52 weeks later...

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I'm sitting in Osaka, where I was trying to get to 52 weeks ago.

Where were you? And where are you now?

[Coligny]

52 weeks, that make how much in dog years ?

[MrUltimateGaijin]

was doing a 5 hour walk home.

I'm home.

[Russell]

I'm sitting in Osaka, where I was trying to get to 52 weeks ago.

Is that supposed to refer to March 11?

Where were you? And where are you now?

Kinki. Kinki.

[canman]

I was driving home, only about 1 km from my house when I thought for sure I had a flat tire. Got home just in time for the last of the big shocks, and to hear almost everything in the house being flung around.
Now I am sitting in my warm dining room, reading and writing this, whereas 52 weeks ago, my wife and I were freezing sitting in the sun room, ready to make a bolt outside if another big aftershock hit!

[gaijinpunch]

I'm at my office in Northern California, where my boss convinced me to come about 5 days into the melt down scare. I'm on better terms this time, obviously. Weather is nice, and my mom is going to come chill w/ me.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I was driving home, only about 1 km from my house when I thought for sure I had a flat tire. Got home just in time for the last of the big shocks, and to hear almost everything in the house being flung around.
Now I am sitting in my warm dining room, reading and writing this, whereas 52 weeks ago, my wife and I were freezing sitting in the sun room, ready to make a bolt outside if another big aftershock hit!

I remember you and Yokohammer were the two that we were really worried about!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Is that supposed to refer to March 11?

yes, it's 'supposed' to refer to 11march. to me, it will always be the most surreal friday afternoon of my life.

[Coligny]

At home back from the hairdresser totally unable to realise that it was not a business as usual and more shit was to come. As proved by my very late first post in the relative thread.

But then again... at the roots, I'm an historian. We tend not to be scared by disasters... Being there it's like being the first to read a new book, before it's even written... And books don't kill people... right ?

(I think journalists are bit the same, they can't be hurt or killed right now, in their mind they are already back at the office to write their paper, also see: Haroun Tazieff)

[CrankyBastard]

52 weeks ago........ walking through a parking lot wondering why the cars were all dancing.
Now........ ............sitting in front of you wondering why you haven't yet put on something a little more respectable!!

Seriously, remembering what happened that fateful day 52 weeks ago is easy.
It's trying to recall the last 52 minutes that has me stumped.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

52 weeks ago........ walking through a parking lot wondering why the cars were all dancing.
Now........ ............sitting in front of you wondering why you haven't yet put on something a little more respectable!!

Seriously, remembering what happened that fateful day 52 weeks ago is easy.
It's trying to recall the last 52 minutes that has me stumped.

weird how the brain works. i also remember every second of that day.

oh and finally i've put my clothes back on. don't know if i'd call it something more respectable though!

[Russell]

[quote="Cyka UchuuJin"]
oh and finally i've put my clothes back on. don't know if i'd call it something more respectable though! ]
Depends on who does the evaluation.

[Iraira]

[Coligny]

52 weeks ago........ walking through a parking lot wondering why the cars were all dancing.
Now........ ............sitting in front of you wondering why you haven't yet put on something a little more respectable!!

Seriously, remembering what happened that fateful day 52 weeks ago is easy.
It's trying to recall the last 52 minutes that has me stumped.

DAGUERREOTYPE...

or it didun't happen...

[Coligny]

And for month to come the outline of japanese coast could not be seen under the dots of the dozens of quake every hours... AND the quake alarm radio going on at least twice a day in the whole building...

FUN TIMES...

[CrankyBastard]

DAGUERREOTYPE...

or it didun't happen...

No need for pics. I got cra/hack/skillz you can only dream of.
Now, release that poor cat you're cradling and get back to working on fixin' the place up! Blaming the "shinsai" on everything only works if you're Japanese.!!!

[Coligny]

No need for pics. I got cra/hack/skillz you can only dream of.
Now, release that poor cat you're cradling and get back to working on fixin' the place up! Blaming the "shinsai" on everything only works if you're Japanese.!!!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

seems like the 5.1 that hit last night under Mita was a bit of a reminder, eh?

