Before and after the Earthquake

As I sit here at 740am Thursday morning (japan time) I find that i have another day of sitting and waiting with no where to go and nothing to do. For most part this is due to no petrol. I am thankful for a warm shower, gas, electric, food, water and the slow internet that allows me to stay in touch...I am very fortunate to be able to have gotten out of the disaster zone to a more secure location...albeit, the person whos apartment this is has gone back to america until his parents deem japan safe for him to return...as with all our family and friends they are very concerned for our safety.

For now, I feel its time to start telling the story - of course its a long story and so it shall be broken into parts.

(to protect my friends identity i will use different names) 

The night before

This story begins the night before the Earthquake when everything was normal. It was Sarahs last night in miyako before leaving friday night on a bus heading for Tokyo. Every attended the usual Thursday night cultural exchange class held at our local youth centre. As a surprise a japanese friend brought a komodo for Sarah to wear. Another japanese lady decided that she would teach Sarah a japanese dance. Whilst Sarah was preparing the rest of us learnt a traditional Japanese goodbye song chosen by one of our Japanese teachers.

We exchanged the parting gifts of song and dance followed by a farewell speech Sarah. Sarah had already spent the past week saying goodbye to friends and schools. We had also already had an official goodbye party for her. We knew she loved karaoke so for a final night treat we decided to go to karaoke to sing our last songs together. We limited it to an hour because she still had a lot of packing and last minute things to do. I was her house mate and was also moving out Friday to temporarily live with a friend for two weeks until my new apartment was ready for me to move in April 1st. 

At karaoke we sang until our hearts were content. I also sang my very first japanese song (with the help of a friend and romaji) called "Best Friend" by Kiroro. After karaoke we all said our goodbyes and headed home.

Friday 11th

For those of us that were teachers we had friday off work. Although Sarah and I had an early start due to it being moving day. I loaded my car with nearly all of my remaining items. I still had a few things left and also there were some things Sarah was giving to us but they were all going in my friends car later.

We decided to take a break from packing and cleaning due to needing to take a trip to City Hall and the bank. I was going to the City Hall because i thought i needed 2 certificates for my visa extension. I managed to get one but then had to call Interac, my company. The office staff was very rude to me and seemed annoyed. Apparently i was suppose to have read some information they had sent me, which actually turned out to still be in the post. I was later informed that i would need to return to my apartment (that i was moving out of) on Monday to get the information i needed. To say the least, my trip to city hall was a wasted journey.

Me and another friend took Sarah to the bank so she could close her account. One thing you should know about Japan is that they love their paperwork, so it wasnt surprising that it took about an hour to fill out a form to send money to her home company and close her account.

We made a brief stop at our apartment because Sarah needed to take her car to one of her employers relative who lived in sokei (part of miyako). So whilst a friend went with her i continued tidying.

Another friendly shortly arrived to pick me up and we went for lunch at a nearby american style restaurant. We met Sarah and our friend there, along with 2 of our Japanese friends. We enjoyed a lovely meal together. We had just finished paying at around 235pm. Some people were outside in the car park, the rest of us were inside still. This is when the ground shook.

Everyone was told to go outside. The earthquake felt similar to the one we experienced on Wednesday. It felt like a steady tremble, enough to rock cars and cause windows to vibrate. But then it got worst. The quake continued and became more violent. Some cars shook so much they started banging against each other, large signs swayed so much they look like they were going to snap in 2, a building across the street creaked as it shook and looked as though it was going to fall down...then the power went out.

I'm not sure how long it lasted but it was a long time. My friend quickly took out his phone and used his TV function and saw there was a tsunami warning. At first it was predicted to be a 3 meter wave...the same that was predicted on wednesday which turned out to be a 50cm wave...most of us were unsure whether it was serious or not. The sirens then sounded the warning (not every town has warning sirens). Again we were still unsure because it was only 2 days before that a practice test was done at 6am.

However, the Earthquake was very strong. at first it was predicted to have been a 7.6m (of course this changed to 8.9m). One of our Japanese friends had children at school and so we decided to go see if they were ok. This was actually one of the main reasons for escaping to high grounds. We presumed it would pass within the hour. 

