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sailorstarsunOk, I'm sure by now the whole world knows about the big earthquake we had here in Japan, so I wanted to give an account here, just for future reference.
For starters, I think people are worrying about my area way too much. We're fine here. Yes, it shook a lot, but the city is fine, for the most part. We're miles and miles away from the nuclear plant that had an explosion, and I don't think any radiation leaked from that anyway.
Before I get into the whole thing, I'll explain districts in Japan. The country is divided up into prefectures, which are the same as states in the US. I live in Ibaraki prefecture. Then in the prefectures are, of course, cities. Same as the US. But from there it gets broken down more. Within the cities, sometimes, are wards, and neighborhoods. For example, Shibuya and Ikebukuro are actually wards in Tokyo, not their own cities. In my city, Chikusei, we have four wards - Shimodate, Sekijyo, Akeno, and Kyowa. I live in Shimodate, but I work in Sekijyo. ... Which is how I ended up with an hour long bike ride to work. And within Shimodate, my neighborhood has a name too, but that's not important.
So.
It was during my 6th period class on Friday. Friday is the only day of the week I even have a class 6th period, so of course. It was my last lesson with my 5-2 (5th grade) class.
It started shaking a little, and we were like "woo..." then it started shaking more, and the home room teacher told the kids to get under their desks, which they did post haste. It was shaking even more as he and I ran and opened the doors and windows, to help prevent broken glass, then he stood in the doorway and I held on to the computer and monitor, to keep them from falling over (I have strange priorities). It shook a lot, hard. Outside, I could see pipes pulling from the side of the building. A bookshelf fell over; luckily all the nearby students were under desks.
When the big quake stopped, all the students quickly lined up at the door, and when the teacher told them to, they dashed out of the building. All of the classes ran out onto the field, lining up and getting counted. Everything was almost well coordinated, but there was one scary moment when someone realized "Ho shit, where's class 5-1!?" A whole class was missing, and one of the teachers ran back into the building. A few minutes later, he and the class and their homeroom teacher came running out. It was a relief, though I never heard why they were delayed.
We stood around a lot. It was very cold, and I didn't have a coat or anything, but didn't know if it was ok to go inside, so just dealt with it. Many of the students were very scared and very upset. There was a lot of crying, and it seemed every time they started to calm down, an aftershock would come and scare them all over again. I felt so bad for them.
And other students didn't seem affected at all. .^^; Laughing and playing~
We stayed outside as the parents came to pick up their kids. They were checked off as they left, so everyone was accounted for, and nobody went back inside for their stuff. They were just really happy to see their family.
While waiting, a group of 2nd graders had sat in a circle with a blanket over them, and they invited me to sit with them, so I did. Then we played little games for a long while. .^^ Seven-year-olds don't care about your silly earthquakes - duck duck goose is far more interesting. =P But it was fun.
The school building itself only received a little damage, as far as I saw.
A little damage.
When I left the school (after first going back to the English Room to retrieve my notebook), I found all of Sekijyo had no electricity. All the traffic lights were out, which posed a bit of a challenge for me, as I don't know the rules for that in Japan... or on a bike. .>_> I made it ok, though. Closer to Shimodate, the power was ok, but there are more buildings, and more building damage. It's very common to have stone walls around houses here, and at one point, right in my bike path, an entire wall had fallen over.
I seriously hope nobody was standing near it when it fell.
Needless to say, my apartment was trashed. No damages, that I see, but almost everything that wasn't nailed down fell. I had a potted flower that my 9th graders gave to me on a ledge over the stairs, and it fell all the way down, spreading potting crap all over the wall as it went. All my toiletries fell from the shelves -
- bowls and silverware fell, all my plushies fell.
Shizuo! Nooooooooooooo!
It was a mess. ... Though I find it amusing and lucky that none of my books fell. One shelf was just too packed for anything to move, and on the other shelf all the books fell inward, on the the shelf, but not off.
The power of porn.
All of my little figurines were on the floor, except the one of Claude. Which tells me the others didn't fall so much as he pushed them.
To be fair, he is a demon.
Other than the mess, though, everything in the apartment was fine... on Friday night.
Of course, I immediately set to letting family and friends know I'm ok, and giving e-hugs and well-wishes to my peeps here in Japan. The aftershocks were constant that night, and I hardly got any sleep with all the shaking.
Saturday morning I woke up to no running water in my apartment. Ok... So I went up to the grocery store, but there were lines at every register going all the way to the back of the store, and no bread or bottled water. 7-11 also had nothing. Like, literally, nothing. Maybe some beer, but all the other food shelves were empty. So I just got a can of coffee from a vending machine, and went home.
