally after some delay, I saw a number, 8.4, followed by katakana spelling out the word magnitude. It was much bigger than what I thought it was going to be, even though I thought it would be around a 7.0. It wasn’t until later that it was upgraded to an 8.9 and 9.0.

As I continued to watch the broadcast, I was approached by several people who were visiting Japan and couldn’t understand Japanese and seeking someone out who could provide information. Although I couldn’t translate, I have a pretty good idea of what seemed to be happening. It was a large quake, which in its aftermath caused a large tsunami. I encountered a couple from France, who were supposed to return home that day, they were asking how they should get back to their hotel in Shinagawa, At this time all the trains were down in Tokyo as a precaution to check for any damage. The only thing I could suggest was that they walk back. I later learned all the airports were down as well, so I now know that could not make it back home that day. I met a couple of girls who were also looking for information; I shared what I knew with them. A bit later they saw their friend across the street, I went with them. The friend was Japanese, and could speak English, thus he helped provide information as to more specifics to what was going on.

Everyone watching the news on the big TV at Shinjuku Rotary.

I spent a couple hours watching the news before I decided I should get home. It was about 5:00pm at that time. The trains were down of course, so my only option was to walk home. Luckily it wasn’t too far from where I was. I started to make my way back, as I walked by the station, I could see people outside waiting, wanting to get home, waiting for the trains to come back home. I followed the train tracks on a street that ran parallel to the tracks. Many others had made the same choice as me and were making their way back by foot. After walking for about an hour I made it to the Takadanobaba area. As I walked by a station again, I could see all the people huddled outside waiting for train service to get back home.

People waiting by the train station, stranded after the trains were shut down.

A few minutes after that I made it home, it was about 6:00pm. I greeted my Obaachan (Host Grandmother), let her know I was ok before I made my way back up to my room. I got to my room and breathed a sigh of relief, everything was intact and fine, only a few minor things tipped over, nothing broken. The power was still on where I was at, so I got onto my computer and started sending out messages letting people know I was alright and checking to see if that was the same for other people I knew, which it was. My Okaasan (Host Mother) came home soon after I got back and came up to see how I was. I told her what had happened, she was relieved to know I was ok. Dinner was ready shortly after, I ate and talked with my host family. They told me this was the first quake they’ve been in where they’ve felt compelled to want to duck and cover.

After dinner I went back up to my room and continued to inform people as to what was going on, to let people know I was alright, and to see that others were ok. I was keeping track of the situation as it developed on the internet with news there. Saw the developments happen with some of the nuclear facilities, though it didn’t worry me personally. I could feel aftershocks here and there; some are a pretty good size. You can hear the house shift, feel the sofa you’re sitting on vibrate slightly, and see the TV wobble a bit. Later that night I chatted with my mother and father over Skype, let them know I was ok and that I wasn’t worried about my current situation, as at home with my host family things were basically business as usual. I contacted some more people, and then went to sleep.

That covers everything that happened to me the day the 9.0 earthquake happened. I’ve lived through the quake, and now I am living the aftermath. In a way, you could say this has been a deep cultural experience. As experiencing the culture means to see both the good and the bad, to see what issues the country has to deal with, and others they don’t. I have seen how Japan and its people have reacted, and I am deeply impressed and moved at what I have seen, the inner strength and character of the Japanese people as they confront this disaster as it unfolds. As someone who is currently here and been through this event, I would like to see this to its resolution, to experience things with everyone here, to see how events unfold, and the recovery begin.

Mickey Mello is a Business Major from California State University Bakersfield who was studying at Waseda University for a year in Tokyo, Japan.

Thank you to everyone who really helped make the trip great. Here’s all the happenings from when Yusuke was in California.

It was Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 I dragged myself out of bed to make the drive down to LAX airport from Bakersfield. Greedy decided to accompany me down . . . → Read More: Yusuke’s California Odyssey]]> (Pictures will be added in soon)

Thank you to everyone who really helped make the trip great. Here’s all the happenings from when Yusuke was in California.