Whilst we were up at the school we continued to experience the aftershocks. We also continued to follow the news on the phone. The prediction for the height of the wave increased to 7m. We then had to wash on a 2.4in screen the first initial destruction of miyako. We hadnt seen it come over the wall and so after 2 hours we tried to go back in. The road was blocked and we didnt know why. When we returned to the school we ran into another foreigner. She was originally from Africa but had been living in Japan for 12 years. Her house was close by and so we went there. She was very concerned about her husband who worked out at sea around Japan (we later found out he was safe)

throughout the evening one of our Japanese friends wanted to go home. I'm not sure she was fully aware of the seriousness of the situation but she kept asking and was concerned about her husband...again im not fully sure she understood we were all worried about our friends. Of course phone lines were down due to no electricity and so we could not contract anyone. The house we were in still had some water left in the storage tank, we had gas for cooking, a battery for a light in the living room and a kerosene heater - we were a lot better off then most.

At 8pm my american friend gave in and decided he would take my japanese friend home (if he could). I chose to go with him just incase he did get her home (i didnt want him to drive back alone). This meant we had to take the back route which was the side of a mountain...this was risky due to continuing aftershocks that could cause landslides.

What normally took 10minutes, took 40mins. Electric was still out so navigating the roads in the dark with no traffic signals was difficult. We noticed a store was selling provisions at the entrance and so we stopped there to stock up for a day, just in case. We then proceded into the town to check out the damage. We drove past one of our friends apartment (he is an english teacher and was with us when the earthquake hit, he stayed at the 'safe house'). The road was covered in silt but very little damage. Some people hadnt had time to put shoes on and so were walking through the street barefoot. One old lady was being carried out on someones back. We tried to go down the side streets but each time we came across endless amount of debris, car slung against house with vans, boats and more cars piled on top... every way was blocked...we had to turn around and head back out of town and take more back routes to get to tsugaruishi. 

We made it ok. Our Japanese friend was reunited with her husband. We headed back along the main road as far as we could until we were stopped by the emergency people. It was confirmed that the tsunami had come as far as tsugaruishi, even though tsugaruishi has one of the largest tsunami defence for its river in the area. We were told most of the area was damaged and also Sokei (Sokei is between tsugaruishi and Miyako)

We returned the way we came, back to miyako. At this point i was worried about my apartment. I had had confirmation that the water had reached the 1st floor (in japan 1st floor is ground floor - so in japan terms it reached 2nd floor) of the the City Hall that i was in earlier that day. The City Hall is just down the road from me. After another detour we found ourself on the main road which was blocked at either end. On one end was a house and the other a boat - yes a boat was sitting across the road.

We tried one last route which was through a grave yard up hill. It took a further 10minutes to get to an elementary school at the top of my road. This was as close as we could get, from here we had to walk.

We took a torch and meandered through the wreckages. more cars piled on top of each other, sheds, rubbish was everywhere. A child's soft toy just laid there on the floor, shoes and personal belonging flushed out of peoples houses littered the streets caped in mud. Eventually I got to my apartment. I had more wreckage to climb over. the ground floor was parking with our apartment above, with enough space for our neighbours to drive through to access their house. My car had been swung around and pushed behind my house but luckily stopped before going into our neighbours house. For some reason the drivers window had dropped down allowing water into the car. The engine was flooded. nearly everything in the car was damaged. What was on top of the pile in the car was ok and so i brought that inside the apartment. I also found my documents and passport (which were in the car)...the rest i left.

Because our apartment was 1st floor we had no damaged...the water had come as far as the 7th step out of 13. I turned off the gas due to the tanks leaning on the side (in japan most houses just gas tanks instead of pipes due to earthquakes). 

I had seen enough and just wanted to get out...it felt like either i was dreaming or on a movie set. The journey back to safe house was silent. We got back about 11pm to worried friends because we had been so long. The realisation finally hit me as i was explaining about miyako and i had to step outside. I didnt want to worry the children and so had a few tears and tried to pull myself together.

We set up the living and we all went to bed. The next morning we woke about 5am. We had slept much due to further earthquakes. Our plans were to return to miyako, get more food, go back to my apartment to sort my car and for my housemate to pack and get her passport. We also stopped by the other apartment to turn off the gas and to check any damage.

... Day 2 will continue next time

• Japan
• earthquake
• miyako
• alt
• teaching