When it comes to earthquakes in Japan, people think that it is "commonplace", because Japan is in the earthquake zone and is an earthquake-prone country, so it has rich experience in dealing with earthquake disasters. When I was in Tokyo, I could feel a slight earthquake almost every day, and as long as I felt the shaking, I would definitely insert temporary reports on TV and radio within two minutes: so-and-so, how many magnitudes of the earthquake, depth, impact, etc., which was really impressive. However, what impressed me the most was the Great Hanshin Earthquake on January 17, 1995, which was a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that was near Kobe and caused great disaster to the Japanese people. I arrived in Osaka City just a few days later, and I experienced the disaster caused by the earthquake and witnessed the scene of the Japanese people's tenacious resistance to the earthquake and relief.
Although the impact on Osaka City is not large, it is difficult to go to The City of Himeji in southern Japan. In the past, it took 1.5 hours to reach Himeji City by train from Osaka, but it took more than 5 hours to arrive after the earthquake. That morning, we took a detour by jet hovercraft from the sea to Kobe (the railway was destroyed). Originally, it was very comfortable to ride on a hovercraft, but that time it was completely different, all the soft seats in the cabin were removed, and people had to sit on the ground in order to increase the volume of transportation. The order in the cabin was excellent and quiet, and some people were reading newspapers and some were eating "Bentang" (Japanese box lunches). The radio was constantly hearing about the recent situation of disaster relief and the recovery of traffic, some people were carefully recording the new trains and times, and everyone had a serious and dignified look on their faces.
When we arrived in Kobe, we carried our luggage, sometimes crossing the ruins, sometimes jumping over cracks in the road, sometimes climbing the faults of the road. From the ruins on the side of the road, you can faintly see the prosperity of this place. From time to time my friend pointed to a collapsed house somewhere and said: He had drunk here in the past; this place turned out to be a marbles playground; the clothes in this place were cheap; the service lady of this place was beautiful, and so on. Now these places are in a mess, full of desolation, and the tall buildings that have not collapsed are crooked and can no longer be used.
In the slightly wider area, I saw many elderly people holding buckets and other containers, waiting in order for water from fire trucks. From time to time, helicopters hover low in the sky. There was an old man who suddenly cried and laughed, and his mouth imitated the sound of explosions and collapses, presumably because his family had suffered a devastating disaster and was insane.
We struggled to get around, changed into a few cars, and finally boarded the train to Himeji, and it was almost two o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at the customer. The other party understood our lateness very well and thanked us for coming to talk about work in extraordinary times. When asked if we had eaten lunch, we lied that we had "already had lunch" because we were already late.
While talking about work, my stomach grumbled, the simple breakfast had long been exhausted, and I insisted on it for an hour, and finally looked forward to the afternoon tea. In the past, I never put sugar when I drank coffee (it is said that this is the case for English gentlemen), but on this day I added sugar to a saturated level, changing the Sven of the past.
At the dinner, customers recounted the losses they had suffered, many elderly people had to pay off their home loans for thirty years, but the earthquake completely destroyed their old lives. The most talked about topic at the time was "Mr. Feng Shui" in China, because almost none of the Chinese houses living in Kobe Chinatown collapsed, while the Japanese houses were badly damaged. The Japanese generally believe that this is definitely not an accidental phenomenon, it should be Chinese listened to Mr. Feng Shui's instructions when building a house, so they asked me: "How much does it cost Mr. Feng Shui?" "Can they get a Japanese visa?" "Mr. Feng Shui from Taiwan should be able to come to Japan." It can be seen that the Japanese people were particularly convinced of Chinese feng shui when rebuilding their homeland. During the conversation, a young man quietly handed a note to the customer leader opposite me, who read it and immediately handed it to us: "You can take the XX express line back to Osaka tomorrow at XX, this road has just been repaired." "I really admire the seriousness and enthusiasm of the Japanese people, and how carefully they arrange the affairs of their guests.
The next morning, we drove by tram through the hard-hit area, and the windows were full of charred houses, which were caused by the earthquake that caused the gas pipeline to explode. Looking at the Akashi Observatory in the distance, the hour hand stops forever at 7:42 (?) That's when the earthquake started. Thanks to the customer's guidance, it took us just over two hours to return to Osaka, twice as fast as the previous day.
That night, I was strolling down the street, and in the distance came a beautiful chorus of children.com. Walking in the direction of the song, at the exit of a subway, I saw twenty or thirty male and female students, dressed in neat school uniforms, singing. A female teacher plays the electronic keyboard, and another girl plays the violin, which is the Japanese nursery rhyme "Red Dragonfly", which I am familiar with. In front of the choir is a donation box. The song is euphemistic and moving, and the children's smiling faces show a characteristic sadness and confidence. I quickly searched my pocket, pulled out the only 2,000 yen (equivalent to 200 yuan at the time) and put it in the donation box, and the teacher nodded to me while playing the piano and thanked me.
On the way back to the hotel, I remembered what I had seen and heard over the past few days, and I was deeply impressed by the fact that the Japanese people were so calm, so united, so confident, and so strong in dealing with rare natural disasters.
The song of "Red Dragonfly" in the distance still echoes in my ears, far and near, and continuously.