It was Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 I dragged myself out of bed to make the drive down to LAX airport from Bakersfield. Greedy decided to accompany me down there to meet up with Yusuke, whom I met while I was attending Waseda University in Japan. After customs took their time, about 2 hours to be exact, processing everyone on Yusuke’s flight, we finally reunited! Greedy and I greeted a tired Yusuke, loaded his stuff up into my car, and got the hell out of LA! On the way back to Bakersfield we stopped at Santa Clarita and took a break at the Valencia Mall. We got out of the car, walked around, and had a bit of lunch. Yusuke got his first taste of some Mexican food. After we had enough looking around, we continued our way back to Bakersfield. As we made our way off the mountains of the Grapevine, the San Joaquin Valley greeted us, displaying the wide expanse of land so unlike Japan. We stopped off at my house for a short while, before heading over to where Yusuke would stay during his time here in Bakersfield, my grandparent’s house. He turned in early, exhausted from the flight over, while I prepared for our activities the next day.

Thursday, August 25th, we got up for the tour of the IFTA (International Flight Training Academy) at 11:00am. There we were meeting up with a couple of my friends, Maiko and Nanako, as well as Ayano whom I had met by chance. We had a great time there, and learned a lot about the place. We had some Japanese food there and got to chat with many of the people there. After our time there was complete, we bid Maiko, Nanako, and Ayano farewell and headed to our next destination! Miniature Golf! In 100 degree Fahrenheit weather no less! We both had a fun time, we managed both managed to get some holes-in-one, after which we cooled off and headed to dinner at Sushi Kato here in town. There I introduced Yusuke to American sushi! The Super California Roll! We also met up with a couple of my other friends there, Eric and Brittany. We chatted while we ate for a time, and then decided on our next course of action. We paid a visit to my campus, and took a look around for a bit. After giving Yusuke the tour of CSUB, Yusuke, Eric, Brittany and me all went for some bowling! We played 3 games and had a good time before we decided we were done. We parted ways with Brittany and Eric and headed back to my house. There we had the task of deciding where we would stay during our upcoming nights in LA. After much discussion, we were not sure where we would stay next. We did decide though that we would meet up with one of my friends for dinner the next day in Little Tokyo. With that we decided to turn in for the night and headed to my grandparent’s house to sleep.

Friday, August 26th. We took our time getting up and getting going. Had breakfast at my grandparent’s place. We loaded up and headed to Walmart next! Yes, the wonders of Walmart, the vastness of goods available for purchase at low prices, where the crutch of humanity shops. It must certainly be experienced once in one’s lifetime. After we procured some snacks for the car, we had one more stop to make in Bakersfield before leaving. To eat the confections of Dewar’s! We both had some ice cream there and purchased some taffy chews which are delicious before we headed off to LA. Dewar’s is one of the few places that are uniquely Bakersfield. After finishing up, we headed back down to LA, introducing Yusuke to the wonders and perils of LA driving. We made it to Little Tokyo that evening and met up with my friend David. We had Curry at an Indian food place and chatted for a bit. After which we looked around little Tokyo for a while. We had a time limit though, I had called my older brother, who lived nearby. We could stay at his place that night, but we had to get there before he left for the night, before 9pm. Thus we made our way over, found his place, and stayed the night at his Studio. Yusuke and me chatted for a while, before turning in for the night. The next day was to be a big one, as we were going to Disneyland!

Saturday, August 27th. We woke up, bid my brother farewell, and headed to Disneyland. We were to meet up with Kyle and Dolo, who also studied in Japan with me at Waseda. We arrived at about 10:30am and we stayed till 10:30pm. After we arrived we met up with Kyle, and then Dolo along with her sister and a friend from highschool. Together we went all over the place, first was all the mountains, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. We got bloody soaked at Splash Mountain. Yusuke had a huge turkey leg and had a great time. We did a the Small World ride, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, took the tram around the park, did Star Tours, saw one of the parades, had gumbo for dinner, and did Space Mountain a second time in no particular order.

