My very personal earthquake weekend II: After the quake

Right after the quake

As mentioned above (or rather below (referring to the last post)), people reacted very differently to the earthquake. 

Of course, there were the ones who would express that they were actually scared...

...but most would just stand there and wait, not knowing what to do...

...or try and contact their loved ones (this woman was lucky to have a home phone handy)...

I'll go on and broach the issue of people's reactions, but in order to not leave things unfinished, at this point, I pick up things from where I left them in the last post:

My very personal earthquake afternoon

Because of the doubts I was having about what you're actually supposed to do in case of an earthquake, I ask this question to the guy from the gallery (the one who told me that this had also been his first big earthquake) and he tells me that you were supposed to go to a park just down the street. 

The quake was over, but being new to all this, I'm not sure whether life would simply go on and I should go back to the gallery and look at orgasm faces. Knowing that there is a big chance of after shocks, I decide to check out the evacuation area. I find it quickly...

... but apparently, not a lot of people went there during the earthquake. At first glance, it actually seems to be deserted...

... then I see a few people. Mostly families with children who were probably already there when the earthquake started.

I guess the park wouldn't have looked a lot different on any friday afternoon, except usually people wouldn't forget to look after their children over checking their cell phones. At least I hope so...

At last, after having walked around the block, I decide to go back to the gallery, as things seem to get back to normal. 

After shock

Mother earth only let me enjoy the pictures for a few minutes and the house started to move again. This time, people react more consciously and a lot of them actually go to the 'temporary gathering place'. At least, when I get back there, the park is actually crowded.

There are announcements informing us over loud speakers that there had been 'an upper scale earthquake' (oh, really??) and that we should stay in the gathering place until further notice. 

Here we are, our phones not working, not knowing whether the buildings in other parts of Tokyo are still standing (like around us), not knowing how strong this quake actually was, where the epicenter was, whether there are more quakes to come, how friends and family were. Not knowing how long we're supposed to stay there.

So, here I really start to study people's reactions. And there is this weird contrast between the worrying and the acting as if nothing serious would have happened. Between the desperately trying to call somebody and the joking around. A contrast, by the way, I would find more times later on in the city.

And there's me, the only Gaijin around, taking pictures as though this was just another tourist attraction.

A woman comes up to me and asks me whether I want to join her group. I recognize some persons I had seen in the gallery earlier and as she introduces them to me, I learn that they all either run galleries or are artists working in the area.
These are the three young women i now call my earthquake friends:

I am happy to be with them, especially because the further announcements are made only in Japanese.
I begin to think of what time it is in Germany right now and whether news have already gotten there. It's in the morning, but my mother is probably up already. Knowing her and her mother instincts and not knowing what the news would be like, I try to think of a way to let her know I'm okay. Finally I send a message to my boyfriend's email adress telling him he should call my mum (instead of using short message services, it's common in Japan to send MMS to email adresses that are connected to your phone, but you can also send messages from a phone to normal email accounts). I also try to call my friend Julia and surprisingly it works. It seems like, this time, it pays off to have a strange phone company that people wouldn't know and hardly anybody would use... Julia is at her dorm and okay and she tells me that she couldn't make out major damages in the area where she lives (and where my guesthouse is, too). It's also her who first tells me that, up north, the earthquake had actually reached an 8 on the Richter scale and that there had been a Tsunami as well. But even knowing these bits of information it is impossible to make out the actual degree of devastation that had taken place.

When it's starting to rain, my earthquake friends decide to go inside and have some coffee. Despite of the  incertitude of whether it's safe to go back inside I join them because I don't want to get wet either. But instead of coffee, i'll have a beer...

to be continued...

My very personal earthquake weekend I

It's been about two weeks that I got back from Tokyo and I had some time to get used to the fact that when people come up to me and say "It's so good that you're back. So, how was it?" they usually don't refer to my almost six weeks long Japan trip - the things I've seen, the experiences I made or the people I met - but merely to my last weekend and how I've experienced the earthquake that took place friday, march 11th.


So, before I go on and bore readers with pictures from those six weeks (that were no boring at all, by the way!), I'll start with that last weekend and tell about it in this post. Maybe there are still some people I didn't tell about it, maybe I won't have to tell another 100 times (and get to tell other stuff from Japan). Either way, it's gonna be more interesting with some pics anyway. In this first post I'll tell you what I did, when the earthquake took place and how it was. Over the next days I'll post more pictures from after the earthquake.

