I'll never forget where I was and what I was doing when 9-11 happened. I had just finished a late dinner with DJ friends in Tokyo and I walked across the street to an internet cafe, which is now a burger shop, in Shibuya. We didn't have high speed, wireless wifi everywhere back then so if you were out you had to go to an internet cafe to get on the net.
The first thing I did was login to AIM, AOL Instant Messenger, because that was the Discord, LINE, chat app back then. Immediately two of my DJ friends back in the States told me we were under attack. I pulled up a browser and opened up Yahoo news, there I saw and read about the towers being hit. It was pure shock, surreal. I logged off to race back to my house.
I remember standing on the Oedo subway train and feeling everyone's eyes on me. I was fidgeting around as my mind was racing wondering what was going on, what was going to happen, was I ok being in a foreign country when we go to war?
When I arrived at my house in Mejiro, my roommate/landlord filled me in on the details. We both sat glued to CNN throughout the night as the towers had came down, The Pentagon was hit and Flight 93 downed. It fucking stung and left a black hole in my heart. It absolutely changed who I was. It gave me new perspective on what it means to be American.
I hold very strong feelings about that day and what has happened since. I won't go into them, but I will just say, I will NEVER forget.
Where Were You On 9-11?
