By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dylan McCord (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons

I want to bring awareness to some stories surrounding Japan.

These are not your normal “see destruction of tsunami”, “nuclear meltdown” stories. We cannot deny those are important. These stories, people stories, tell us more of the tragedy than the tsunami can.

Toronto Star’s Rick Westhead from their South Asia Bureau puts faces to this Japanese crisis, bringing the story closer to home.

Westhead relays Emiko Chiba‘s amazing tale of how she was “surfing” the tsunami wave … with her car.

In contrast, tragedy struck Takami, who helped her grandmother, then mother up to the second floor of their home. When she finally made it down to get her baby, the tsunami swept through her home and took her and the baby away.

A Canadian, Maxime Cardinal, stayed in Sendai because his wife wanted to stay with her family, despite having a secured seat home for both of them.

Hideaki Akaiwa spent three days in a wetsuit, navigating debris ridden flooded streets looking for his wife. He finally found her on Saturday.

A couple of stories in Japanese media also caught my eye.

On Miyatojima Island, survivor island is not a reality show. It is reality. The 900 survivors organized their own self-sustainable community in a school on the island after the bridge linking them to the mainland collapsed.

Oshima, another island with 1,300 people staying at an evacuation center, isn’t doing as well. Meals, medical supplies and fuel is in short supply.

In Ofunato, a nursery school that escaped the tsunami has reopened its doors to the children. The school, Meiwa Hoikuen, was spared the tsunami’s wrath as it is built in a hill. The children had rice balls and warm soup for lunch on their second day of school.

Let us not forget the “Fukushima 50″ who are risking their lives so that others may live.

Possibly a sign of an unstable planet, Canada received its own 4.3 magnitude quake today. However, the only thing notable thing it is know to have brought down, is the Federal Government’s website to inform Canadians about such seismic events.