Reposting: Japan Earthquake: my experience

It was just another Friday afternoon at work. I was sitting at my desk, thinking about going to lunch (I'd started late, so hadn't gone yet even though it was approaching 3pm.) I was beginning to get hungry.

That was when the shaking started. I looked up at my two colleagues sitting at their desks, neither of them had moved. I began to wonder if I was imagining it (I've done this before). But the same thing (me looking up first) had happened three days previously when a large earthquake —that we now know that was a fore-shock to Friday's earthquake—caused our office to sway for about two minutes. But that's where the similarities between Wednesday's quake and Friday's end.

After a few seconds the shaking didn't abate, and in fact started to become more pronounced. My colleagues had looked up. 'Oh, another earthquake', we were all thinking at this point. But, the shaking kept getting stronger. A few more seconds and we were beginning to look around the office at others to see what they were doing. They were doing the same as us: looking around the office at others to see what they were doing. It was then that it began to dawn on me that this was different.

Then it got really serious. Everything was shaking violently. 'This was it!' I'd never gone under the table before for an earthquake (even though I'd often thought about it), but now I knew it was the best thing to do. 'Perhaps "The Big One" everyone in Tokyo fears had finally come.' Either way, I was under my desk, and I felt no shame in that. I looked around and saw that everyone else was doing the same. Desks were shaking, chairs were moving around the floor, drawers were opening and closing, I was just holding on. I checked with my two colleagues "Hey, guys, you OK?" "Yes." came the justifiably short reply. The shaking continued.

I remember looking out the window from my position under my desk. The buildings on the other side of the street were moving violently from side to side. The thing that caught my attention were the antennae on the roofs. With the sheer force of the quake they were being whipped back and forth like toys in the hand of a naughty child.

Eventually, the shaking began to calm down. People began to come out from under their desks and tentatively move about. We moved to the windows to check the situation outside. There was no damage visible, and people were beginning to exit the building.

The next question was, 'what to do next?' The building was still standing, but there were sure to be more quakes after one that size. Looking outside, (we are on the 4th floor) there were people gathering at the front of the building, but they were standing on a temporary surface, part of extensive construction work going on. One of my colleagues said that it was probably the worst place to stand. We stayed where we were.

I stayed in the building for a good 20-30 mins after the quake, until a second tremor struck. This one was not as big, but it was easily the second biggest quake I had experienced in my four and a half years in Japan, and of course, my life. Again, we were under the desks, again the shaking seemed to go on for an age.

Once this second one subsided those of us remaining in the building decided to move outside. It's difficult to know what is best in these situations. Moving outside might seem like the obvious choice, but because of the construction work going on out front, and the fact that the building had successfully withstood two tremors, staying inside also seemed logical.

Of course, at this point, none of us had any idea of the terrible events unfolding in Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima.

After a time standing outside we were told that we could go home. I left work, and began to head into Shibuya with a colleague. We saw crowds in-front of shop windows watching TV. We joined them and saw the shocking images. 'Are we safe here?' we were thinking. 'Will a tsunami hit Tokyo?' I'm sure I saw an image of abnormally high water levels rising under the deck of Rainbow Bridge, it looked like something from a disaster movie. (note: I have not seen this image again, was it a different bridge?)

We moved on. The scale of what was happening was difficult to gauge. Starbucks was closed, one McDonalds was closed, but another was open. I saw a building with windows shattered, and the pavement in front of the building cordoned off; a few doors down, I saw a lady shopping for shoes! What to do? How should we react to this?

We eventually found a bar with some TVs and followed the coverage: trying to take in what had gone on, and wondering how to get home. After spending an inordinate amount of time walking around, getting some food in restaurants, and looking for taxis, I eventually made it home at 8am the next morning, via bus. The aftershocks continued through the night and the next day. The earth was like the deck of a ship. Safe for now, but unstable. A feeling that will likely continue for a few weeks yet.

What I experienced will stay with me for the rest of my life, but I know that we were lucky. Those people caught in the towns on the eastern coast of the Tohoku region were perhaps like us for half-an-hour or so: Unsure of what to do next. Perhaps they decided to stay put for fear of going outside. If they had no access to TV or radio, they very likely never received the tsunami warning.

In hindsight, it's very easy to choose the best course of action, but when you are caught in the middle of something like this, it is very difficult to know what the best thing to do is. I am just thankful that everybody I know in Tokyo and Japan is safe, and my thoughts are with those people less fortunate.