The 8.9 earthquake in Japan sent shock waves not only through East Asia, but to the rest of the world as well. In a city like Saratoga, with strong Japanese ties, many relatives overseas have worried about finding and communicating with family members.

Junior Lisa Asai was shocked to hear about the earthquake, especially because she has relatives and friends in Japan. Her father was also on a business trip there at the time. At first she thought this was another one of the minor quakes that occur often near the island nation.

News soon poured onto the Internet about the damage and the ensuing tsunami in the Iwate, Akita and Miyagi prefectures.

“I couldn’t imagine this was actually happening to Japan,” Asai said. “I was so shocked that I started crying. I finally learned how scary natural disasters are. I still cannot believe how many people are missing, how many dead bodies are found or [that] there are people still without electricity.”

Asai’s friends and family were luckily not in the areas directly affected by the earthquake or the tsunami. One side of her family resides in Kamakura, Kanagawa, an hour away from Tokyo. However, her grandfather, uncle and dad were working in Tokyo and could not find transportation home as the trains and roads were closed. Her friends in Kanagawa had to sleep at school.

“My friend told me how people were crying during the earthquake because they never felt one so big,” Asai said. “She said, ‘I thought I was going to die.’”

Asai has also heard about her friends’ relatives, whose houses in Sendai collapsed. Fortunately, they did not live on the coastal side of Sendai where the tsunami hit. Asai feels lucky that all of her family members and friends are safe.

“[But] I am very sad that there are so many lives that were taken away by this big tsunami,” she said. “There is not much that I can do but donate money and clothes and pray for them.”