I'm now in my hotel feeling an aftershock from this afternoon's earthquake.
There was a massive earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan this afternoon. Magnitude of 8.8! I was in a meeting when it happened. The building started swaying before it started to shake quite violently. Things started falling off tables, filing cabinets starting to open. What made it scary was that my Japanese colleagues told me that they've never felt anything so strong before. It was unlike Wednesday when they were all quite indifferent to the minor swaying we felt.
An announcement came on to ask us to inform us the elevators were being shut off and that we were to wait for further news. Then another came to ask us to evacuate the building. Then as we were gathering our belongings, yet another announcement came to ask us to stay in the building which was apparently safer since it was anti-quake reinforced or something like that.
Everyone was getting the news on the phone. Some people were panicky. Others were pretty calm.
The news showed terrible happenings....vehicles and houses being swept away by the tsunami. Some boats washed ashore and you could see many roads were affected. In Tokyo, where I was, there were certain buildings which started to evacuate their occupants. So hordes of people started to gather next to their building. Some people started to wear hard hats.
We tried to take it easy by not panicking and cracking jokes. But I think that all of us secretly felt a lot of relief that the center of the disaster was 230 miles away from us.
My colleague went to the airport much earlier than planned because it was evidently very difficult to get a taxi. The traffic towards the main road was almost at a standstill. The trains stopped operating. People couldn't go home if they lived far away. Some people would take longer to walk home.
A couple of us left the office and walked back to the hotel. The crowds were pretty massive. Imagine the people who are usually on the train being on the road. It was crowded. When we went for dinner, we found a lot of Western restaurants, like Hard Rock Cafe and Outback Steakhouse closed. I guess the staff couldn't make it to work. Fortunately TGI Friday was opened and we were early. The queue for a table started to get long after a while...natural flow over.
As I was typing this, I felt an aftershock.....I called the receptionist, upon the advice of a friend, to check how I would know if I had to evacuate the building. She said that if I felt the building shake again, I was to get under the desk immediately. Once the shaking stops, I have to make my way to the lobby to await confirmation of the next step.
The good thing that came out of this was that I found out that a lot of people actually cared for me. I received a continuous stream of emails, IM, sms and calls to check on my safety. Ok, maybe not continuous, but good enough.
It was hilarious as I was sending IM broadcasts while the building was shaking very hard in the afternoon....creepy for the recipients!
I wish I had chocolates with me now.....bad time to try going on a diet!
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