The Earthquake Hits

March 11th, 2011
After lunch.

I was sitting at my computer on the second floor working on an email when the earthquake hit. It wasn't like anything that have ever happened to me before. And believe me, after 44 years of experience with earthquakes in Japan, I know what a "normal" earthquake feels like.

I have turned my son's second floor room into a hobby/computer room where I can keep my beading supplies and work on my projects. There is a large sliding glass window facing the back yard. I was sitting in an old office chair which faces a work table. The chair is the kind that has rollers. I also have a computer desk on the side.
And I was being rolled around on the floor which felt like jelly or "konyaku" - a kind of vegetable jelly-like food. It felt like I was on "gushy" sand and water. The floor felt funny. Not real.

I remembered that I was supposed to open the door or window so that I could "escape" in case the house tilted. I couldn't stand up. I had to roll the chair over to the lock and open the window. Just then, my neighbors roof tiles fell down into our yard with a roar! I just couldn't believe it.

And the shaking didn't stop. It just kept on going. Earthquakes are over pretty quickly in Japan. That is the way it is. But this one just wouldn't quit. I had to hold on to the table to keep steady.

I turned to my computer and tried to send out some emails. I couldn't believe it - somehow I could type, quick, broken messages. But I did get some emails out to friends in the neighborhood and to my family.

Suddenly, it went as fast as it came. All was quite.

I ran downstairs and outside. Everyone was outside. I ran around the house to the back to find the lady who lived in the house where the tiles fell down. I wandered if she was okay. I knocked on her door and told her that her roof tiles fell down. She couldn't believe it. I had to help her climb the stairs of a another neighbor's house, so she could see her roof. She was flabbergasted.

All of my neighbors were checking on each other. "Are you okay?" It seemed that most people had suffered no personal damage. Somethings had fallen off their bookshelves. I hadn't checked anything in our house. I walked back home in a daze. I looked at the walls. It looked okay.

Inside, there were things on the floor but it seemed nothing was seriously broken. Upstairs in Ken's room, heavy things had fallen from the bookshelves - like Ken's motorcycle helmet, but nothing broke. I do not remember hearing anything fall during the quake. Nothing at all. Everything was silent during the quake. Strange.