As it got late, we bid Kyle, Dolo, and company farewell and thanked them for the great time and headed off to our next adventure, our night was not yet over! Neo, another friend of both Yusuke and me was having a party, and we were invited! First though, we had to stop by my friend David’s place, we were originally planning on staying at his place. We dropped off our stuff, and together with David, we all headed towards Neo’s place! After almost getting killed twice in Saturday night traffic in LA and missing the freeway exit we needed twice, we finally found our way to Neo’s place for the party!!! …Only the party was already over. We had arrived at 1:30am, the party began at 11:00pm. As it turned out, the party had ended prematurely at 12:30am, there were over 50 people there, and the cops came by and gave a choice. Either clear everyone out of there, or face a $1500 fine. The choice was clear and simple, thus the party ended. But in a way, it worked out and allowed us to hang and chat with Neo casually. We hung, played some beer pong, chatted with Neo, his girlfriend, and his roommates. All in all it was fun, and we stayed the night at Neo’s place.

Sunday, August 28th. We got up and decided to eat breakfast with Neo. We ate at this Bagel shop and chatted for a bit, met another of Neo’s friends, and then went our separate ways from Neo. Sunday was to be a slow day, to recover from the many happenings from the day before. We headed to David’s place, where I relaxed to recover more while Yusuke decided to walk around Hollywood and take some pictures. After Yusuke had had enough, he came back to David’s place, and we decided to head to the Grove and have dinner with David’s friend Ken. We had Chinese food together, chatted for a while. Then hung around Barnes & Noble Bookstore, had some Starbucks, and chatted until it was closing time. We all then headed back to David’s place and made a sleep-over out of it, and played cards together until we got tired.

Monday, August 29th. We got up, bid Ken farewell, then David, Yusuke, and me headed over to Universal Studios! We arrived got tickets, and stuck our stuff in a locker. First we did the Studio Tour, I pointed out places I had filmed at before there. After that we had lunch, Yusuke had a huge hamburger at the Flintstones’s BBQ. We then proceeded to ride The Mummy ride and Jurassic Park and then the Mummy again. We saw the Terminator 2 3D movie, where we met Kimberly, who was Suuuuuuuper, okey dokey? Saw Shrek 4D after that. Then we decided we had enough and went to get our stuff from the locker. Only problem was David, who had bought the locker, put his wallet and the ticket for the locker in the locker! So we had to get security to help us and guess which one it was! Took several tries, but we managed to find our locker, certainly one of the more memorable things from the day. After that we walked around the Universal City Walk, then left and went to go eat dinner at another Mexican food place, then looked around and shopped at Amoeba Music. After that we called it a day and headed back to David’s place. We hung around there, chatted with some people on Facebook, and managed to get in contact with Becky and Ginger Steve, also from the Japan program. We went to sleep afterward.

Tuesday, August 30th. We got up, parted ways with my friend David, and headed toward Long Beach! We got a call from Ginger Steve and I asked if we could stay the night at his place, he said it shouldn’t be a problem, thus we had our final place we would be sleeping for the night arranged! We got into Long Beach a bit early, so we decided to stop by the beach and check out the sites there. We took some pictures and burned a little time until it was time to head to CSU Long Beach. We made it on campus and found it difficult to find a parking space. After trying several lots we finally found one. We got out of the car and we were first going to meet up with one of Yusuke’s friends, a student who went to Japan a year before me. After meeting with her and another one of the Waseda student I met in Japan, Kokoro, we headed down to the student union and had lunch at an Italian place, basically pizza! There we met and chatted with Becky and Steve for several hours before we decided to head to Steve’s place. We went over and got comfortable, met Steve’s nice parents, and discussed where we should eat for the night. While doing that, Steve showed us some real guns. Finally it was time for dinner, we decided that Yusuke should eat some BBQ Baby-Back Ribs. We headed to this one place, met up with a couple of friends, and had a nice dinner. After we finished eating we headed back, talked a bit longer, before turning in for Yusuke’s last night in California.

Wednesday, August 31st. We got up, had breakfast at Steve’s place. Chatted a bit longer with his parents. We then said good bye to Steve and loaded up for the trip to LAX. Yusuke and me had a quiet drive back, reminisced about the previous week. When we arrived, I dropped Yusuke off at the curb and bid him good luck on the rest of his trip to Oregon and Hawaii. It was certainly a very eventful week!

