Can I refer to the March 11 earthquake without mentioning the word earthquake? Is it possible to refer to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and nuclear incident in everyday conversation, preferably without using the words earthquake or tsunami or nuclear incident? For example, when I was told a museum in Sendai wasn't open, and I wasn't sure whether it was because of the earthquake or just because it's closed on a Tuesday, should I have said " / ?"※, or could I have used something that doesn't directly mention ? The reason I'm trying to do so is that even in English, people often avoid referring to the type of disaster when referring to it (eg "Bali", "seven seven"), and I've heard that the Japanese language tends to be more indirect than English. ※ This may not be a correct use of the word , but that's not relevant to the question.

It is difficult to refer to the earthquake without mentioning it. If you don't want to mention it, you can think of other ways to ask:

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> 'Is it regular holiday?'
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> 'Why is it closed?'
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> 'When will it be open?'

But I don't see any reason to avoid the word.