After the Earthquake – Part 9

This is an archive post from my old blog. I’ve put this series here for others that may still be interested and so that I don’t forget…

Saturday 19th March – Day eight

I woke up this morning and turned on my computer to find more foreign news stories about people in Tokyo fleeing and panicking, so I looked out the window to check. I looked as hard as I could, even took out my longest zoom lens to help me cover a greater distance, but couldn’t see anyone fleeing or panicking. I wondered if there was another place in the world called Tokyo, and all this time I’ve been reading about the wrong one.

Some people have left its true, but its news coming from overseas that is scaring people rather than anything coming out of Japan. There is danger but things are being exaggerated and that is making a bad situation much worse.

There have been no significant events at the reactors for a couple of days, though everyone is still very aware of the possible danger, people are more hopeful than they were this time last week. On the streets things were coming back to normal.

I had to meet a friend in central Tokyo today so I headed to the train station near my apartment. When I got there the lights were dim (some lights were off to save power) and the displays weren’t showing where the trains were going so you had to look at the train when it arrived – it was just like being back in England!

This is the first time I’ve caught a train since the earthquake, and I was a little nervous, not because of radiation, but because there is still a very real fear here of another big earthquake. As I stood waiting I had visions of the roof falling on me and I desperately wanted to be somewhere where I could see the sky. I didn’t expect to feel that nervous, but in life now it seems to be a case of expect the unexpected, so I won’t forget that again.

I met my mate in Ueno, and today seemed like a normal day. Lots of people around doing normal things, and very little sign of the unease that was apparent earlier on in the week. The sun was shining, and it felt warm and relaxed. I don’t know if we are just getting used to everything now, getting complacent, or just trying to forget for a while, but it felt good to have a normal day again.

After I got home there were two big aftershocks. They made me freeze in my tracks and quickly reminded me of the fact that things are still far from normal, and that anything can still happen. But despite this the constant fear from the beginning of the week has gone. I hope that means that we have all grown as people just a little…