“Japan has had such a large impact on my life, and it will continue to do so. It is my plan to keep Japan a part of my . . . → Read More: Thank You Japan]]>

After I left Japan early, I had one report related to my time in Japan left to write. I thought I’d share the end of it.

“Japan has had such a large impact on my life, and it will continue to do so. It is my plan to keep Japan a part of my life. I will strive to not only improve things here in the US, but Japan as well, as I feel a special bond with Japan and its people, the friends I’ve met there, the experiences I’ve had, and the memories I’ve made. I can only hope the future I make for myself will create the type of memories that I’ll hold as close to my heart as my time, my odyssey, in Japan. Thank you Japan.”

Taken during a trip with my club, PADDY's English Conversation Club.

Theory of Moral Neutrality

In this day and age there are many . . . → Read More: Theory of Moral Neutrality]]> One day after one of my Philosophy classes, bored, I sat down at my computer and typed this out. It had nothing to do with any class assignment. Call it an exercise of the mind if you will. Enjoy!

Theory of Moral Neutrality

In this day and age there are many theories of morality out there that try to dictate what is right and what is wrong, how we should live our lives, all of which try to place themselves on a pedestal as the highest form of what is good. All of which make the judgment as to what is good and what is bad. It will be my attempt to show that trying to label what is good and what is bad is in itself without any true basis as there is no true morality.

There is no “Good” or “Bad”
Only the “Favorable, Unfavorable, and the Status Quo”

As human beings who can think and reason, we have the propensity to place ourselves above everything else as if we are better, and that everything else is a lesser entity to ourselves, that ours is a higher evolution. We must admit that we are in fact animals, living things, nothing makes our existence any “better” than anything else. Our evolutionary path does not make us better than anything else; all it really did is make us more successful, the initial success being surviving at all with failing to succeed leading to extinction. Our thinking and reasoning was developed and maintained because it has been successful, it does not impart any imperative prerogative for morality. We only think that there “should” be morality, which is in itself a judgment.

So what of there being “Good” and “Bad”; “Right” and “Wrong”? These are the wrong labels for which to describe something. Allow me to illustrate with a few examples. Let us take the act of killing, generally we all agree that killing another human is “Bad” and “Wrong”, but what of killing an animal for consumption, for food. Can we say that killing a cow is Good or Right? If killing is indeed “Wrong” and that we are indeed a living thing just like a cow, what makes killing a cow any less wrong than killing a human? What if someone was attempting to take your life and there are only two outcomes, your death or the death of the one attacking you, is it wrong for you to defend your life if it means committing the wrongful act of killing? So what of stealing, we generally agree that stealing itself is wrong, that stealing is bad. However, what if one is stealing because they are starving and they require the food to survive, is the stealing then bad or wrong? It is these contradictions that we often make and for these reasons that I say labeling things as “Good” or “Bad”, “Right” or “Wrong” is faulty. For a situation we might decide is wrong, we could possibly think of another situation where that distinction is not so clear.

In response to this I put forth the labels of “Favorable” and “Unfavorable”. Let me replace the previous labels in the examples I put forth and replace them with these. We would say that killing a cow is favorable, and that killing a human is unfavorable, but in the situation of someone attempting to take the life of another, we would consider it favorable for the person being attacked to kill the other. Stealing in general is unfavorable, but stealing food to stave off starvation would be favorable.

Then what makes something favorable or unfavorable? This is perceived through the “Status Quo”. Certainly the environment would be unfavorable if everyone was going around killing each other. It would be much more favorable if we didn’t kill each other. It is from this that begins a Status Quo. Certainly it would be unfavorable if we didn’t kill for food, thus we kill and starts another Status Quo. Through these Status Quos is generally how we develop what our morals are. If one were to be attacked, one would strive to maintain the Status Quo of ones own life. Certainly some Status Quos are more important than others, but that is in a way dependent on how strictly they are enforced.

