User blog:DarkGhostMikel/My Thoughts on the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami ~ Five years later

Hello! Your resident admin DarkGhostMikel is here to share his thoughts on a tragedy that forever changed Japan, and since this year will mark the fifth anniversary of it, I figure I'll share my thoughts on it. :)

On this day five years ago, Japan was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0, which is much greater than that of the earthquakes that occur everywhere else in the world. This was a dramatic life-changing event in Japanese history, as over 15,000 people have lost their lives or have gone missing as a result of this tragedy. I was a junior in high school (but I was at Tulsa Tech taking my 3D Design and Animation class (which was at around 7:50 A.M. or 8:00 AM in the morning at the time) before I went to school) when I learned of this.

How does this affect me? I was completely devastated since I have always dreamed of going to Japan since I was a kid due to my interest in wanting to learn about Japanese culture and history. I did grow up playing Japanese video games and watching anime (and yes, to this day, I still do both) after all. I've always appreciated what Japan and the Japanese have to offer when it comes to video games and television, as they have influenced quite a few western video games or cartoons as well (A big example being Avatar: The Last Airbender, an awesome cartoon that people should check out).

I gave my prayers and thoughts to those that went through a rough time after the earthquake on the day the tragedy happened, and to this day, the country is still in the process of being restored to its former glory, so with that, I continued to give them to those affected by the tragedy and those who lost their lives on this devastating day in Japanese history.

With that said, I want to say thank you to everyone in Japan that gave us some of the things we grew up with like anime, jRPGs, and the influence that they have given us over the last few years. And most importantly, I want to say thank you for reading this as well! My passion and love for Japanese games and anime, as well as my interest in Japanese culture, have helped me in influencing my decision in visiting Japan every year for the Tokyo Game Show, festivals, and everything else the country has to offer.