I'm fine, thank you

I got home from work an hour or so ago and this is just a quick entry to say thank you for asking, but I was not on the train that derailed. I was, however, working at a place quite close to the accident site and helicopters have been disrupting my classes all day.

I have been using the opportunity to teach my students some new language. They now all know how to say A train was derailed. It crashed into an apartment building. Fifty people were killed and 239 injured. (I think it might be more, now.) They also know how to say, How terrible! and I'm scared to ride the train home. One student knows how to say I had a lucky escape. That was my usual train, but this morning I took an earlier train. It was the first time for me, in my three years at university.

My low level students, who kept flocking to the windows to watch the news helicopters, got a numbers, colours, plurals, and pronouns lesson.

"How many helicopters can you see now?"

"One, two, three... shi... mumble mumble hachi... Ten helicopter!"

"Ten helicopterSSSSSS!"

"Yes. Ten helicopterSSSSSS."

"Eight janai?"

"There is helicopter there, behind that tree, and helicopter go behind building."

"Use 'one'. There is one there, behind that tree, and one went behind that building."

"Yes. There is one there, and doko itta kana...? Mienakunatta..."

"What colours are they?"

"There are four red helicopter, three blue helicopter - "

"Three blue ones."

"Three blue ones, and , and three, eeeeedo... dark colour. Mienai."

"And what do they look like?"

"They look like tombo."

"Dragonflies."

"Yes. Dragonflies."

All day university staff have been running around trying to locate all the students who they know live out that way, to make sure they are safe. When I left work at around 4.30 they hadn't found everybody yet. I had two students missing from a class, but it is too early in the semester to know whether they were students who had decided not to take my class after all, or who were habitually absent, or what. I will find out more on Wednesday when I'm back at the same place again.

The line this accident happened on is not one I use very often, although it is the same train company, and one stop from a station where I change lines quite often. The helicopters are still buzzing around noisily, and The Man tells me he just saw on TV that they've located some more people from the first carriage, which was buried in the building, still alive.

This is very big news here. It's the worst train accident in forty years, they're saying. Millions take trains just like that one every day. It will shake confidence.

I'm feeling a bit shaken myself, but as The Man has just reminded me the safety record is an excellent one and It's still much, much safer than driving.