Lawful Neutrality and Chaotic Neutrality
The Balance In-between

So what kind of acts are there? As established previously there are favorable and unfavorable acts. How do acts relate to the Status Quo? Those acts which tend to follow the Status Quo are Lawful in nature, while those acts which go against the Status Quo are Chaotic in nature. Certainly while stealing to stave off starvation might be considered Chaotic, it is also considered favorable and could be considered Lawful to the Status Quo of survival.

This world is made up of the clash between the Law and Chaos of Status Quos. Generally speaking we adapt Status Quos that advance our natural success, but at the same time we are also reluctant to adapt new Status Quos too quickly even if they would be greatly favorable. What reason would we have for this? A “New Status Quo” would be Chaotic to the “Current Status Quo”, for we have a Status Quo to, well, Maintain the Status Quo. A “New Status Quo” must overcome two separate things, it must be more favorable than the old Status Quo, but also overcome the Maintenance of the Status Quo. This comes back again to the how strictly Status Quos are enforced. Having a Status Quo enforced against oneself is unfavorable. However, if the favorability of the “New Status Quo” is not only more favorable than the old status quo, but also offsets the unfavorabilty of the enforcement of the old status Quo, then the “New Status Quo” will be adopted. Once Chaos has overrun Law, a new Law is born.

The Inconsequence of Moral Theories

There is nothing actually good or bad about killing, there is nothing actually good or bad about stealing, there is nothing actually good or bad about lying, there is nothing good or bad about helping others, and there is nothing good or bad in this world. There are no universal laws, happiness is not always favorable, there are no true moral duties. These are all things we assign to ourselves and choose to follow. Moral Theories are most often used at one’s convenience which is favorable to oneself. They tell us what we should do but they don’t really give a sufficient reason for why we should do them, or to do one over another one. The reason is that in the end they all rely on judgments, and to justify a judgment, you must ultimately make another judgment.

It might sound as if judgments are unfavorable. Certainly judgments can be favorable as well as unfavorable. Judgments are one of the reasons we are successful, as they seem to have been more favorable than unfavorable. However, there is nothing about judgments that in of themselves justify an absolute moral code.

One might say that saying something is favorable or unfavorable is in itself a judgment, to an extent they would be correct, but only to the extent of where to apply the labels of favorable and unfavorable. Surely there would be no dispute that in something favorable things can happen and unfavorable things can happen (One cannot say there is absolutely no favorability or unfavorablity), judgment only comes into play when actually trying to apply those labels to something. One cannot say the same of good and bad, right and wrong, which are in of themselves judgments. To say they are within something is to be making a judgment about that thing, to say they happen as a result of something is to again make a judgment. True morality is merely an illusion, and there are no reasons to prefer one moral theory over another, since there is nothing that does not end up relying on judgments within these theories.

After that it was lunch with . . . → Read More: The First Days of Japan: More Torture- I Mean Orientation]]> September 16th was another nauseating day of orientation. The first bit wasn’t so bad, we met a former CSU IP program participant who gave us some advice, she is currently working through the JET program. Got information on housing, transportation, and banking. After which we got our student IDs.

After that it was lunch with the Waseda students. I was taken to an udon place and had a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) rice bowl with udon. It was quite good. During lunch I talked to the a couple of the Japanese students, told them I was an actor, for the most part made small talk. This Japanese girl I ate with finish her whole meal, hers had as much food as mine, but I could only eat about half. I’ve never been a huge eater, but maybe I’ll start eating more as well once I settle in a bit more.

She ate it all, she put my eating skillz to shame.

After lunch, the true torture of Orientation began, 2 and 1/2 hours of boring slides and information. The horror, the mayhem (Or in this case, the lack thereof)! There was one small glimmer of entertainment. When the librarian from the Waseda Library spoke, in the most awesome voice, he stated “I am a Librarian!” and said he would make things short. And it was short, almost too short, it was somewhat saddening to see him go.

After surviving the dribble of orientation, the Waseda students were to take us on a tour of Shinjuku. There was a lot of walking around, not really paying attention to where I was or going, and for the most part I was just talking with one of the Waseda students. At that point I don’t think it really helped me learn my way around Shinjuku. After showing us some places, we headed back to Takadanobaba Rotary for the next bit-o-fun, but that is for the next post…