The English version follows after the Japanese.
震災から今日で15年。
あの日は、妹の中学校の卒業式で一人で家にいた。大阪だったから揺れは感じなかった。最初は少し大きめな地震があったのか程度に思っていたけど、全放送局が一斉にニュース速報をはじめ只事ではない様子を悟った。バラエティ番組は全て自粛、CMはACJAPANのみという異様な光景だった。その後、原発事故が起こり「直ちに問題はない」と、繰り返す作業服姿の政治家たちをよそに、大阪にいた外国人の友人たちは全員彼らの国の政府の指示で帰国して行った。日本の政府や報道に違和感を持ち始めたきっかけになった。
15年経った今でも、2万5000人以上の人たちが避難生活を余儀なくされている。行方不明者も2万人以上いる。そんな中で日本は原発を再稼働させ、さらにはオリンピックまでやってのけた。自宅で家族で、観戦できない状態で。誠実じゃないよな、と思う。復興支援でブルーインパルスとかよく飛ばしてるけど、意味あるんだろうか、あれ。
オーストラリアは雲ひとつない快晴。それなのに、私はコインランドリーに向かっている。天気がいいと洗濯したくなるのは人間のサガ。でも、それがシェアハウスの辛いところ。みんな洗濯したがる。私の家は特に干すスペースが狭い。洗濯機争奪戦には入りたくない。家の洗濯機3回分の溜まった洗濯物とベッドシーツ類を一撃でコインでランドリーしてしまう。
隣のカフェで洗濯が終わるのを待つ。初めて入ったカフェで、マフィンが美味しすぎて感動しながらvlog制作作業。オーストラリアはカフェが多いけど、どこもいっぱいに人が入ってる。平日の午前中にもかかわらず。みんな、仕事は？
水曜日は朝から対面授業。ふかふかになった洗濯物を車に押し込み大学院へ向かう。同級生たちとは週に一度しか会わない。今学期は授業がいくつかに分かれているから、なおさら会うことがない。
夜の先住民の健康の授業では、今まで気になってたことを先生に質問した。答えは出ないまま一緒に考えてくれる。いい先生。残り5回の授業も楽しみだ。
Fifteen years since the East Japan Earthquake.
That day, I was home alone — my sister had her middle school graduation ceremony. We were in Osaka, so I didn’t feel any shaking. At first, I thought it was just a slightly bigger earthquake than usual, but then every single broadcast channel switched to breaking news at the same time, and I knew something was wrong. All variety shows went off the air. The only commercials running were AC Japan public service announcements. It was an unsettling sight.
Then came the nuclear accident. Politicians in work uniforms kept repeating “there is no immediate problem” — while every foreign friend I had in Osaka left the country, one by one, on their governments’ orders. That was the moment I started to feel something was off about the Japanese government and its media.
Fifteen years on, more than 25,000 people are still living as evacuees. More than 20,000 remain missing. And in the middle of all that, Japan restarted its nuclear reactors and went ahead and hosted the Olympics, while people couldn’t even watch it at home with their families. That doesn’t sit right with me. The Blue Impulse keeps flying over disaster areas in the name of reconstruction support, but I’m not sure what that actually does for anyone.
Here in Australia, not a cloud in the sky. And yet I’m on my way to the laundromat. Good weather makes you want to do laundry — just human nature, I suppose. But that’s the hard part about living in share house. Everyone gets the urge at the same time, and the drying space at my place is tiny. I wanted no part of the washing machine wars, so I loaded up three machines’ worth of laundry plus bed sheets and took care of everything in one go at the laundromat.
Waited it out at the café next door. The muffin was so good — I sat there editing the vlog, quietly emotional about baked goods. Australia has no shortage of cafés, and every single one of them is packed. On a weekday morning. What are they doing for a job?
I have an in-person class in the morning. I stuffed the freshly fluffed laundry into the car and headed to grad school. I only see my classmates once a week, and with courses split up this semester, even that feels rare.
In the evening, I had a class about Indigenous Health. I finally asked my professor something that had been on my mind for a while. She didn’t give me a straight answer — just thought through it with me. That’s a good teacher. Five classes left, and I’m already looking forward to them.