Spring in Japan

Today it finally feels like maybe perhaps spring is beginning her slow inch towards us. Meaning: one of those winds that swirls, that seems to come from all directions at once, scarves constricting around necks and hair plastered across cheeks. Meaning: sun turning sheets of ice into puddles. Meaning: a down vest instead of a down coat by late afternoon.

In Japan, the details of spring are likely going unnoticed. On Friday an earthquake rocked the north eastern coast of Japan, creating a tsunami that sent a wall of water crashing over huge portions of the coast. The pictures of the wreckage are awful. Fishing boats collapsed on their sides, roads torn apart, factories consumed by fire. On Sunday 1,000 bodies washed up on shore in Miyagi prefecture. Just like that. 1,000 bodies.

On Saturday we will fly to Florida and you will get your first glimpse of the ocean. We will walk along the beach and look for shells and kelp and sand crabs.

Your uncle Michael is in Japan. He is far away from the disaster, in a city called Ogaki, hundreds of miles from the site of the tsunami. He didn't even feel the tremors.

But now there are problems with the nuclear power plants. In the paper they used the word "meltdown." Bits of radiation have made it as far as Tokyo.

Uncle John visited yesterday and as we sat on the couch, watching the season finale of "The Bachelor," he said, "I don't even know what all this means, how radiation travels, what it looks like."

Then on "The Bachelor" we watched the women, one in black and one in white, travel in separate limosines through South Africa. We watched the one with brown hair dip her toes in the resort pool while she thought about her future. We watched the blond say, "I need to know you're in it for the long haul."

You wore your blue corduroy overalls to lunch. You ate alfredo pasta and I ate a salad with Thousand Island dressing. Grandma drank decaf. She wants to bring her baby home but knows she's not allowed to do that anymore, knows Uncle Michael gets to choose how to protect himself.

Today it finally feels like spring is beginning her slow inch toward us. Meaning: proper burials for the dead. Meaning: contained radiation. Meaning: boats rebalanced on their keels, soldered roads, flames finally extinguished.