[yanpa]

yes, it's 'supposed' to refer to 11march. to me, it will always be the most surreal friday afternoon of my life.

It was the week after, watching Fukushima go "pouff" in different ways live on TV while experiencing a darkened, virtually neon-less Tokyo which was surreal for me. Also plundering a 12-pack of toilet paper from the abandoned office and getting what I swear were looks of envy while carrying it home on the Yamanote line which was running at 10 minute intervals under immanent threat of total shutdown as no-one knew how much electricity would still be available.

[legion]

I remember seeing an old guy standing outside his tea shop handing out free hot tea to the people walking home, I guess it was sometime after 9PM and getting chilly.

[sublight]

Still living in the same house in Tokyo, still working the same job.

I think 3/11 was probably the most scared I've been in my life. First for myself during the quake, and then trying to get in touch with family, who were scattered around the city.

I remember rushing 6 flights down the fire escape and seeing the entire stairway snapping back and forth as we all went. I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering whether the building would stay standing until we'd all made it out.

I walked about 10km back home that night. I remember the convenience stores letting everyone use their toilets. There was barely anything left on the shelves to buy.

I bought a beer to drink as I walked home. I remember everyone just getting quietly along.

I remember barely being able to sleep for a week because of the continual aftershocks.

I remember feeling guilty over how scared I'd been for myself after seeing how bad it was up north.

I remember calling my parents on Monday to ask if the local pharmacies had any potassium iodide (after checking the local pharmacies and being told they didn't sell it to the general public).

There was an upheaval at my son's school afterwards because about a quarter of the teachers decided to pull a flyjin (more teachers than parents, by my estimate). Some waited until the end of the school year in June, but a lot just packed and left right then.

My son was in kindergarten when it happened. He spent the next month terrified of earthquakes, but is now fascinated by them.

The one thing my co-workers and I still laugh about, though, is how one of our salesmen reacted during the quake. That kind of thing is completely unpredictable and terrifying, and I normally wouldn't fault anyone for how they acted, but this was too much. When we came back into the office (we'd evacuated about 3/4th of the way through the shaking), we noticed our office disco ball (doesn't your office have one?) sitting by the fire escape door, far from its usual place. It turned out that, during the evacuation, his snap judgement was to grab the disco ball (out of all the things in the office, including photos of his kid) and carry it to safety. Only the 'WTF?' look from the guy ushering everyone out convinced him to leave it at the door, rather than try to run down six wobbling flights carrying a fragile ball covered in sharp pieces of glass.

[Coligny]

Also plundering a 12-pack of toilet paper from the abandoned office and getting what I swear were looks of envy while carrying it home on the Yamanote

you've been too long in Japan when:

your first reflex in case of disasters is to hoard toilet paper...

(and save the disco ball... i mean... this... and boose... have too be protected at all costs... that guy is my new hero)

[Tsuru]

Having just returned from Japan we were still enjoying our regular post long-haul flight jetlag pizza-and-beer shut-in therapy, when it came on the TV. I remember calling out to my wife that there had been a major quake, and her replying: "Yeah, we get a lot of them..."

Just as the first images of the cars racing across the countryside trying to outrun the water and burning buildings started coming in I remember saying: "Not like this..."

[yanpa]

you've been too long in Japan when:

your first reflex in case of disasters is to hoard toilet paper...

The problem was everyone else had done that, leaving me with a rapidly dwindling supply of advertising tissues, some of which had been in the family for years.

[GomiGirl]

I remember feeling guilty over how scared I'd been for myself after seeing how bad it was up north.

Totally relate to this. I remember trying to make everybody at home realise that Tokyo was fine (apart from the toilet paper shortage) but the real tragedy was up north.

I was with some friends in Kichijoji. We all had babies around the same age and in carriers. I am normally OK with earthquakes but I think as I had my (then) 6 month old strapped to my chest, I had a little panic.

One of my friends went through the Kobe quake and she saw freeways falling over so she went into a total panic. We had to take her down to a friends place nearby and calm her down as her milk wouldn't let down and her baby was hungry.

