I was at home when the earthquake hit, and at first shrugged it off because we have plenty of earthquakes and I was sure this one was no different. However this one was different, it lasted a much longer time and was getting stronger with every shake. Things were being thrown around in my house, and at this point I realized, this was no regular earthquake, this was a big one. I ran upstairs and immediately started taking down anything that was glass and moving it to the floor, because things were falling off of shelves and for a minute I thought my entire bookcase was going to fall over. After I had moved everything to the ground that I felt might break, I ran back downstairs and braced myself as the earthquake continued to shake my house. It was quite possibly the scariest few minutes of my life. Realizing for the first time, I live alone, and have NO idea what to do in case of an earthquake…I had no preparedness kit, not even bottled water and no evacuation plan. Oops. Compared to how I could have reacted, I think I remained quite calm doing the whole ordeal. After the ground finally stopped shaking, I could hear lots of people outside talking, so I headed out the door, to be around people. I might not understand what they were saying, and everyone was just as shaken as I was, but being in the mere company of other people, made me feel a lot better.
I walked by the train station in my neighborhood and that’s when the first big aftershock hit. Let me tell you, some of these aftershocks are like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Buildings in Tokyo and in all of Japan for that matter are built to sway. I’m use to sturdy brick homes in America, that don’t budge. In Japan buildings rock, sway and move to prevent damage when earthquakes hit, and they do quite an effective job too I might add. However, being in a building that sways (to a foreigner who is not used to that) feels like the building is going to fall over on top of you. The swaying aftershocks are also a quite impressive feeling. Imagine being on a boat on a windy day on the water. The boat rocks back and forth and many people get sea sick. Now, imagine your house is doing that…crazy huh? The ground literally is swaying beneath you and everything is rocking from side to side….not a comforting thought to think that ground is swaying underneath you. I walked around my neighborhood for awhile to see what most people were doing, to get a feel for what I should be doing. All the time I was trying to call my friends in Tokyo to see where everyone was, and make sure everyone was ok. But that plan did not work as EVERYONE in Tokyo was trying to do the same thing, so the cell phone lines were jammed, my phone quit working for close to 10 hours.
I decided to head home and came to the conclusion I wouldn’t be going to Yokosuka that night, since all the trains had shut down. I had a Japanese friend come over that night, to watch the news with me, and just to keep me company since I was still pretty shaken up. The internet was still working, so I began to get in touch with people by good ole facebook, and learned that everyone was okay and trying to find their ways home. The entire city took to the streets that night as millions (literally millions) of people had to walk home from work, school, shopping wherever they were when the earthquake hit, because the trains were down for the night. I had students tell me they walked hours to get home only to find all of their valuables broken.
To be quite honest, everything was kind of a blur and I still didn’t know the damage caused everywhere by this earthquake, nor did I know at that time where it had originated from. As the days continued on I realized the extent of the damage and learned of the travesty in the Tohoku region. Things in Tokyo remained to be a bit chaotic for the next few weeks. Everyone panicked like people do everywhere (although much less here than other places), and the food quickly disappeared from the grocery stores, the trains remained shut down, and flights in and out of Tokyo were suspended briefly. This had me worried… As I stated before this happened on Friday and my younger brother Daniel, was suppose to be flying in on Monday. So I was playing the waiting game to see what would happen. We had aftershocks about every 15 minutes so the trains were running slow, sporadically or not at all. I had talked with Daniel and he assured me he was still coming out here, so a friend from church graciously offered to drive me out there to pick him up, when she realized the trains to the airport that day were not running. I am so thankful people here are looking out for me!
About the time of Daniel’s arrival into Tokyo is when all the foreigners were fleeing Japan, so it was really nice to have him with me during this time. His trip to Japan was a lot of fun, with a few modifications due to the earthquake. But overall it was a great time. We even had my birthday dinner with our two Japanese friends from Milwaukee, which was really cool; Mariko, Ken, Daniel and I enjoyed a nice dinner in Shinjuku and had a good time catching up. I’d say his trip to Japan was quite a success, we had enough food and never lost power so I’d call that a success.
After Daniel left I spent the next two days in Tokyo just hanging out and taking a break, still having aftershocks quite frequently. I had learned most of the Lutheran missionaries (LCMS and ELCA) were no longer in Tokyo. The ELCA missionaries had planned trips out of the city prior to the earthquake, and then I learned the LCMS missionaries had all been evacuated. I started to get a bit worried, but I had a trip previously planned to go to Hong Kong to visit my friend Laura. Despite what the American news was telling everyone, things in Tokyo remained rather calm and unaffected by everything that was going on. People in America telling me things and reporting what they heard was freaking me out much more than what the American Embassy or my bosses were telling me, so to be quite honest everyone at home was making me much more frightened and nervous than I needed to be. So it was also nice to escape that by calming everyone’s nerves and telling them I was in Hong Kong.
This trip came at a great time, I was able to get out of Tokyo for a week and truly relax with a friend from college. I slept and the ground never shook to wake me up, and I got to enjoy normal life again without the worry of radiation. My trip to HK was a huge success. While I was visiting Laura, I also had time to meet up with another missionary friend Rebecca as well, and the three of us had high tea at the Penninsula Hotel, great experience I encourage everyone to try it! I also happened to be there on Sevens weekend. Sevens is the biggest sports event in Hong Kong, its a weekend long Rubgy tournament where teams from all over the world compete to be rugby champion. It was a LOT of fun! Laura and I got tickets to go on Friday to watch the opening matches, so granted the teams weren't matched well, but it was still a blast to watch and hang out with my new friends!
I immediately fell in love with Hong Kong, it was the perfect blend of Chinese and Western c/2ultures, island and city living, relaxation and business savvy, its a great place. Most, if not all, people speak English! I was able to communicate and make friends faster there than I have here in Japan for the past 1 1/2 yrs. The way of living is much different there, and its definitly a place I could see myself living...more on that in the future ;)
I returned to Tokyo as planned, with a slight delay of flight, and started work that same evening. Everything now has calmed down a bit, some schools had delayed starts due to the earthquake and some stores are still running shorter hours, but other than that, its life as usually here in Japan. In my next blog I’ll try to catch everyone up on how this new school year has been going!
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