Accounts of the Earthquake
Hey guys. How're you all doing?
A friend of mine, who's in Japan at the moment, wrote about his experience of the earthquake. I thought it was a detailed and descriptive account, and thought that maybe some people here would like to read it. I asked for his permission and I'm posting it here now. It's mostly unabridged, except he's got bloke-like grammar (so it's pretty shitty in places) and I've made some corrections.
I had arranged to meet my friend Ryo in Tokyo, Yotsuya at 1:30. As the weather was supposed to be nice we intended to have a walk from Yotsuya to Ginza and then go through to Shinbashi. After meeting up and realising that both of us hadn't really had anything to eat we popped into a Ramen shop to grab a bite. We set off at about 2:30 from the Raman shop heading towards the imperial palace as it was on the way to Ginza. While nearing the Imperial palace, while crossing the road I suddenly felt extremely nauseous, my first thoughts were that it was something I had eaten at the Raman shop. However when I looked around I noticed that everyone was stood completely still. It was then that I realised that the ground had started to shake. Though I had felt small earthquakes before in Japan this was completely different. It almost felt as if you were walking on water initially as the ground beneath you didn't feel quite solid...but was moving left, right, up and down. Once we realized that this was the initial stages of an earthquake we quickly moved off the road onto the other side of the street. By this time the earthquake had become more violent so that when we reached the other side the street the street lamps and road signs were shaking quite vigorously.
Completely rooted to the spot it was then that we realised that we were surrounded by towering buildings on either side and that those buildings, much like the roads signs and lamps, were swaying left and right too. Expecting the people around me to start running, screaming....something, I was completely surprised to see that, just like me, they were.....glued to the floor, almost mesmerized my the moving buildings. Not knowing what to do in such a situation and having no one to copy I just fixed my eyes on the top of the building reminding myself that they're supposed to sway and that Tokyo has been built from the ground up to withstand earthquakes like these.
Once the earthquake had died down and I had regained control of my body again, I looked around, saw that there was no damage, casualties or anything to speak of, and felt extremely relived. After making sure Ryo was OK we decided to quickly make our way towards the Imperial palace grounds. As we knew there were chances of aftershocks and that the palace grounds aren't surrounded by any tall buildings it seemed like the safest place to go for the time being. On the way there we passed people on the street crying, salarymen wearing safety helmets and others just in a state of shock; just stood there. We arrived at the imperial palace with the sound of police sirens around us and helicopters overhead. As expected an aftershock hit relatively soon after the initially earthquake but thankfully this time we weren't surrounded by buildings and it wasn't nearly as violent as the last.
I had managed to send a quick e-mail from my phone to my family but the services quickly went down. Also the trains had stopped running and the streets were flooded with people. Thankfully Ryo's family were safe and we managed to meet up with her mother in Ginza who works at a shop there. It was then that we learned of how big the earthquake was and that it had caused a tsunami across north east Japan.
That's really the main bits about the earthquake itself and my own experience. In the end we ended up staying in the store with the other Japanese people who worked there, hearing about the extent of the damage on the news etc. Everyone was shocked and saying that it was almost 'like something out of a movie' Ryo's dad managed to battle through the congestion and pick us up from Ginza and take me back to where I'm living in Nishi Kawaguchi. I arrived back about midnight, 7 hours after the earthquake. Thankfully as I said Tokyo is so well built to stand earthquakes that after the tremors had died down, the only evidence you'd have that something had happened here was the mass amount of people on the streets wearing safety helmets or the fact that trains weren't running. There was little or no damage and last time I checked the news there'd 'only' been three confirmed deaths within Tokyo. So not nearly as bad as the other places that were effected.
I'm hoping to get permission to post another story soon. My student, a woman who works for an insurance company, has given me permission to publish her story as well. The original's in Japanese, so I'll publish both just in case any of you know Japanese at all:
私は地震があった時、仕事中でした。約60階建の高層ビルの12階で、事故受付の電話中に、上下の揺れの後恐ろしい程グラングランと横揺れが始まりました。ほとんどみんなヘルメットをかぶり机の下に隠れましたが、私は机にしがみついて電話を続けざるをえませんでした。
帰ろうとしたら電車が動きません！帰ることのできない人の為、東京都庁が建物を解放しました。私は冷たい床の上に、配られた段ボールを敷いて、他のたくさんの人と同じように横になって寝ましたが、寒いし冷たいしひもじかったです。朝方、毛布と乾パンと水がみんなに配られほっとしたのもつかの間、都庁で大型テレビの映像を見てみんな驚きました。死亡者・行方不明者が１０００人超と放映されていたからです（現在は１６００人超と言われています）。私の実家は東京よりずっと震源地に近いですが、停電しているようです。
今日も仕事に行きましたが、何度も地震が来ていて怖いです。
And now for my dodgy translation:
I was at work when the earthquake hit. I was on the phone at Accident Reception, on the 12th floor of a roughly 60-storey building, when, right after the up-and-down tremors, the truly terrifying sideways tremors started with vigour. Most people put on helmets and ducked under their desks, but I had no choice but to cling onto the desk and continue the phone call (I was on).
The trains weren't running when I tried to get home! The Tokyo Government Office allowed those of us who could not get home to use their building. I lay out the cardboard that had been handed out on the cold floor, and like many other people lay down and slept, but the air was cold, I was cold, and I was hungry. In the morning, as blankets and crackers and water were being handed out (to our relief), we watched the pictures on the huge TV in the government office, and were shocked, because it was being televised that over a thousand people were either dead or missing (at the moment they are saying it's over 1600 people). My hometown is much closer to the epicentre than Tokyo. It seems as though there's a blackout there.