We ended up trying to walk back to Yoyogi (my place) around 8pm and conned an off duty taxi to drive us. He wasn't going to work that night (madness) as he knew if he drove towards Shinjuku he would never get back to Kichijoji that night due to the traffic jams.

The house was mostly OK - a CD tower had fallen over and the bedroom TV had fallen off the dresser but mainly I remember the ghostly feeling of things being out of place. All the drawers in the kitchen were out.

Couldn't get a hold of husband except via a friends facebook.. twitter and facebook for the win. Keitai service = total fail.

[yanpa]

The actual quake itself I spent holding up a shelf of servers, mainly thinking how it would really spoil my weekend if any of them crashed to the floor. (Call me psychic, but only a couple of months previously I invested a couple of late nights and early mornings making the thing reasonably stable).

[Coligny]

The problem was everyone else had done that, leaving me with a rapidly dwindling supply of advertising tissues, some of which had been in the family for years.

You've been too long in Japan when:

Your stock of Marketting tissues pouches have samples older than the current prime minister term...

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Totally relate to this. I remember trying to make everybody at home realise that Tokyo was fine (apart from the toilet paper shortage) but the real tragedy was up north.

I was with some friends in Kichijoji. We all had babies around the same age and in carriers. I am normally OK with earthquakes but I think as I had my (then) 6 month old strapped to my chest, I had a little panic.

One of my friends went through the Kobe quake and she saw freeways falling over so she went into a total panic. We had to take her down to a friends place nearby and calm her down as her milk wouldn't let down and her baby was hungry.

We ended up trying to walk back to Yoyogi (my place) around 8pm and conned an off duty taxi to drive us. He wasn't going to work that night (madness) as he knew if he drove towards Shinjuku he would never get back to Kichijoji that night due to the traffic jams.

The house was mostly OK - a CD tower had fallen over and the bedroom TV had fallen off the dresser but mainly I remember the ghostly feeling of things being out of place. All the drawers in the kitchen were out.

Couldn't get a hold of husband except via a friends facebook.. twitter and facebook for the win. Keitai service = total fail.

I have that guilt as well. Even more so when I finally got my flight out a few days later, felt like I was abandoning my friends here.

Don't know about anyone else, but I just had a very emotional moment at 14.46 today and was in tears without any real idea why I was crying.

On Thursday afternoon I was in Shinagawa again on my way to Osaka, and seeing the announcements that all Shinkansen were suspended made me completely panic (I didn't know then that it was because of a train hitting someone). I still have some kind of weird feeling whenever I am in Shinagawa station.

[matsuki]

Day late but her I am again in the office alone. I remember literally laughing as the quake began. Just thinking, "here we go again" but a few seconds later as it got stronger and things began to crash down in the office I realized how big it was and curled under the desk with my iPad. Mamachari home was not fun....mamachari to work the next day was even worse. Being in Tokyo and reliant on rail for transportation sucks but I've still held out and haven't bought some wheels yet. (though a cheapo kei-van is sounding more and more appealing everyday)

[IparryU]

I thought the quake wasn't that big and I was on the 5th floor of a building in Shibuya... went out side and saw a crowd... thought someone famous was in town.

went to the bus terminal and heard the news.... i was pissed cause I had to get home and get some things done. at that time i still didn't know what exactly happend (big quake... dugh, but didn't know about the tsunami yet...)

got home and heard the news... then got in contact with the US and heard the "real news" about what was going on...

Now on the anniversary, I was waiting for that Darwin show to come on (my kids love animals) and it apparently was canceled cause of the 311 coverage... so i had to surf until i found something for my kids (still waiting for the "animal show"... and getting impatient...) got so pissed off because nothing was on and even the tarentos got some extra time...

I also noticed the word "guilt" mentioned in several posts... it wasn't like you guys were knocking on the people up north... nothing to feel guilty about when your in a critical situation. Especially when you have a 6mo on your chest... that must have been a tough one for GG+friends...

Now the fucks that should feel guilty are the ones pointing fingers and fucking off donations. I would love to have seen a documentary yesterday about the numerous fuckups from the J-gov, TEPCO, and civilians that could be a reference point for the "next" big quake.