| On the day of the Great East Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011, I was planning to meet up with a friend in Ishinomaki in the afternoon. I called him that morning to confirm our schedule, however, for some reason, I changed our plan. I told him I would meet him at 10 AM, instead of in the afternoon. It was unexpected of me to reschedule, but he agreed. I hung up the phone and left the house right after to see him. Thinking back about this now, I would surely have been caught by the tsunami if I had left as originally planned. The earthquake struck on my way home from Ishinomaki. I felt danger, so I hurried back home to my house in Miyagino Ward, Sendai City. It is located 1.2 miles away from the sea. When I returned home and looked toward the coast, I could see a giant coal black tsunami swallowing up everything as it surged towards my house. I grabbed Holy salt and Holy herb tea from my house and began to throw them towards the tsunami shouting, “Stop! Water stop!!!” I remember my neighbors looking at me with strange faces from their homes. Then, a miracle occurred. The tsunami gradually began to slow down and actually stop at the front of my house! I trembled when I later found out about the houses located 500 ? 600 meters from ours being flooded by water. The flow of the water had changed direction as it approached our home as if a sandbank was placed to protect us from the tsunami. |