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...