Due to evacuation procedures we had to stay outside for a couple of hours. Somebody told us that it might be as long as 24 hours before we could enter our rooms again. After a while I decided to make a mad dash upstairs for some supplies. When I entered our apartment, this is what I saw:
Our kitchen was the worst because our food shelf crashed over. Luckily, our fridge stayed closed and no bottles were broken.
This is the Haines' kitchen. It looked much more destroyed than ours.
As expected, pretty much anything tall and slender had been knocked over.
Honestly, I expected things to be much worse. It only took us about 15 minutes to pick everything up. At that point we decided it was about time to pack some survival bags. We promptly stuffed our bags with food and warm clothes in case another big one hit and we had to stay outside all night. The electricity was out so we turned on our emergency radios and panicked through a couple huge aftershocks. We decided that listening to the emergency radio was just adding fuel to our anxiety fire. So we decided to head to the park. It was far away from buildings so it gave us some peace of mind for a while.
Hanging out at Doho park. Enjoying some worry free ground shakes.
The girls revisited the Right-on outlet. It's where they were when the big quake hit.
We all headed to the only restaurant in the area with power. Unfortunately, EVERYONE had the same idea. To make a long story short, we ended up spending 3.5 hours at the restaurant. During dinner, we came to a point in which we knew our families back home would be waking up soon. We HAD to let people know that we were ok before they saw the news and had an aneurysm.
Then we headed back to the house. Before we hit the hay, we collectively decided that, being that we are all the way up on the 4th floor, if another big quake hit we would take refuge under our dinner table. Not the most comforting plan, but probably the best one given our situation. Keep in mind, the only information we had about the earthquake was that tsunami warnings were announced. We had no idea how devastating it truly was.
Kate, knowing that Saturday was going to be difficult, suggested that everyone get some rest before the next day. Easier said than done. The night was filled with large aftershocks which kept all of us up. During each LARGE aftershock (there was one at least every hour) we all became stiff in anticipation: "Should i get up and run under the table? Should we try to run down the stairs?" Needless to say none of us got much, if any sleep.
Our power came back on at 4am but Kate, Amanda, and I decided we were going to try to sleep a few more hours before calling family. We knew that once we started making phone calls, we were going to be up for the rest of the day. Around 7 we all got out of bed and turned on the TV. It was then when we realized the true horror of what happened to the rest of the country. Almost instantly we started taking turns calling families to inform them of our safety. Kate saved her phone call to her parents until last because her brother had his first child on the 11th. She was very excited to talk to them and see how Sharon and the new baby (Parker Dean) were doing.
Once the phone calls were done, we started taking showers....I say "started" because once I got in the shower, the Ninomiya House ran out of water. I hardly had time to get wet. The city had some damage to their water filtration system and some pipes were broken. This has caused a water shortage in the area. from the earthquake and it was and still is down.
It was time to take action to make sure Jill, Amanda, and Leon could make it out of Japan. None of the rental car companies were open so we had to buy them airport bus tickets. During this time the girls (Jill, Amanda and Kate) went on a search for breakfast. After checking three stores the girls found a 7 & i holdings ("7/11" in the U.S.) and were able to get some tea and non perishable items. The picture below shows us eating our breakfast.
Kate and I sent them off knowing that they were going to be fine. We walked home from the bus stop to our apartment hand in hand knowing that the next two weeks left here might be some of our toughest weeks we will ever experience in our lives.
-Seth
NOTE: We are not out of the woods yet. Aftershocks and complications at a nuclear reactor plant are worrisome. Many foreigners we know are flying out of Japan ASAP. Also, Chelsae and Reagan will be flying back to America this Wednesday. If matters continue to get worse, we will try to leave early as well. You can have the most up to date information here: http://media.theage.com.au/live-japan-quake-coverage-2203441.html
Here is the shake map according to USGS. You can see the size of the tectonic plate that moved, the epicenter, some of the larger aftershocks, and the arrow points to Tsukuba. Insanity. (click for larger view)
Our power came back on at 4am but Kate, Amanda, and I decided we were going to try to sleep a few more hours before calling family. We knew that once we started making phone calls, we were going to be up for the rest of the day. Around 7 we all got out of bed and turned on the TV. It was then when we realized the true horror of what happened to the rest of the country. Almost instantly we started taking turns calling families to inform them of our safety. Kate saved her phone call to her parents until last because her brother had his first child on the 11th. She was very excited to talk to them and see how Sharon and the new baby (Parker Dean) were doing.
Once the phone calls were done, we started taking showers....I say "started" because once I got in the shower, the Ninomiya House ran out of water. I hardly had time to get wet. The city had some damage to their water filtration system and some pipes were broken. This has caused a water shortage in the area. from the earthquake and it was and still is down.
It was time to take action to make sure Jill, Amanda, and Leon could make it out of Japan. None of the rental car companies were open so we had to buy them airport bus tickets. During this time the girls (Jill, Amanda and Kate) went on a search for breakfast. After checking three stores the girls found a 7 & i holdings ("7/11" in the U.S.) and were able to get some tea and non perishable items. The picture below shows us eating our breakfast.
Kate and I sent them off knowing that they were going to be fine. We walked home from the bus stop to our apartment hand in hand knowing that the next two weeks left here might be some of our toughest weeks we will ever experience in our lives.
-Seth
NOTE: We are not out of the woods yet. Aftershocks and complications at a nuclear reactor plant are worrisome. Many foreigners we know are flying out of Japan ASAP. Also, Chelsae and Reagan will be flying back to America this Wednesday. If matters continue to get worse, we will try to leave early as well. You can have the most up to date information here: http://media.theage.com.au/live-japan-quake-coverage-2203441.html
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