Turns out - because if there's bullshit, it's happening to me - mine was the only apartment complex, of all the ALTs here in Shimodate, with no water. So we all ended up hanging out at one friend's apartment for a few days, playing video games and badminton while keeping an eye on the news reports. One guy was/is just short of donning a full radiation suit because of all the trouble at the nuclear power plant. He's like "We all need to be wearing masks! We need a contingency plan to get out of here quick!" Drama queen.
I'm actually not at all worried about the power plant. The only danger is to people in a 30km radius around the plant, and they're being told to stay indoors. We're 100+km from the plant - why the fuck should we need to evacuate if people living right near the damn thing just need to stay indoors? Drama queen.
Anyway. All schools in Chikusei were closed for the week, and we get the time off. (Actually, I just right now got word that schools will be closed "until further notice," which will possibly/probably mean past the end of our contract..) It's actually a little sad for me, because it means I'll miss my last day at theelementary now both schools, so won't get to say goodbye to my kids. .;_;
In addition to all the drama going on here, I've also got to get ready to move next week. So I took a few days off from hangin' out with the guys to start packing. Still didn't have water those days and, just between us, my toilet was starting to get gross. .@_@ Because I couldn't flush it.
On Wednesday, I went up to the grocery store to use their bathroom and see if they had any bread or water. They didn't have any bread, still, but I managed to find a few small bottles of water. When I got home, I put the bottles in the fridge, then on a whim tried my faucet. And LO! Water came out! Ok, so it was a little brown at first, but I was excited. And the first thing I did was flush the toilet. ... Twice. Then ran the washing machine empty, to get the dirty water out for later clothes-washing. Then took a long, long shower.
Now, it's Thursday. Almost a week later. The aftershocks are getting much less frequent, but they're still happening. I'm not freaking out, even though we've had some pretty big ones right here in Ibaraki. I worry for the financial future of Japan, so ask that people donate when they can, but I think we'll pull through. Japan's been through a lot of shit, and always pulls through.
And... that's all I feel like saying about it.
がんばって、日本。
On top of all that, today I found out that a friend of mine back home died a few weeks ago. I don't know the details yet, just that it was very sudden.
She wasn't someone I was super close with, a person from the Michigan doll group, but she was someone I admired and liked a lot. She was the type of person who would always be there for everyone, always just giving stuff away, always happy to lend a hand. I always enjoyed her company. She was one of the last people I saw before I moved, and one of the people I was sure I'd see if/when I went back to the states for a visit.
I'm going to miss her, a lot.
For starters, I think people are worrying about my area way too much. We're fine here. Yes, it shook a lot, but the city is fine, for the most part. We're miles and miles away from the nuclear plant that had an explosion, and I don't think any radiation leaked from that anyway.
Before I get into the whole thing, I'll explain districts in Japan. The country is divided up into prefectures, which are the same as states in the US. I live in Ibaraki prefecture. Then in the prefectures are, of course, cities. Same as the US. But from there it gets broken down more. Within the cities, sometimes, are wards, and neighborhoods. For example, Shibuya and Ikebukuro are actually wards in Tokyo, not their own cities. In my city, Chikusei, we have four wards - Shimodate, Sekijyo, Akeno, and Kyowa. I live in Shimodate, but I work in Sekijyo. ... Which is how I ended up with an hour long bike ride to work. And within Shimodate, my neighborhood has a name too, but that's not important.
So.
It was during my 6th period class on Friday. Friday is the only day of the week I even have a class 6th period, so of course. It was my last lesson with my 5-2 (5th grade) class.
It started shaking a little, and we were like "woo..." then it started shaking more, and the home room teacher told the kids to get under their desks, which they did post haste. It was shaking even more as he and I ran and opened the doors and windows, to help prevent broken glass, then he stood in the doorway and I held on to the computer and monitor, to keep them from falling over (I have strange priorities). It shook a lot, hard. Outside, I could see pipes pulling from the side of the building. A bookshelf fell over; luckily all the nearby students were under desks.
When the big quake stopped, all the students quickly lined up at the door, and when the teacher told them to, they dashed out of the building. All of the classes ran out onto the field, lining up and getting counted. Everything was almost well coordinated, but there was one scary moment when someone realized "Ho shit, where's class 5-1!?" A whole class was missing, and one of the teachers ran back into the building. A few minutes later, he and the class and their homeroom teacher came running out. It was a relief, though I never heard why they were delayed.
We stood around a lot. It was very cold, and I didn't have a coat or anything, but didn't know if it was ok to go inside, so just dealt with it. Many of the students were very scared and very upset. There was a lot of crying, and it seemed every time they started to calm down, an aftershock would come and scare them all over again. I felt so bad for them.
And other students didn't seem affected at all. .^^; Laughing and playing~
We stayed outside as the parents came to pick up their kids. They were checked off as they left, so everyone was accounted for, and nobody went back inside for their stuff. They were just really happy to see their family.
