Taka san and I were getting set for our daily call with the Pune team at 14.55 JST. Chris was just outside talking to Ron. That was when I had the same strange feeling as 2 days back on March 9th. Then I had initially thought that I was feeling dizzy until Chris told me what it was; but this time I knew that it was an earthquake!
Within seconds, it started getting worse. The chairs started moving, then the doors, then the whole office was shaking! All of us were on the floor for some time. An automated message kept saying that it was just 3 on the scale and that the building was safe. We didn't trust the old building a lot; so we climbed down 22 floors by stairs and got out of the building.
The first earthquake - from the 22nd floor of the office.
There were obviously a lot of people on the roads then.
Some interesting conversations when we just got out:
Taka san: Lets check out how the Starbucks is looking now!
.
Ron: I am worried about my wife and daughter.
Chris: I hope my TV is fine!
.
Me: That was interesting!
.
Chris: Dude! I am really worried about my TV!
We didn't want to keep standing under the 28 storey building. So we moved to the adjacent Hibya park. The park was filled with people. Within 5 minutes of getting to the park, we felt another earthquake. This was a pretty big one as we felt it even on the ground! You can see/hear the manhole rattling in the video below.
The second earthquake, after we reached Hibya Park
You can also see the office building moving a little in the video below.
The office building, seen from Hibya park
Some of the people were trying to contact their beloved ones. The others were gathered around cell phones with television checking the news; there was news about a fire near the Rainbow bridge, another about a Tsunami! There were tense faces all around.
People gathered at Hibya park
Soon it was getting cold out there. Not many of us thought of the temperature outside when running down. We then went up to the building to pack our stuff. We got whatever we needed and climbed down the stairs again. As nobody really wanted to work at the 22nd floor of an old building, we went back home.
On the way back, I thought of getting into the convenient store to get something to eat, but there was a really long queue.So I decided to get something from the convenient store opposite my apartment. But when I reached there, this is what I found.
Convenient stores in Tokyo
There was also a lot of traffic on the roads; the main reason being the subways not functioning because of the earthquakes. I had not seen traffic jams here prior to the earthquake. When I reached my apartment, which is on the 9th floor, I could feel the aftershocks; the lamp-stand and the chair were moving quite a bit. So I packed some important things into my backpack and got out of there. There was no network on my cell phone, so I couldn't contact anyone immediately and there were long queues outside the coin phones. I walked around in the streets of Tokyo for sometime, and then got into a phone booth and contacted Taka san and Chris. They advised me to go back to the apartment after some time.
Stagnant traffic in Tokyo
And so I did. The apartment would shake once in every 20 minutes or so. I was getting used to it and stopped worrying about the small aftershocks. I kept my backpack, jacket and shoes by the door just incase I had to rush out. This time the backpack was packed more carefully; with my laptop and its charger, charger for the cell phone, camera, cash, some food, 10 and 100 yen coins for the phone booth and my passport. And then, trusting the Japanese civil engineers, I went to bed.
Ready...steady...go!
Earthquakes, tsunamis, over 500 aftershocks, nuclear radiation leaks, volcanic eruption, cold wind blowing from the north, stocks dropping low! I really hope this country recovers and gets back to normal as soon as possible! I had great respect for Japan and its people before coming here and it has only increased seeing the way they have reacted to and handled the situation so far. I think I would have been much more worried if I was in the same situation in any other country!
Hoping for the best!
PS: Back in India now. There was another thing I wanted to share on this post earlier, but I didn't want to freak some people out! So I am sharing it now after safely returning back home. On 11th March, when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, my roommate Ananth had searched for me on Google Person Finder. And the update he received there wasn't very comforting!
I have received information that this person is dead!!
So, do not just rely on these websites set up for finding your friends/relatives. They could be used to ease your search, but you cannot totally trust the information put up here as there could always be some people trying to play pranks without understanding the seriousness of the situation or some honest guys but without the right information.
