More Letters from Toyokawa, Japan

Editor's note: The following are comments that were posted from Patch readers. They have been copied and pasted from the Comments section. To allow for the full flavor of the letters to come through, no editing was done to any of them. Thank you all for sharing.

Comment posted by:

Eleanor Chan commented on the article Letters From Japan

"In 2010, we had the opportunity to host (in rotation) 2 of the girls, then 2 of the chaperones. One of the lady chaperones sent her reply: Thank you for worrying. I would like to tell you that we are all fine including Mami, Suzuna and Ryo. The place where the massive earthquake occured is far away from Toyokawa. It is presumed that over 10,000 people died in the afflicted area. It must be a very painful historic disaster. I just hope that as many people as possible will be saved and I wish for the quick recovery of those areas. Best regards, Kaori"

Comment posted by:

:

Alan Minor is the President of the Sister Cities Committee on the Toyokawa side (counterpart to Asif Kausar in Cupertino). I received this message from him:

Hi Alysa,

Thank you for your concern. We are fine here. Toyokawa was close enough to feel the earthquake, but far enough away not to be affected. Tani was at the ranch with the horses and didn't feel a thing. I was on the third floor when it hit and could feel a distinct swaying. Generally this is a precursor to a jolting shock wave, but it never came. It was long and drawn out however. Generally tremors last only a few seconds before dying down and disappearing. This one lasted well over a minute. The area around Toyokawa was also relatively protected from the effects of the Tsunamis as well. I have yet to hear any reports of harm or damage in Toyokawa or the surrounding area.

Alan
(3/12/2011)

Comment posted by:

Shweta and Sharath Hegde hosted two Toyokawa students (including Rie's daughter, Mayu) in 2009. Their son, Sacheth, was a Cupertino exchange student during this year

Dear Shweta & Sharath，

Thank you for worrying.
There is no damage because Toyokawa City is away from the place of the earthquake.

Please tell it to the family.

Regards,

Rie

Comment posted by:

Anjali & Asif Kausar have hosted students and adult delegates from Toyokawa for the past five years. This is one of the messages they received from Toyokawa:

Hi,Anjali

We are all safe. We had small rolling of earthquake here in Toyokawa.
Northern part of Japan ,including Tokyo, are still having many earthquakes.

Everything in Toyokawa is as usual. Don't worry !
Tomie Watanabe

Comment posted by:

Elyssa Hurwitz participated in the program in 2006. I am always touched to hear about the lasting relationships that develop through the sister city program. Elyssa's mother, Robin, got this email from one of her "daughters" in Toyokawa:

Hello,mom. This is Yuka.

Fortunately, we have no problem.
Epicenter was far from Toyokawa city.
Theremore, my home is not feced the sea.

However, people in Tohoku and Kanto area
are suffered from this earthquake.
Magnitude was 8.8, which was the highest ever.

We have to pay attention for aftershock.

I am glad you to worry about us.

Comment posted by:

Naomi Satake is the former VP of the Sister Cities in Toyokawa. Her family was more directly impacted. Naomi has an apartment in Tokyo and I was worried she was there when the earthquake hit. I was relieved to hear back from her, though she has yet to locate a friend of hers.

Everyone.

Thank you for e-mails.We are all fine.We have no damage.
Toyokawa was not the earthquake's and tsunami's damage.

When the earthquake occurred our two daughters and a son in low were in Tokyo and grandson was a nursery in Yokohama.Second daughter had been in Tokyo for her business trip.All transportation stopped.Mayu stayed the company,Mika was lucky could stay the hotel.Ryo came back home taking 8 hours by car and go to meet Sosuke at the nursery.They got home at 12 o'clock..

Our friends who live in Koshigaya are all OK but I can't contact a friends of mine who lives in Sendai yet.I was very worried.

I watched TV for 2 days.I am very frightened the earthquake but the tsunami is more dreadful than the earthquake.Some towns and villages annihilated by the tsunami.Can't contact about 10000 people yet.

Naomi

Comment posted by:

Response from Toyokawa makes me feel a little better that the friends we met and the families that hosted our kids are okay. My daughter Bhavna Thakar was in Japan last summer (2010) as exchange student and we hosted two very nice kids from Japan.

Dear Bhavna,
I`m extremely sorry for this late response.
Don`t worry!!
I`m doing OK!!
But,my regional of cousin came to TSUNAMI;(
But, relief!!
Natsumi