While waiting, a group of 2nd graders had sat in a circle with a blanket over them, and they invited me to sit with them, so I did. Then we played little games for a long while. .^^ Seven-year-olds don't care about your silly earthquakes - duck duck goose is far more interesting. =P But it was fun.
The school building itself only received a little damage, as far as I saw.
A little damage.
When I left the school (after first going back to the English Room to retrieve my notebook), I found all of Sekijyo had no electricity. All the traffic lights were out, which posed a bit of a challenge for me, as I don't know the rules for that in Japan... or on a bike. .>_> I made it ok, though. Closer to Shimodate, the power was ok, but there are more buildings, and more building damage. It's very common to have stone walls around houses here, and at one point, right in my bike path, an entire wall had fallen over.
I seriously hope nobody was standing near it when it fell.
Needless to say, my apartment was trashed. No damages, that I see, but almost everything that wasn't nailed down fell. I had a potted flower that my 9th graders gave to me on a ledge over the stairs, and it fell all the way down, spreading potting crap all over the wall as it went. All my toiletries fell from the shelves -
- bowls and silverware fell, all my plushies fell.
Shizuo! Nooooooooooooo!
It was a mess. ... Though I find it amusing and lucky that none of my books fell. One shelf was just too packed for anything to move, and on the other shelf all the books fell inward, on the the shelf, but not off.
The power of porn.
All of my little figurines were on the floor, except the one of Claude. Which tells me the others didn't fall so much as he pushed them.
To be fair, he is a demon.
Other than the mess, though, everything in the apartment was fine... on Friday night.
Of course, I immediately set to letting family and friends know I'm ok, and giving e-hugs and well-wishes to my peeps here in Japan. The aftershocks were constant that night, and I hardly got any sleep with all the shaking.
Saturday morning I woke up to no running water in my apartment. Ok... So I went up to the grocery store, but there were lines at every register going all the way to the back of the store, and no bread or bottled water. 7-11 also had nothing. Like, literally, nothing. Maybe some beer, but all the other food shelves were empty. So I just got a can of coffee from a vending machine, and went home.
Turns out - because if there's bullshit, it's happening to me - mine was the only apartment complex, of all the ALTs here in Shimodate, with no water. So we all ended up hanging out at one friend's apartment for a few days, playing video games and badminton while keeping an eye on the news reports. One guy was/is just short of donning a full radiation suit because of all the trouble at the nuclear power plant. He's like "We all need to be wearing masks! We need a contingency plan to get out of here quick!" Drama queen.
I'm actually not at all worried about the power plant. The only danger is to people in a 30km radius around the plant, and they're being told to stay indoors. We're 100+km from the plant - why the fuck should we need to evacuate if people living right near the damn thing just need to stay indoors? Drama queen.
Anyway. All schools in Chikusei were closed for the week, and we get the time off. (Actually, I just right now got word that schools will be closed "until further notice," which will possibly/probably mean past the end of our contract..) It's actually a little sad for me, because it means I'll miss my last day at the
In addition to all the drama going on here, I've also got to get ready to move next week. So I took a few days off from hangin' out with the guys to start packing. Still didn't have water those days and, just between us, my toilet was starting to get gross. .@_@ Because I couldn't flush it.
On Wednesday, I went up to the grocery store to use their bathroom and see if they had any bread or water. They didn't have any bread, still, but I managed to find a few small bottles of water. When I got home, I put the bottles in the fridge, then on a whim tried my faucet. And LO! Water came out! Ok, so it was a little brown at first, but I was excited. And the first thing I did was flush the toilet. ... Twice. Then ran the washing machine empty, to get the dirty water out for later clothes-washing. Then took a long, long shower.
Now, it's Thursday. Almost a week later. The aftershocks are getting much less frequent, but they're still happening. I'm not freaking out, even though we've had some pretty big ones right here in Ibaraki. I worry for the financial future of Japan, so ask that people donate when they can, but I think we'll pull through. Japan's been through a lot of shit, and always pulls through.
And... that's all I feel like saying about it.
がんばって、日本。
On top of all that, today I found out that a friend of mine back home died a few weeks ago. I don't know the details yet, just that it was very sudden.
She wasn't someone I was super close with, a person from the Michigan doll group, but she was someone I admired and liked a lot. She was the type of person who would always be there for everyone, always just giving stuff away, always happy to lend a hand. I always enjoyed her company. She was one of the last people I saw before I moved, and one of the people I was sure I'd see if/when I went back to the states for a visit.
I'm going to miss her, a lot.
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Date: 2011-03-17 08:26 am (UTC)Still, it's good to hear that you're okay and the only damage so far is fallen toiletries and a broken water pipe.