Tokyo Earthquake

We were in class and everything was just going just like normal when I could feel something a bit strange. There’s been several quite large earthquakes here in Japan since I came here and most of them shake the building a little bit for around 30 seconds and then die down. This time, something happened that usually doesn’t; It kept going.

The lesson was going on and right after I started feeling something Taru who is a girl sitting next to me in the classroom says “じしん” which means Earthquake to the teacher. I try to sit still and feel the ground and indeed, there’s an earthquake. Just like any other I think, and so does the teacher because he calmly continues with the lesson. But after 30 seconds or so it doesn’t stop, it keeps escalating.

After a little while the teacher tells everyone to be quiet. He pulls a joke about a hearing a cat scream. Then everyone starts talking a bit and 5 seconds later the teacher says “Quiet!” again. He smiles and looks at it like a normal thing, but then it starts really getting bad and the building is really shaking; this is the creepiest part of it all, the uncertainty of when it will stop getting worse. The moment I know it’s a “real” earthquake is when the expression on the teachers face changes in an instant from smiling “this is all cool” to “ok, now I have to think about what to actually do, this is not fun anymore”.

We are told to go outside, I grab my backpack but forget my jacket (not because of the stress but simply because I didn’t think of it) and start walking out into the street. At this point the building is really shaking.

It feels like walking in a boat, it’s kind of hard to stand up straight let alone to walk down 4 flights of stairs. Our classroom is on the 4th floor and the stairs down are very narrow, pretty much wide enough to fit one person. There are walls on both sides though so the whole way down I walk swaying back and forth with one hand on each wall.

When I’m finally down on the street everything feels really obscure. I’m standing on paved road and yet it’s going up and down like a thick rubber mat on water. I see Emma with her phone writing a tweet and think “Good Idea, I’ll do that too.” There is some difference in the urgency of our expressions though

Standing in the street during quake

Me:

@ique
Reaaally big earthquake going on right now. But were ok! twitpic.com/48d6pl

Emma:

@Eemma
HOLY SHIT!!!!!!! biggest earthquake!!!!! Still going on. NEVER FELT ANYHTING LIKE THIS. Everyone outside.twitpic.com/48d72z

It probably took around 2 minutes to get down to the street and then it shook while we were standing there for another minute or so. When it stopped everyone went back inside. We took a 10-15 minute break and then thought everything was cool pretty much so we continued the lessons.

Feeling tremblings after the first shock

Me:

@ique
Were inside again but we can still feel the building trembling and see the powerlines moving from the aftershock.twitpic.com/48datv

Emma:

@Eemma
Thought the world was going under!!! Buildings moving like one meter left and right. HOLY SHIT!!!

After probably 30 minutes or so from the first quake another really big one hit. It felt pretty much like the first one but this time we just ducked in under our desks and it was over a lot faster than the first one.

Me:

@ique
M7.9 quake. We’re in the 2nd aftershock right now. Lessons are cancelled for the day, some injuries at the station and trains have stopped.

Emma:

@Eemma
After shock. Fucking strong still tho. Feels like I’m on the sea in a storm. Except I’m not…..

After this the teacher wasn’t sure of what to do. After some discussions with other teachers and some time to see that everything was cool, it was decided that lessons should end for the day and everyone should head out to a close-by elementary school to just gather up at a “safe-spot”. We sat there on the exercise-ground of the elementary school for 30-40 minutes before they said it was OK to walk home or to go to a restaurant and eat or something. They said there had been injuries at the stations because of falling objects and all the trains had stopped going so we were not allowed to go to the stations.

Hoping the trains would start again at a restaurant

We all went to a close-by restaurant and ate dinner for about an hour or so and then headed out to decide what to do. Finally we all decided to walk home, easier for some and much harder for others. For us it was kind of in between. It’s almost indescribable how many people there were on the streets trying to get home when the trains aren’t working. It took us about an hour to an hour and a half to walk home in pretty cold weather (like 6 degrees C). I stopped and bought a sweater on the way. This morning I remember looking at my sweater that I usually wear under my jacket and thought “Nah.. it’s sunny outside and I have nothing planned so I’ll just be walking from the station and home.”

The start of the queue for a Taxi

The continuation of the queue for a Taxi

How wrong I was.