The night of the earthquake, the ground was in constant motion, but I somehow managed to sleep quite thoroughly (perhaps the knowledge that friends and colleagues were stuck at offices and schools around Tokyo helped me to be appreciative of my own futon). I chatted online with Hera(one of the many stuck at work) and made plans to meet in the morning if/when the trains started running. We decided it was better not to be alone; because although the earthquake had been a bit scary, we were still kind of excited to have a Saturday off.
The trains started up, slowly and uncertainly; riding the train the next morning was a little spooky. Japanese trains are normally pretty quiet, but the air was clearly different now. Therewas a moment when a man's bag dropped from his lap, and all eyes sharply turned at the sudden movement. We hadn't even realized we were all on edge. I got to Hera's, where it was promptly decided that we would actually spend the night at Jamie's.
Once everyone was together, however, the mood was light, and we actually began to have a pretty good time drinking wine and eating take out from Pizza Hut. Jamie invited his Belgium friend over, and we stayed up until the wee hours drinking wine and watching L'Auberge Espagnole.
The next day was actually wonderful weather; only a few weeks earlier it had been snowing, but it had begun to look like spring. That being the case, we decided to make our way over to Yoyogi Park; taking the scenic route by walking from Shinjuku to Harajuku. Surprisingly (or maybe not? I'm not really sure what usually happens in these kinds of situations), the park was full of peopl
e in high spirits. So we joined them; climbing trees, hula-hooping, and the like.
Our merry-making prompted other foreigners to head our way, one woman bringing a batch of hula-hoops along with sexy instructions on how to use them (and she was very willing to give Jamie some helpful hints). We started a chat with some other people who wandered over. Two gaijin told us that they were planning on leaving Japan that week. They told us that they didn't believe the Japanese were being completely forthright in the situation at the power plant. That was the first moment that I felt the uncomfortable feeling of fear dropping in my stomach. Of course I had heard some information about what was happening at the power plant; but honestly, it hadn't seemed like that big of a deal. Still, I brushed it off and decided to have a fun day. That night, Hera came over, because I told her that I had cleaned my apartment after the earthquake in the possibility that my coworkers had to spend the night. She said that sight of my clean apartment was an occasion to come over, but when she got there, her reply was, "You were going to let your coworkers stay here like this??"
The next morning, I began looking at more information, but by all logical accounts, the situation was far removed from me. I remember thinking how far Fukushima seemed at 250 kilometers; one of my friends from training worked there, and he had only come down to Tokyo once since going up there. When I talked with my mom that morning, the power plant situation came up; however, even though I began with the reassurances of distance, she didn't seem to be worried. That in turn made me feel relieved as well, and I even felt a little proud of my mom--Hera's mom was beyond worried and had asked Hera to come home--to which Hera replied, "Sure, if you want to buy the ticket."
After that, Hera and I decided to get try and get kaitensushi that afternoon (try being the key word, as so many places were still closed).Because of the unreliability of the trains, we decided to walk to a nearby train station instead of transferring trains. But when we got there, the other line was closed off completely--I didn't even know they could close up the station in the way they did.
So we decided to try walking to the sushi place--though I should mention that we were dressed
a little fancy due to my desire to have a bit of a photo safari to add excitement to the day. We definitely got a few stares; one very, very old truck driver saw us me lift the hem of my dress to take pictures, and motioned his encouragement for me to go farther with my lifting. Finally, we made it to our destination--and it was open!! The lights were half off, and the sushi selection was limited, but everything we wanted was available, so we clapped our hands in glee and ate!
After our meal, we took the bus back to Shiki. On the bus, I got a call from manager asking, "Can you come into work tomorrow?" I assured her I would be there; Hera had likewise received a call from her manager; however, her manager had informed her that wh
ile we had to come in, lessons were cancelled for the day.
We had been trying to decide where we would spend the afternoon when we arrived back in Shiki, knowing that where ever we ended up would be where we spent the night. With the possibility of a group larger than 3 people, we decided the best place would be to go back to Jamie's, so we headed to Akabane.
We met our friend Beth at the station, and we headed to Seiyu
(Japan's Wal-Mart) for supplies. However, the sight of the store was fairly shocking--while it was crowded with people, it definitely was not crowded with food. Empty shelves wrapped around the store, barren except for a strange green tea. After we left the store, I had some bad luck--my camera fell out of my backpack, and my lens broke. I felt like a gloomy mood had begun to settle.
The next day, I left Jamie's early to ensure that if train schedules were wonky, I could still make it in time. I didn't need to worry, though--even though the platform across from me had a line way beyond the staircase leading up to it (for those going in the direction of Tokyo), mine was clear and a train came fast. I had just enough time to change into some clothes and head in, barely having time to read the news that radiation had made its way to Tokyo and Saitama, though at levels that were said not to be harmful to humans.
Those empty shelves are so eerie. I can't imagine what it was like there!
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