When the big one hit — at 2:46 p.m. on March 11 — I was trying to be funny.
I was sitting in my office on the second floor of my home in Saitama, tapping away at the end of a draft for a future edition of this column. My topic was the Japanese adoration of hometowns.
I was attempting to wrap up that draft with a witticism. Never guessing that Japanese hometowns would soon be front-page news everywhere. And it wouldn't be funny at all.