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After the earthquake in 2011,
conflustered governments outside of Japan
encouraged their citizens to return home,
some affreting planes especially to allow their nationals to return home.
A year later,
some foreigners have stayed
and many of those who left have returned,
and all reafirm their attachment to their second home in Japan.
Following the 3/11 earthquake,
this foreign teacher in Yokohama,
found himself out of duty after the closing of his school,
and decided to follow the advice of the French embassy
and went to Osaka with his Japanese wife for 5 days.
Then, away from Tokyo, he open his heart and wrote on his blog,
about the moral dilemna that those like him were facing.
Meanwhile his friend Eric, another foreigner,
alarmed by the primary coverage of the pollution in the news,
also chose to back away from Tokyo with the his Japanese wife for the time being.
After the earthquake,
we spent time together with my wife's family in Kanazawa.
Because my wife is Japanese, from Kanazawa.
We stayed with her familly for about 5 days,
and went back to Tokyo after about 5 days.
Following alarming reports of contamination,
these foreigners were terrified.
many did not understand fully the reports and guidelines from the government.
So instead of being a burden for the Japanese society,
they decided to move away for a while.
Now a year later, things are back to normal
Guillaume still writes for his blog
to inform other foreigners who might be tempted to come to Japan.
Of course, friends and family back home
are worried about the situation and wonder why he does not come back,
but he tries to keep a critical eye on information
and to not let himself being worried by irrational fears
of earthquakes and radioactivity.
Since childhood he was interested in martial arts,
so he started learning Aikido
and decided that when he grew up, he would move to Japan.
A man from Washington was living at the time in Aomori with his wife
but the couple do not regret their choice of living in Japan rather than the US.
This is the life of foreigners
who left everything to come to live in Japan,
and who may have been frightened when calamity came.
But one year later,
they do not regret their choice of making Japan their home.