a day of silence: for Japan, with love

Across the blogosphere today bloggers are uniting in a day of silence in respect for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

 So I'm posting this tonight {the night before} and while this may be breaking the silence in a way by still having something to say in my post about silence, I thought I'd share a few images and memories from one of the last times I visited Japan.

{I have a disk full of images from Japan that I can't find of landscapes and temples...grrr...these ones are some my friend Jason took when we went to Fukuoka for a 'visa run'}

Fukuoka, or Canal City, was such a contrast to what I was used to living in wild, bustling Seoul at the time.  Everything was very clean. There were beautiful, well kept gardens everywhere we turned, even the busy streets seemed quiet.  My lasting impressions of the place is the surreal peaceful quietness that seemed to come from the people and infuse their way of life with an inner calm. 

This inner calm is something I've had in mind since hearing about what they are going through right now.  I imagine them pulling together to rebuild and help each other. 

Our prayers and thoughts are with you, dear Japan.