Earthquake

I know I have to write a blog entry about this, but I don't even know what to say. Sorry if this is a bit of a mess.

I was at work on Friday. Normal day. Super happy about my good news of the morning (not being homeless in April) and looking forward to sushi for lunch. I was in an interview with a prospective student when the earthquake hit. At first we were just like, "Oh, an earthquake." Then, "Oh, it's pretty big." Then, "OH SHIT." We - along with everyone else in Hikarigaoka - ran outside. I can't describe the feeling of the quake. A bit like being on the deck of a ship in a big storm maybe. But it was terrifying. People were running and kids were crying and it was difficult to stay standing and it was so loud and it looked like the scaffolding on an apartment block was going to come crashing down. At the time, what struck me more than the size of the earthquake was how long it lasted. It seemed to go on for ages, it was unbelievable. Once things had calmed down, we headed back into the office. A lot of things on the floor and a bit of damage to the building, but it could have been much worse. About half an hour later the first big aftershock hit and we repeated the running outside drill. Got our belongings after that calmed down and evacuated to the park. At 4 we were told we could leave, so we started walking home. Stopped by a convenience store to get some food since we hadn't been able to get lunch. I couldn't feel the aftershocks while I was walking, but as soon as I got home that was all I could feel. There were so many strong ones, and it sometimes felt like they were happening constantly. I was so tired and sleepy, but I couldn't sleep well that night because I was so tense and because whenever I managed to fall asleep, an aftershock inevitably woke me up.

Work on Saturday was canceled. I had to get out of my apartment or go crazy, so I met Andrew in Shinagawa. Once I got there, all the trains were like, "We aren't running anymore," so there was some fear about being stranded, but I decided not to worry about it too much and just try to relax a bit. We walked to Ginza. Tokyo felt apocalyptic. So many businesses were closed. Restaurants were shut, coffee shops were shut, some convenience stores were shut. But Louis Vuitton was open! Seriously, it was so strange seeing which things had decided to close and which had decided to stay open. We tried to get dinner in one of the department stores, but last order was at 5 and by the time we reached the restaurant floor it was, like, 5:01. Fail. Wandered around a bit more until we found a place that was open and had reasonable prices. Turned out to be great! We never would have stopped there usually, but it turned out to be such a good choice. It was comfortable (we got to sit on couches) and the food was delicious and the drinks were great and we were allowed to stay there for ages. One of the guys working there talked to us a bit. He said they'd been crazy busy the day before - probably because a lot of people were stranded in that part of the city on Friday night - but that there had just been nobody all day Saturday. Finally decided to move on and ended up going to karaoke. We were the only customers. So weird! Thankfully the trains were okay and I was able to get home, although it took ages because we were delayed to start with and then just kept stopping and stopping and stopping.

We were supposed to work on Sunday, but that was canceled. Ended up having a picnic in Nerima with Clare, Yoko, and Richard. It was a beautiful day, so we thought it was a good idea to keep each other company and try to relax and have an enjoyable time. Went to the grocery store to get things to eat and found that it was lacking in so much food. No rice! Or bread! Or meat! So crazy. After our picnic, we went to karaoke. Super good stress relief.

Today the trains are running on weird schedules (or just aren't running), so I'm sticking closer to home. Because of the problems with the reactors, there are supposed to be rolling blackouts (although supposedly not where I am), but I don't think they actually happened today like we were told. Information about what's going on here is a bit confusing.

We're not having classes tomorrow, but right now we are planning on going to work tomorrow to start trying to get things back to normal. The unexpected three day weekend (when I was supposed to have a one day weekend) has been nice, in spite of the tragedy that caused it, but it'll be good to be back at work and see everyone and try to return to normal. I think it's going to be a long time before we're really back to normal, but I'm glad we're on our way, even if only baby steps.

Anyway, thanks and love to everyone for your concern and prayers and encouragement over the past few days. It is appreciated so much!

Enjoy the nice flowers because everything else about this is depressing!