後で365日 (365 Days Later)
Sunday was the one year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which caused the tsunami, which caused the nuclear meltdown, which caused the...Yeah, I'm pretty sure you know the story by now. To mark the occasion, a unique global fundraising effort called SHINSAI: Theaters for Japan took place with the goal to raise money to help the people of Tohoku and the Japanese theater community affected by the disaster. Here, in Okinawa, that effort was led by Autumn Widdoes. Her, a couple of her co-workers, one student, and a handful of JETs put on great show that not only raised cash, but probably convinced more than a few people that play readings are a lot more awesome than they sound on paper.
Autumn watches on as Adam and his wife, Haz (cheezburger) go through a run of their reading.
This is the art teacher at Autumn's school. Not only did he serve as a performer, but also as the pre-performance entertainment. And he writes poetry! Talk about a triple threat. I bet he walks down the street and gets panties thrown at him left and right...front and back too.
Miki and his student performed a play about a guy who's making a robot to send out to unpopulated areas affected by the tsunami and meltdown. Miki, if you didn't know, is the guy behind the wildly popular Shit Japanese Students Say video.
John Mark watches on as Naomi, Justin, and Angi (along with the hilarious Yuji and some of Autumn's co-workers) perform their play. It's about two people, one who I believe is a journalist, who go on a trip to document the events and interview people.
The last reading was the most interesting, mainly because I didn't understand what the hell was going on for a good five minutes. But that was the point. Angi, MaryAnn, and Autumn basically came on stage and talked over each other at a mile a minute, simulating the chaotic events of that day. It reminded me a lot of being in Manhattan during 9/11.
At the end, everyone came out on stage and shared their "Where were you on 3/11" story. One of Autumn's co-workers was actually in Tokyo at the time with a bunch of students on a school trip. Some people were at school watching the events unfold on TV. I remember being at home that day, changing the layout to this site and writing about the newest Big Bang video. When I heard about the earthquake, I didn't think anything of it. They don't call this the Ring of Fire for nothing. Then I heard there was a tsunami warning and felt annoyed and potentially inconvenienced more than anything else. Then I saw what was going on and couldn't believe it. It didn't seem real. It was like that movie 2012, and it wouldn't be til later that we'd all really understand what went down.