Monday, March 14, 2011
You now what they say, "hindsight is 20/20." Looking back at this day, we could have done it completely different. Seth and Matt got a phone call from their boss, Segawa san, telling them that there had been damage to AIST. So, do to insurance claims and scheduled blackouts, they would not be going to work. We decided to go to the bank and close out our bank accounts. As we waited in the lobby, a decent aftershock hit. It felt like a -5M and the epicenter was only 20miles from Tsukuba. Ugh! I closed my eyes and yearned for the solid, non-moving, desert ground.
After the bank, we walked around Tsukuba Center because we were curious to see if any stores were open. Luckily our favorite international grocery store, Yamaya, was open! As soon as we walked in we realized that we just found an undiscovered survival GEM. It must have been the first hour that they had opened since the earthquake because they still had tons of water, canned goods, and non-perishables.
It really hit us in the hotel room. We are leaving Japan. We aren't ready to leave, but we must go. It's such a sad way to end the best year of our lives. An added bonus to the night was that Seth's best Japanese friend, Akira, and his Masako drove down to hang out for one last time.
Our time with Akira and Masako was so nice. I can't beleive that they stayed until 2:00am that night! They probably didn't even get home until 3:30am.
You now what they say, "hindsight is 20/20." Looking back at this day, we could have done it completely different. Seth and Matt got a phone call from their boss, Segawa san, telling them that there had been damage to AIST. So, do to insurance claims and scheduled blackouts, they would not be going to work. We decided to go to the bank and close out our bank accounts. As we waited in the lobby, a decent aftershock hit. It felt like a -5M and the epicenter was only 20miles from Tsukuba. Ugh! I closed my eyes and yearned for the solid, non-moving, desert ground.
Photos from Seth's office at AIST...yeah, he wouldn't be going in for a couple days.
After the bank, we walked around Tsukuba Center because we were curious to see if any stores were open. Luckily our favorite international grocery store, Yamaya, was open! As soon as we walked in we realized that we just found an undiscovered survival GEM. It must have been the first hour that they had opened since the earthquake because they still had tons of water, canned goods, and non-perishables.
S-C-O-R-E!
At this point we still had intentions of sticking it out for another 2 weeks until Seth's contract expired. Naturally, we stocked up on supplies and spread the word to people on our Facebook support group. I also wanted to get some candles since we were due for blackouts in the coming days. When I got to my favorite 100yen shop, Daiso, I realized that I wasn't the only one with this idea...all of the candles were gone... My sadness must have been obvious because two Japanese women (with an ample amount of candles) saw me and offered me two candles from their cart! The kindness of the Japanese is simply overwhelming. Amidst all of this chaos and panic, they still find the kindness in their hearts to help others. My eyes swelled up with tears as I said "thank you" over and over again.
Later in the afternoon I started working on a puzzle that I had been working on since the first week in December. It helped keep my mind off of everything that was going on. This time I was determined to finish this stupid thing (Seth didn't really provide much help) so I called down Matt and Chelsae. We three tackled the puzzle from all angles while Seth would occasionally walk over, put a piece in, crack a satisfied smile, and go watch more TV.
This puzzle. This DANG puzzle!
That night our Polish friend Maciek dropped by with some valuable insight. From his point of view, if another giant earthquake hit or a radiation cloud was coming our way, it is much easier for 1 person to escape and "get the heck out of Dodge" than 2 or 3. His advice was for Chelsae and Reagan to Change their flight to leave the next day. Things up at the Fukushima nuclear facility continued to get worse and worse. Either way I refused to leave Seth, regardless of the danger.
This isn't something you see everyday.
In light of our conversation with Maciek, Seth emailed his boss asking what the penalties would be if he broke contract and left Japan early. Later that night we finished the puzzle with the help of the Haines family! At least I went to bed with that satisfaction.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Seth and I woke up early and Skyped with my family. I was really excited to see my nieces and brand new nephew, Parker Dean Lewin. We immediately got a sense of how concerned my family was about the situation. My mother pleaded for us to "get the heck out of there! NOW!" She made a very compelling point that we would be competing with 127 million people to leave the country if a nuclear disaster did happen. It would be better to get out early, at any cost. She posed the question: "Is radiation exposure and cancer really worth it!?"
As we thought about this point we Skyped with Seth's mom. It was almost the exact same conversation. "GET HOME!" So.... at 9:30am, Seth looked at me with a resolute expression and said
"Ok, lets leave."
From that moment we went into a flurry of activity. I found a flight for Seth and I for Wednesday to leave at 6:30pm. DONE! We told the Haines' our plan and they decided to leave the next day also. Seth went downstairs to start checking out of the Ninomiya House. They would be stopping by our apartment at 5:30pm to do the final check. That meant that we had to pack up/clean our entire apartment in 7 hours! We had our work cut out for us.
TOP: Frantically cleaning, packing, throwing away, and giving away. BOTTOM: cleaning is DONE!
TOP: A final goodbye to our friend, Kiwa. BOTTOM: Free food and stuff that we were giving away.
The Narita International Airport is about 1.5 hours south of Tsukuba so we decided to find a airport hotel so we were sure to make it to our flights on time. There was no telling how crazy the airport would be. Seth worked on finding a hotel, but everything looked totally full. Somehow Matt found and booked a hotel close to the airport. It even had an airport shuttle bus! DONE!
Now all we needed was a means to get to the hotel. Easier said than done. All buses were booked, all taxis were booked, and the train systems were a mess due to closures and blackouts. Since we would have about 15 full sized 40-50lbs bags, we would have to find at least 3 cars to take us there OR....our church's bus. However, there were only 2 people at the church with the appropriate licenses, the bus needed gas, and the gas stations had a 2.5 hour waiting period. Once again, I was awestruck by the kindness of our church friends. They waited in line to get gas and showed up at our apartment at 7:00pm to take us 1.5 hours to our Narita hotel. DONE! On the ride to the hotel, we talked with Pastor Mayumi about everything that God had done for us throughout our year in Japan. She was very sad to see us leave, but was glad that we would be out of harms way.
It had obviously been a long day of packing. Our bags took up the back 3 rows of the bus.
Once we got to the hotel, we said our goodbyes to the wonderful people from our church.
It really hit us in the hotel room. We are leaving Japan. We aren't ready to leave, but we must go. It's such a sad way to end the best year of our lives. An added bonus to the night was that Seth's best Japanese friend, Akira, and his Masako drove down to hang out for one last time.
~Kate
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