I went to work today as well. There were numerous aftershocks, and it was frightening.
A friend of mine, who's in Japan at the moment, wrote about his experience of the earthquake. I thought it was a detailed and descriptive account, and thought that maybe some people here would like to read it. I asked for his permission and I'm posting it here now. It's mostly unabridged, except he's got bloke-like grammar (so it's pretty shitty in places) and I've made some corrections.
I had arranged to meet my friend Ryo in Tokyo, Yotsuya at 1:30. As the weather was supposed to be nice we intended to have a walk from Yotsuya to Ginza and then go through to Shinbashi. After meeting up and realising that both of us hadn't really had anything to eat we popped into a Ramen shop to grab a bite. We set off at about 2:30 from the Raman shop heading towards the imperial palace as it was on the way to Ginza. While nearing the Imperial palace, while crossing the road I suddenly felt extremely nauseous, my first thoughts were that it was something I had eaten at the Raman shop. However when I looked around I noticed that everyone was stood completely still. It was then that I realised that the ground had started to shake. Though I had felt small earthquakes before in Japan this was completely different. It almost felt as if you were walking on water initially as the ground beneath you didn't feel quite solid...but was moving left, right, up and down. Once we realized that this was the initial stages of an earthquake we quickly moved off the road onto the other side of the street. By this time the earthquake had become more violent so that when we reached the other side the street the street lamps and road signs were shaking quite vigorously.
Completely rooted to the spot it was then that we realised that we were surrounded by towering buildings on either side and that those buildings, much like the roads signs and lamps, were swaying left and right too. Expecting the people around me to start running, screaming....something, I was completely surprised to see that, just like me, they were.....glued to the floor, almost mesmerized my the moving buildings. Not knowing what to do in such a situation and having no one to copy I just fixed my eyes on the top of the building reminding myself that they're supposed to sway and that Tokyo has been built from the ground up to withstand earthquakes like these.
Once the earthquake had died down and I had regained control of my body again, I looked around, saw that there was no damage, casualties or anything to speak of, and felt extremely relived. After making sure Ryo was OK we decided to quickly make our way towards the Imperial palace grounds. As we knew there were chances of aftershocks and that the palace grounds aren't surrounded by any tall buildings it seemed like the safest place to go for the time being. On the way there we passed people on the street crying, salarymen wearing safety helmets and others just in a state of shock; just stood there. We arrived at the imperial palace with the sound of police sirens around us and helicopters overhead. As expected an aftershock hit relatively soon after the initially earthquake but thankfully this time we weren't surrounded by buildings and it wasn't nearly as violent as the last.
I had managed to send a quick e-mail from my phone to my family but the services quickly went down. Also the trains had stopped running and the streets were flooded with people. Thankfully Ryo's family were safe and we managed to meet up with her mother in Ginza who works at a shop there. It was then that we learned of how big the earthquake was and that it had caused a tsunami across north east Japan.
That's really the main bits about the earthquake itself and my own experience. In the end we ended up staying in the store with the other Japanese people who worked there, hearing about the extent of the damage on the news etc. Everyone was shocked and saying that it was almost 'like something out of a movie' Ryo's dad managed to battle through the congestion and pick us up from Ginza and take me back to where I'm living in Nishi Kawaguchi. I arrived back about midnight, 7 hours after the earthquake. Thankfully as I said Tokyo is so well built to stand earthquakes that after the tremors had died down, the only evidence you'd have that something had happened here was the mass amount of people on the streets wearing safety helmets or the fact that trains weren't running. There was little or no damage and last time I checked the news there'd 'only' been three confirmed deaths within Tokyo. So not nearly as bad as the other places that were effected.
I'm hoping to get permission to post another story soon. My student, a woman who works for an insurance company, has given me permission to publish her story as well. The original's in Japanese, so I'll publish both just in case any of you know Japanese at all:
私は地震があった時、仕事中でした。約60階建の高層ビルの12階で、事故受付の電話中に、上下の揺れの後恐ろしい程グラングランと横揺れが始まりました。ほとんどみんなヘルメットをかぶり机の下に隠れましたが、私は机にしがみついて電話を続けざるをえませんでした。
帰ろうとしたら電車が動きません！帰ることのできない人の為、東京都庁が建物を解放しました。私は冷たい床の上に、配られた段ボールを敷いて、他のたくさんの人と同じように横になって寝ましたが、寒いし冷たいしひもじかったです。朝方、毛布と乾パンと水がみんなに配られほっとしたのもつかの間、都庁で大型テレビの映像を見てみんな驚きました。死亡者・行方不明者が１０００人超と放映されていたからです（現在は１６００人超と言われています）。私の実家は東京よりずっと震源地に近いですが、停電しているようです。
今日も仕事に行きましたが、何度も地震が来ていて怖いです。
And now for my dodgy translation:
I was at work when the earthquake hit. I was on the phone at Accident Reception, on the 12th floor of a roughly 60-storey building, when, right after the up-and-down tremors, the truly terrifying sideways tremors started with vigour. Most people put on helmets and ducked under their desks, but I had no choice but to cling onto the desk and continue the phone call (I was on).
The trains weren't running when I tried to get home! The Tokyo Government Office allowed those of us who could not get home to use their building. I lay out the cardboard that had been handed out on the cold floor, and like many other people lay down and slept, but the air was cold, I was cold, and I was hungry. In the morning, as blankets and crackers and water were being handed out (to our relief), we watched the pictures on the huge TV in the government office, and were shocked, because it was being televised that over a thousand people were either dead or missing (at the moment they are saying it's over 1600 people). My hometown is much closer to the epicentre than Tokyo. It seems as though there's a blackout there.
I went to work today as well. There were numerous aftershocks, and it was frightening.