One Year Ago
March 11th – 2011/03/11
A year ago on March 11th, we had just come back from our ski vacation in Hokkaido: I was working at home, my wife was on business trip in Osaka and my daughter was at her day care. At 14:46, I was in front of my computer writing emails when the earthquake began. After 5 years in Japan I had already experienced many earthquakes so “another one” I told myself. But after a few seconds, I quickly realised that it wasn’t just another one. The amplitude kept on growing. The whole house felt like a boat on a rough sea and I had difficulties standing. The ground was growling and the house cracking. It lasted two minutes. Two very long minutes during which I had time to check the three floors of my house, seeing the structure move but not the furniture, a few frames falling and the aquarium emptying itself on the floor. I did not feel to urge to run outside though and felt safe inside the house. Not only because it is a recent construction but also because the shaking itself was not too violent. The amplitude though was overwhelming. And because of that, I knew that something terrible had happened somewhere in Japan.
It was impossible to give a phone call but sms went through and I was able to reach my wife in Osaka : she was safe, and the earthquake had been less violent over there. So North of Tokyo it was.
After quickly checking that the house was ok and removing the larger part of the aquarium’s water from the floor, I went to pick up my daughter at her daycare. As I wrote back then : the earthquake had hit in the middle of their nap. Poor kids. I was impressed how everything was well organised : all teachers wearing helmets and kids wearing some kind of big cushion over their head and gathered in what looked like a roman turtle formation with mattresses protecting them on all sides. A vivid demonstration of the usefulness of their regular training.
Once back home, we switched on the TV to see the terrible events that were unfolding North. First the Tsunami, then the problems with the Nuclear Power Plants and finally, what today still makes very angry : the sheer stupidity, cheap sensationalism and journalistic incompetence that spread in foreign medias…
In the evening, there were so many people on the streets of Tokyo : either trying to walk back home or find a place to stay for the night as all trains had stopped. The lobby of the hotel near my house was filled with people trying to get a room. Mc Donald had never been so packed. My sister in law walked 90 min from her office to stay with us since she could not go back home. Powerful aftershocks made it quite difficult to sleep on that night.
March 12th – 2011/03/12
March 12th was oddly peaceful in Tokyo : very few cars on the streets, only a few trains but all quite packed with people, all quite grim, all probably considering themselves as lucky given what had happened in Tohoku.
On March 13th, the local convenience stores were being replenished. With so many people not being able to go back home, all the food had been gone. March 14th – 2011/03/14 With the fear of powerful aftershocks striking Tokyo, it was difficult to find long lasting food like instant noodles. Fresh food was however aplenty in Tokyo. CNN contacted me as they were interested in using my photos. Without any possibility for them to either pay a fee, make a donation, or even include proper credits with links to my blog, I refused. March 15th – 2011/03/15 In all public places escalators had been stopped to save electricity ! On the morning of March 15th I wrote “This morning I was happy to wake up with the first good news in days : the likelihood of a large tremor (with a magnitude of 7 or more) occurring before Thursday was reduced from 70% to 40%. Unfortunately shortly after breakfast, bad news about the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant started pouring in (by bad I mean a lot worse than what has been reported since Friday). I decided it was enough for my family to bear for now (especially because my parents are visiting me). All went quite quickly from there and two hours later we were riding the Shinkansen on our way to Hiroshima. I pray for things to settle quickly so that I can go back to the city I love.“… A year later, despite one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, a devastating tsunami, a nuclear disaster and a very strong yen, Japan is expecting around 2% growth for 2012 ! Needless to say that I have been very impressed by the Japanese people and I often tell to myself that if it was my destiny to experience such a disaster, well, I am happy it happened to me while living in Japan as I cannot imagine how worse things would have been elsewhere.
