Part Two: The Week After
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The next day, we all went outside & met Noriko-sensei (my Aeon’s manager). Yasutomo was with us, &, well, secret!relationship turned out to not be secret! She didn’t act surprised at all, so I’m not sure if she knew beforehand or what, to be truthful.
Miyuki (assistant manager) came by to drop off some food & supplies. It was so sweet! She packed us so much stuff - an amazing hot water thermos, wet tissues, food, everything! We went back to Swing building, but they weren’t letting anyone inside. Apparently, the 4th floor’s ceiling completely collapsed. We walked around a bit to see the damage, too, & after a while, we went back to my place. Coming back, we saw John & Wakana! John had had to walk all the way back from downtown Sendai (a good 20-25 minute car ride) to get back home after the earthquake.
That night electricity came back, & we even had water for about an hour, so we saved some in the bathtub. It was pretty nasty since a lot of dirt & sediment had gotten into it, but it was good enough. Yeah, but water was turned back off. (Maybe it was just what was in our tank?) Seriously, having electricity back was an amazing feeling! We could finally charge our phones & find out what was happening outside. Honestly, though, watching the news was pretty hard, emotionally, so we didn’t watch much.
We climbed into the same bed situation, but Richard decided to use my chair to sleep in, so Yasutomo, Emiko-sensei, & I got a little bit more room.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
That day, John & Wakana came by since they still didn’t have electricity at their place. Miyuki also came by to drop off more supplies. That night Emiko’s sister came by & picked her up to take her home. I was glad she was finally able to see her family & her daughters, but it was pretty sad to see her leave. (As of today, I’ve talked with her on the phone a couple of times so she’s okay, but that day was the last day I saw her in person. )
Monday, March 14, 2011
Unbelievable, but Yasutomo had to go into work, so that morning Richard & I went to Ito Yokado to try & buy some food. We ended up waiting for about 3 hours. While we were waiting, Miyuki called &, because she still didn’t have electricity at her place, asked if she could come by & charge her phone. She had perfect timing, too - supplies were limited to one item (one apple instead of two, etc.) per person, & because she came right as we were about the get baskets, we had an extra person.
As we were walking back, Richard saw CocoIchi (a curry restaurant) doing bentos, so Miyuki & I took my supplies & Richard waiting in a small line to buy curry. CURRY! OMG, it had never tasted so good. <3
Luckily, Yasutomo only had to go into work for a couple of hours, so he came back pretty quickly. He & Richard went to the district office - drinkable water had been shipped from Niigata, & they were allowing up to two liters per person. They went ahead, & Miyuki & I met with Harumi-sensei & Maiko-sensei (two other teachers at my school) to give them Richard’s rice cooker (since he wasn’t using it). On the way to meet them, I saw two students! They both seemed to be doing okay.
That night, Yasutomo fiddled with my TV - the cable cord had snapped in half when the TV fell - & we were able to finally get some decent news. Yasutomo had also heard that there was an 80% chance that another big (over magnitude 7) earthquake/aftershock would come. This freaked the hell out of me. If Yasutomo hadn’t had to work, I probably would have been begging him to have us go up north to Aomori where his parents live, honestly.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
That morning, I just couldn’t take it any more & washed my hair using the bathtub water. Felt SO good!! That day was also the first day we heard about the power plant in Fukushima… Worrying about another massive earthquake coming, dealing with the aftershocks, & then hearing about a possible nuclear problem? It wasn’t the greatest feeling in the world.
On the upside, we got water back this day! We still couldn’t quite get hot water yet, but running water!!!!!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Thankfully, not too many of my students live in the tsunami-stricken areas, but there is one who lives right near the coast. Her name is Kuniko, & we were all having massive trouble getting any word from her. This day, we finally got word that she was safe in an evacuation shelter!
Later that day, Richard went back to his place & brought back his portable wifi device. &&&! Hot water came back that night!! We kept the gross water in the bathtub just in case something happened again, but I was able to take a real shower!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Thursday I really just wanted to stay in, so Richard & I chilled at my apartment, & we played our different video games. (coughPokemoncough) I had brought a couple of DVDs back from the States when I went home for Christmas, so we watched Harold & Kumar to White Castle & Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. (Love both!)
Played lots of pokemon & watched movies.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Y was able to get this day off, so we decided to start moving some of my stuff over to his place. Richard wanted to spend some time at his place, so when he left, Y & I packed some of my stuff & went over to his house. His apartment is on the first floor of his building, so he didn’t have much damage. I’d gotten used to the aftershocks in my apartment - lots of swaying - but his place doesn’t really shake, so even though we could sort of feel something moving, we could never really tell if it was just us or if it was an actual earthquake. (Even now, I’ll have moments where it feels like it’s starting to shake, but it’s just me. I always need a cup of water around - if the water is moving, it’s not just me!)