CORNER BROOK — Natalie Penney-Toba is thankful she doesn’t have a more harrowing tale to tell about enduring the earthquake that struck Japan one week ago and the aftermath that has followed.
Still, the experience has been scary enough to convince her to move back to western Newfoundland after 15 years living and raising a family in Japan.
Penney-Toba operates her own school on the second-floor of her family’s home in Ayase City, just outside of Yokohama in the east coast prefecture of Kanagawa. She also spends two or three days a week teaching conversational English and medical terminology at Kitasato University in nearby Tokyo.
She, her husband Hiroaki and their daughter Kanako, 7, and son Kosuke, 8, live about a five-hour drive from the epicentre of the devastating earthquake that has killed thousands and has left hundreds of thousands more homeless in the northeastern region of the country’s main island.
Penney-Toba was at home last Friday afternoon when things began falling off the walls, dishes fell from the cupboards and the shaking of the earth seemed like it would never cease. Her kids were at school, just 15 minutes away, and she immediately went to see if they were OK.
Everyone at the school was fine, physically, but the first of what would be many aftershocks left many concerned about whether things would continue to be all right.
“At this time, my daughter Kanako was in a panic,” Penney-Toba. “She was terrified. She was screaming and crying when I found her. My son, Kosuke was scared. He immediately ran to my side.”
While they were safe, Penney-Toba said her children have continued to be afraid of the threat of earthquakes that the Japanese population lives with each and every day.
The geologic instability of Japan, not to mention the threat of radiation leaks from damaged nuclear power plants, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back in making her decide that their planned two-week vacation back to Corner Brook in April will now be a one-way ticket.
“We go back to Canada twice a year and the kids would rather live in Canada,” she said. “There have been a few things happen here and I just think its safer back in Canada. With this earthquake, the kids are just too nervous. This really opened my eyes and I think it’s better for the kids.”
Hiroaki, who works for a transportation company, will stay in Japan and the couple plans to keep their home there. Penney-Toba, who plans to regularly make return visits to Japan to visit her husband and his family there, said their long-distance relationship will only be for a few years until Hiroaki retires and joins the rest of the family in Canada.
Fortunately, no one in Hiroaki’s family in Japan has been hurt as a result of the earthquake.
There are shortages of fuel and food in their area and Penney-Toba’s family has been contending with rolling electricity blackouts on a daily basis. Whenever they go outside, they wear white masks as a precaution in light of the nuclear power plant problems to the north of them.
Watching the frightening images of the worst affected areas and hearing the woeful stories of people who have lost their loved ones and livelihoods has also affected Penney-Toba. The family has vacationed in the northeastern region that was walloped by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
“It was such a beautiful area,” she said. “I can’t believe this has actually happened. It’s like a nightmare: you see it on TV but it’s like it’s not happening here. I just thank God we weren’t in the area and we don’t have a sad story like the ones we are hearing about on the news.”