First of all, I want to answer a few questions I've been asked a lot of times:
1. whether you could actually feel the earthquake in Tokyo. Answer: Oh yes!
2. How does it feel? Answer: Pretty much like being in an airplane going through turbulences, except it's slightly more worrying when it's actually the concrete underneath you moving. Like in the airplane metaphor, it's also troubling that you can't tell whether it's going to get stronger or when it's gonna stop.

My very personal earthquake day...

That friday morning at 6:30, my friend Julia and I came back from Osaka with the over night bus, which means we hadn't slept very much. I tried to sleep a little in the common area of my guesthouse (since I didn't know whether my bed from the first weeks was already taken) but as more and more people were getting up and talking I decided around noon that I had slept enough and I should get outside and enjoy the beautiful wheather and my last weekend in the biggest city of the world. I did some research and decided to go to Ebisu and Roppongi in order to see some photo exhibitions.

First I went to a small gallery in Ebisu that was showing photos of Sanne Sannes, a Dutch photographer who, besides other things, realized a project called "The face of love" in the 60s. So I stand there, looking at those black and white pictures displaying the faces of women in the midst of having an orgasm, when I hear a cracking sound coming from the wooden floor and ceilings of the small house I'm in.

The house I was in when the earthquake started

After seconds I realize that the wood is making sounds because it's moving and I'm wondering which metro line is passing underneath the small building (this misconception is due to the guesthouse we've stayed at in Kyoto a couple of days before which was shaken by the passing trains every 10 minutes).

So, this is what an earthquake feels like...

The shaking is getting stronger and even I realize that it's actually an earthquake (retrospectively I came to think that there aren't a lot of things that would have been better suiting than looking at people who are having their sexual climax when an earthquake kicks in...).

I'm looking at the other few people in the gallery in order to find out what you are supposed to do in this kind of situation. There aren't hardly any tables to crawl underneath and the little wood house is starting to move a lot (and loudly), so, despite my knowledge obtained at the emergency drills at the Ikebukuro Fire Department Museum three weeks earlier (after which I should have stayed inside underneath a table), I decide to follow the others outside.

Outside, looking at the moving power poles, I remember why you're not supposed to go outside (because of the risk of one of many power cables breaking and hitting you - or the entire pole falling (on you)) and try to keep an eye on the power lines, so that I could at least try to react if one of them came towards me. Still, a lot of neighbors seem to make the same mistake of coming outside and gather in the small streets.

power poles and cables in the street next to the gallery

Reactions

I don't really know how strong this earthquake is, due to missing earthquake experience growing up in the middle of the Eurasian tectonic plate. When the thought crosses my mind that it could actually be the expected "huge one" in Tokyo, I think "Are you shitting me? On my last weekend?". It seems bigger than the ususal ones, but all the buildings are still there, so i guess it's okay...

I'm only surrounded by Japanese people who react in different ways. Most of them are cautiously looking around, one is actually making a video with his cell phone. People seem to be surprised, but generally calm. Only once, when there is one stronger move, two young women start to scream and it makes me feel all different at once (as long as other people didn't seem to be too scared I didn't panic either... hearing natives, who should be used to that (more than I am at least) scream, makes you feel all different...).

After some time, the earthquake was over and the guy from the gallery came up to me and asked me in English whether I was okay and whether I was only visiting. I told him that I had been in Japan for five weeks but that this had been my first earthquake. His answer, that made me aware that this actually had been a really big one, was: "Mine too."


to be continued...

プリクラ

There is a great Japanese tradition and I am very lucky to have been introduced to it. プリクラ (perikura) is short for print club and is basicly a photo booth,  but not only a photo booth! It's an art I have been trying to practice it as many times as possible since my first time. I am also happy to be able to say that I could successfully introduce this essential japanese tradition to other gaijins and widen their horizon...
In my 4 weeks here I've made this wonderful experience 6 times and I don't want to deny the results to anybody... so here we go...

My first time:

with Julia, Luke and Clemens

The next time I discovered a machine in Shibuya with Dom. I can definitely recommend the experience after the consumption of various screwdrivers..

My third time with some Japanese friends in Yokohama (who claimed to not have done it since they were 14, but I helped them to appreciate this activity as a grown up):

And the following day, same city, different machine...

I am happy to say that yesterday I could introduce three other foreigners to the art of プリクラ. 
It wasn't easy to convince Wilsurn and Nellie, but they didn't regret it!

 

Later I had dinner with a highschool friend and we almost missed the last train because of this: