Earthquake in Japan!

Yesterday was Japan's biggest earthquake.
I was working in Tendo Yamagata just 1 hour and 30 mins from Sendai.


It was around 14:00 and I was in class teaching when everything began to shake.
People were screaming in the street and we stood outside our building in the snow. A bus was waiting at the bus stop, shaking, full of people. The buildings were shaking too as if they were made of jelly. The rattling was so loud and it was difficult to stand up.

We waited outside in the cold for about an hour until all the shocks had subsided. The city was out of power and signal lights ceased to work. Cars crashed outside the school and sirens of ambulances, police and fire brigade filled the air.

The phone network failed although data was up. I got skype online and my coworker was able to call his family and I turned on my wifi hotspot so my boss could use internet on her laptop. The flash came in handy too since we had no power it worked as a torch.

I couldn't contact Yuuri since she was working at the Richmond hotel in Yamagata and had to stay to help guests. I was worried but told to go home. My home was fine and nothing had fallen off much, my new LED TV was still standing so I was relieved. I secured everything I could and went back out to try the shops for supplies. Nothing. Everything was closed.

Trains had stopped and traffic was erratic. The snow was coming down heavy so I decided best to stay home.
People were in their cars keeping warm. We had no electric but gas and water was on.

As night drew near the town with no lights soon went dark and cold. I struggled to move around my own apartment. I put on as many clothes as I could and kept trying to reach Yuuri.


Just after 21:00 Yuuri said she was coming home by taxi. It was good to see her and we quickly went to bed to keep warm.

Today I woke up and batteries were starting to get low on our phones. Luckily I had been using a backup battery charger but now it had depleted. Softbank network was completely down too and nothing on the phones worked. I got up at 9:00 and it was cold. I made Yuuri a hot chocolate and boiled a pot of water to use to get washed in.

Work was closed but I saw people in the supermarket so I got some instant ramen and some coffee. I got some heat packs too just in case. the supermarket was dark and the cash machines were all offline. The queues were astronomical and I got back at about 11:00 to find the power back on. I got the heating on and put on the news.

Ishinomaki, where I was going to work instead of Tendo was destroyed. The city of Hachinohe were I used to visit and take my parents had been washed away and Sendai were I was out shopping the week before was devastated. Figures are coming in as over 1000 people dead.

Right now the nuclear reactor in Fukushima, a few hours south, is venting radiation. We have been told to stay home and be prepared for more tremors and power outages. It is now nearly 23:00 and we are feeling tremors. The phone network is patchy but up for now.

Yuuri has got bottles of fresh water saved and she has made food for us tomorrow. The radiation is going to blow over Japan but I think we will be all right.