After the Earthquake – The first nine days – Part 1
The next 10 entries are archive posts from my old blog about what things were like in Tokyo for the first nine days after the earthquake on 11th March 2011. These entries are exactly as I wrote them – I haven’t changed anything. In places dates are a little jumbled but that reflects my state of mind at the time. There aren’t many images here because I wasn’t shooting much during this time so these next few entries are more about words. I’ve put this series here for others that may still be interested and so that I don’t forget…
I haven’t updated my blog for a long while, but with all the happenings in Japan and Tokyo since the earthquake I thought it would be a good outlet. Usually my blog is connected to photographing life in Tokyo, but since we are all stuck inside hiding from possible radiation this will more consist of my impressions as this crisis continues. With all the stress around at the moment I will try my utmost to make this a little more light-hearted, as much for my own sanity as for any other reason. Today is 15th March, 5 days since the quake, so before I move forwards here is a little about the past few days…
Friday 11th March 2011 – The day of the earthquake
I was on my way to teach a class in Mejiro, Tokyo and sat outside on a bench wondering if I should do a little street photography to kill a few minutes before my class. At that moment I felt a slight shaking on the bench. I got a bit worried at this point, not because I thought it was a natural disaster but rather because I thought it could be some pervie guy playing around in his trousers as the girls went past (believe me it has been known). I looked over at the old guy at the other end of the bench to find him looking my way and obviously wondering exactly the same thing about me. Then the earth moved – now had this been a scene from a movie then the old bloke would actually have been a beautiful woman and the earth moving would have been my heart, but this being reality, the old bloke really was an old bloke and the earth really was moving. I looked over at a lamppost to see it swaying, and then about 50 people bolted out of the station as if they were in a race for the next Olympic 100 metre title. The shaking became more violent and my next thought was ‘Oh my god’
I stood up and moved to a more open area so nothing could fall on me and held on to a low wall. Everything shook violently, old people dropped to the ground while everyone else simply stood frozen and shaking to the spot, me included. I can’t really remember what else I saw – the whole thing seemed to last forever while at the same time going past in a blur. Eventually the shaking subsided and for a moment all was relatively still. There was a feeling of relief enmass, it was almost as if everyone had held their breath and then breathed out simultaneously – we survived, we are OK – no one at that time had even an inkling about what was going on up north.
Most everything around was in tact, there was no noticeable damage. People went over to the elderly who had fallen down to check that they were OK. It’s kind of weird what happened next. For a second everyone seemed a little lost as if to say ‘what do we do now?’ I can’t really explain it, it may have been shock but this lost feeling lingered briefly and then the phones came out and everyone’s immediate problem was if their loved ones were OK and how they were going to get to where they were going.
The phones were down so I sent a message to my wife telling her I was OK and to let me know she was OK and went to my class. That may sound strange, but like everyone else I wasn’t sure what to do either, so it made sense to continue to do what I was supposed to do.
When I walked in the building, the receptionist’s face said it all – she was shocked, shaken, confused and afraid all at the same time, and I have to say I knew exactly how she felt. I just wanted to give her a big hug. I went to the 4th floor to meet my student, and we headed into a meeting room. At that point the building began shaking again, and so did I – I couldn’t even hold my pen still. The last thing either of us was concerned about was an English class so we gave up. I asked him if he’d been in a quake this big before, and he told me that he used to live in Kobe – enough said.
When the building stopped shaking I decided to leave. He asked me if I was OK to get home, I said I would be fine and left the building, happy to be outside again. I didn’t know if I was any safer outside, but for me it was preferable to being inside. All I could imagine while being inside was a ceiling collapsing on my head, no matter how safe these buildings supposed to be, in my opinion they can’t be safe enough . As I left the building there was no sign of the receptionist, I hoped she was OK and wished that I had given her that hug.
Outside the station people continued to wait. Public transport had stopped but some were hopeful that it would start up again before too long, I didn’t have that much faith so I began to walk – the Japanese transport system may be good but even they can’t perform miracles. I shot a few images with my camera as I started my long walk home but it was difficult to get something that could sum up what was happening, and my hands were still shaky. I realised later that my settings had been off so I lost many of the images I shot. Like everyone else my mind was somewhere else.
After just a 2.5 hour walk (I heard some people walked up to 9 hours to get home) I got home. As I opened the door I had no idea what to expect, but I was just glad that home was still there. The damage was fairly minor, just a few things fallen off shelves. I thought perhaps that things weren’t so bad, but then I turned on the TV – it wasn’t until that point that I truly understood what had happened….
