"The Enjoyment of Summer Changed"- The Diary of Three Sisters

Translated by Masaharu Yamauchi, edited by Rebecca Silva
“Summer vacation is just around the corner.”

I’m getting excited about the first summer vacation since moving to the Kanagawa prefecture in April. Although the summer vacation in Kanagawa is supposed to be longer than in Iwate, I feel it might be shorter, because I have many things I want to do during the summer vacation－watch horror movies, watch fire works with my friends, and so on.  

During an ordinary summer vacation, I spend time lying around at home or playing with my friends after coming back home from the club activities that the school provided. Since there was a small department store near my home, what I did there was the same－play on the same corner and talk with my friends in the food court－it was like a routine job.

But I had one thing that made me happy. There was a shop that sold dumplings filled with sweat bean paste in winter and sold shaved ice in summer- it was smothered in a lot of ‘Calpis-Lemon’ syrup, which was very delicious. If I could go to Ofunato City during summer vacation, I would go there to eat it definitely.

Our Hometown is Far Away ― The Diary of Three Sisters

translated by, Masaharu Yamauchi, from the Asahi Newspapar, Japan                      

山内　雅晴

edited by, Rebecca Silva

‘The fear of aftershocks comes to mind’  

Five months have passed since the big earthquake happened. I still remember clearly the experience of the earthquake, and I think I won’t ever completely forget.

What bothered me most after the earthquake was the problem with water and electricity.

Since we couldn’t flush the toilets, we poured water that the army brought in a big tank into buckets and used them after two or three people went to the toilet.

 Five days later, I could take a bath. In an emergency, I thought I wouldn’t die if I didn’t take a bath for a while. But I had a hard time because my hair became so greasy. The bath that we three sisters took wasn’t hot, it was almost cold water, that made us shiver, but I felt nothing less than happiness.

Also, I have coming to my mind the fear of aftershocks. It was soon after that powerful aftershocks followed a large number of times a day, not just a few times.

But I gradually came to understand that big aftershocks followed －we needed to decide whether to evacuate or not－according to how strong the aftershocks were. ‘Wobbly’ isn’t a big deal. But the aftershock that starts with small vertical vibrations followed by a roaring from underground becomes powerful.

Recently my concern grows very big every time I hear the news predicting a big earthquake and powerful aftershocks. Since simply worrying doesn’t take you anywhere, I think we have to decide where we evacuate to and how we will contact other family members in preparation for future earthquakes.  

（Nanako）

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The life of these three students who suffered from the big earthquake and the nuclear power plant disaster, and transferred to the Kanagawa prefecture have seemed to settle down gradually.　But they have lived a life that they could have never imagined living over the last year.

This is a commentary about how they feel on a daily basis in the Kanagawa prefecture that is far from their hometown. We have three sisters who moved to Fujisawa city in the Kanagawa prefecture from Ofunato city where the big tsunami hit.

(From top to bottom) Mariko Hayashizaki(17), Nanako(16), Sayako(13). March 11^th, they suffered in Ofunato city, Iwate prefecture. Although all family members- 5 including the parents - were safe, their house was partially destroyed by the tsunami. For three weeks, they moved around from shelters to their grandmother’s house,  and so on. At the end of March, they transferred to Fujisawa city.

Punch Line

The idiom, Punch Line, is used in a recent CNN Video about U.S. Governor Chris Christie's weight.