9.0 Earthquake

i was sitting at the starbucks in a lesson with my celebrity student when it hit. being on the ground floor, we didn't understand the severity of the quake at the time. we were sitting at the table just inside the doors. as the ground started shaking harder, i suggested we move away from the glass. when my student got up, he triggered the motion sensor for the door and it opened at which time EVERYONE IN THE COFFEE SHOP DECIDED TO MAKE A RUN FOR IT. a lot of people were panicked but i was surprisingly calm; we went outside because everyone else did.

it was a sea of black suits. i'd never seen so many people out at once. the buildings were wobbling like the inside of a lava lamp. the ground shook for a good 3 minutes. afterwards, i wrapped up my lesson, bought tomatoes on the way home, and snapped this pic of a big ass fire across the street from my apartment. a gas line had broken and the apartment was going up ion smoke. as i took this, we had at least 2 fairly sizable aftershocks. it was like trying to walk home when you're drunk.


needless to say, my second class never made it. they had been finishing up their lunch on the 8th floor of a department store. they told me that it was shaking so hard that plates were flying everywhere. it was as if someone was chucking them all over the restaurant.

a couple days after, i went with my uncle to visit my grandfather (we couldn't get through by phone at all) and assess the damage to my uncle's house in tochigi. grandpa was fine (he reckons it's a much rockier ride to the moon), he seemed more annoyed about it than anything else. my uncle's house looked like this:





more than the damage the earthquake caused, i was floored by how DIRTY his house was. is this what happens to singletons over 60?! it was filthy. i did my best to clean what i could. he offered to put me up for the night but i quickly made my excuses and headed back to ike.

in the days following the earthquake, i tried to stay home. most businesses were closed so there wasn't anything to do or anywhere to go. the markets seemed empty and tokyo became a virtual ghost town for a few days. my roomie and i went to the markets for supplies and this is what we found:





no bread, no milk, no ramen, no yogurt, no juices, no water. rows of empty shelves. people were buying everything they could. it was a bit scary.

a couple days later, i decided to venture out of my station to see what the rest of tokyo was like. armed with my new neighbor and friend G, we went to Ueno to have a kebab at my friend's stand and to walk around the park. it was a beautiful day and it wasn't crowded at all but there were far more people out and about than i thought there would be. i suppose everyone needs to get out and see what society was like. here's G in the middle of the park:


to conserve energy, lights were turned out and rolling blackouts began in areas just outside of central tokyo. this is ike station with no lights:


we started storing up water. they say there's a good chance an even bigger earthquake could hit tokyo directly:


canned foods are scarce. i had to buy this giant can of tomatoes cuz there weren't any normal sizes left:


all in all, a fairly frightening experience. for all of my friends and family who want me home, i'm staying for now but i thank you and love you for all the concern. and to everyone who gave to the charity project, thank you so much!