Month: March 2011

How I lived the greatest earthquake in the history of Japan – Part 5

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date March 24, 2011
4 Comments on How I lived the greatest earthquake in the history of Japan – Part 5

On Sunday I go out to the street to walk around the city. 80% of subway lines in Tokyo are already running and we can move with certain liberty. I can see how the Shinkansen service to the south-west of Japan is running smoothly:

Bullet train coming out of Tokyo Station on Sunday morning.

There are very few people on the streets compared to a normal Sunday in Tokyo. I walk around the surroundings of the Emperor Palace; the security area around the palace has been increased, most likely as an extra security measure because of the earthquake on Friday.

The Japanese Emperor Palace two days after the earthquake.

While I’m walking, I feel how the ground is vibrating once again, the trees are shaking a little bit, I stop to see if it’s going to get stronger or not. Luckily, after twenty seconds, it stops and everything is back to normal again. I see on Twitter that it was a small earthquake of 5.8 with epicenter in one of the prefectures to the north of Tokyo.

At the parks around the palace there’s barely any people, normally they are full of tourists.

Downtown streets near Tokyo Station are empty.

I go back home soon to get the latest news about the tragedy. When I sit in front of my computer I feel how another earthquake is coming. To confirm that it is in fact an earthquake, what everybody does is to check the curtains or a lamp to see if they are really moving or not. When you have lived through several days of continuous seismic movements every two or three hours, you end up having “earthquake hallucinations”. You think that everything is moving, but it turns out to be a product of the imagination of your brain. It is something similar to when you go on a boat and you are not used to it, when you step on solid ground again you still feel some kind of dizziness. I look at the curtains carefully and it seems like they are not moving at all; luckily it’s me the one that is making up the earthquake in his brain.

To clear up my mind I take a shower, but this time I’m not lucky enough and an earthquake catches me while I’m showering. It’s not very cool that all the house moves while you are showering, but I take it easy and stupidly laugh at myself.

More posts about the March 2011 Earthquake:

Various

How I lived the greatest earthquake in the history of Japan – Part 4

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date March 23, 2011

I receive e-mails from colleagues and friends that can’t go home, others say that they have been walking for seven hours, almost 30km. Hotels in downtown Tokyo are full. News from the situation in the north continue to arrive and the number of victims starts to grow.

I have to sleep next to a backpack with food, water and a flashlight. But sleeping is not easy, most of us can’t sleep because of the multiple aftershocks that happen throughout the night. Unable to sleep well, on Saturday at 5:00am I am already getting the latest news: thousands of refugees and problems with the nuclear power plant at Fukushima.

Around 9:00am I go out to the streets to see how the atmosphere is. There are much less people than usual in the streets and the shelves in the supermarkets are empty. Everything else seems normal and quiet in Tokyo, however we still feel some aftershocks every two or three hours.

We are all sad and worried about the situation, but we need to disconnect, at mid afternoon we manage to gather a group of some friends (the ones that can move by bicycle or scooter) to celebrate the birthdays of Carlos and I. We don’t have anything to celebrate, but we need to get together and calm down; we have a lot to talk about, we all share our feelings and comment how we are living the situation.

Nothing better than to be with friends in a situation like this. Thanks, you are the best! We will all celebrate in some weeks as it should have been.

Our cakes, 24 hours after the earthquake; also they were affected by the shaking of the earthquake:

Very tired because of the lack of sleep and worried about the news that are arriving from the north, we all go back home soon to try to get some rest.

More posts about the March 2011 Earthquake:

Various

How I lived the greatest earthquake in the history of Japan – Part 3

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date March 22, 2011
1 Comment on How I lived the greatest earthquake in the history of Japan – Part 3

More and more people come to the park. I sit down in a rock next to some bushes with flowers, but just after sitting down I feel how the rock starts to vibrate. Trees and lamp posts around the park shake following the aftershocks that arrive every 10-20 minutes. We are still trying to use our cell phones or send e-mails, but we can’t. Somebody is able to get signal for a while and we get news that the tsunami has already arrived to the coast in the north, sweeping towns and cities. At the park we feel more secure that inside the building, but everybody looks more and more worried.

Around 5:30pm some of us decide to head back home. Trains are not running, they are all stopped, the rail companies employees are checking the railways to see if they are safe or need reparations. Many of my colleagues start to walk to head back home, but distances in Tokyo are huge, to some of them many hours of walk await. I head back home by bicycle but I soon have to stop and continue by foot; the streets are clogged with cars and sidewalks are flooded with pedestrians. Crowds slowly advance walking, calmly but with heads down, many are checking their cell phones trying to get signal. People are lining up to buy stuff in 24 hour shops and supermarkets.

Line of people waiting to use a public telephone, cell phones are not working.

Supermarkets are running out of food very fast.

After one hour and a half walking I arrive home. I live in a ground floor apartment, so the damages are not very important. Some books and plates have fallen to the floor, the tables have moved and my computer monitor has almost fallen to the ground but it is safe. I go online to check the latest news, I am terrified when I see the first images of the tsunami destruction.

Me and my group of friends were going to celebrate Carlos 32nd birthday and my 30th birthday. But Tokyo is paralyzed, there are traffic jams everywhere, trains are still not running and it’s impossible to get a taxi. Of course it is not the best moment to celebrate anything, we cancel our birthday party and postpone it for another day.

More posts about the March 2011 Earthquake: