I haven't posted here in more than two months, my longest hiatus since starting this blog. What better reason to break out of that slump than a devastating earthquake, right?
It has now been two weeks since the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. After a week away to decompress, I returned to Tokyo late Monday evening, only to find stores closing early and Shibuya as dark as I have ever seen it. There are still small intermittent aftershocks. People are less nervous than last week, but definitely still a little on-edge.
The earthquake struck at 2:46 PM on Friday afternoon, March 11th. Markets were being boring that day, and my mind was already on the various plans I had made for the weekend. I was on the 48th floor of Mori Tower, which is relevant for two reasons: a) Mori Tower is an ultra-modern building, amongst the safest and most earthquake-proof in Japan (and by extension, the world), and b) Earthquake-proofed buildings are typically designed to dissipate seismic energy by swaying, the nauseating effect of which is amplified on higher floors.
So there I was in the bathroom on the 48th floor at 2:46 PM, washing my hands, when I started to feel a little dizzy. I had just been to Starbucks, so the first thought that went through my head was that it was just a caffeine high. I tiptoed out into the hallway, still feeling dizzy, when it occurred to me that maybe we could be experiencing an earthquake. Still in disbelief, I quickly peered into the main office area, and saw that everyone else was looking confused and disoriented just like me. “Hmm, I guess it's an earthquake”.
The second “aha!” moment was when I noticed that this earthquake was slowly building in strength, unlike any earthquake I've ever experienced. As it happens, the fire escape in Mori Tower is located just outside the bathroom. Wanting to be near the fire escape in case of an evacuation, I decided to stay put in the hallway, clear of any falling objects. Then, about 30 seconds later, two groups of people came dashing out of the main office area, making a beeline for the fire escape – at which point it seemed just stupid not to follow them. So off I went into the fire escape, down 48 flights of stairs, and out of Mori Tower to safety (I've since been convinced that my reaction was somewhat suboptimal).
Amidst all the confusion, and definitely not wanting to go back up to the 48th floor, I quickly hopped on a bus and headed home to Shibuya. I was sitting inside the bus which the first large aftershock hit. I remember the pedestrian overpasses above us teetering menacingly, probably exactly as they were designed to do. Once I got to Shibuya, I just walked around aimlessly for a while, not wanting to being indoors at all. Phone calls on Softbank were not going through, but e-mail and web traffic seemed to be going through fine (albeit slowly), so I kept busy sending out e-mails and following Facebook and Twitter.
It was a scene of general confusion in Shibuya. People were standing around, looking calm-yet-stunned about what had just happened. Some were wearing helmets, some were not. Apart from sending e-mails and following Facebook, I didn't know what else to do. All I knew is I didn't want to be indoors for a while, so I just wandered. I felt a bit cold (I didn't grab my jacket when I left Mori Tower), so I went back to my apartment and picked up a jacket, and continued to wander. I hung out in Yoyogi Park for a while. And then I went to a different park, and had a veggie burger. That's a memory I won't soon forget – sitting in the park, munching on Freshness Burger, feeling the aftershocks go by. That night, not knowing what else to do, I went out for pizza and drinks with some friends who lived in the neighbourhood. We were feeling excited and on-edge, yet the full impact of what had happened that day had not yet dawned on anyone.
At this point I have to grudgingly admit that Facebook is an amazing thing. Very soon after the quake, I posted on Facebook that I was safe, before friends in North America to woke up to the news of the earthquake in Japan. It really seemed to calm people's nerves and probably saved hundreds of concerned e-mail and phone calls.
I spent most of Saturday with friends, glued to the news. Damage reports were streaming in, as people got a clearer picture of the devastation wrought by the earthquake. NHK World's coverage was excellent, Kyodo was good, BBC world and Al Jazeera were decent, and everyone else was a miserable fail. A pair of storylines were developing – tsunamis destroying the coastal areas of Japan, and damage to the nuclear plant in Fukushima. One of the tragedies of the ensuing media hype is that the former was ignored in favour of the latter.
Over that Saturday and Sunday, panic spread through the city. Convenience store shelves were emptying out, so we stocked up on food and water bottles, just in case. The streets were empty, while many stores and restaurants were shut down. Walking around Shibuya that Saturday night was the quietest I had ever seen it. Some folks were out and about (like us), but most were at home, glued to their television sets, and hugely stressed out.
I was spending hours on the phone with my family, as they were understandably freaking out. Every gaijin in Tokyo was going through the same thing. TEPCO and the Japanese government were being uncommunicative, and the foreign media was filling in the holes by being as imaginative as possible. Phrases such as “nuclear holocaust” and “radiation cloud” were being bandied about, with no basis in fact. Moreover, all of Japan was being shrunk down to a single point – nobody knew the difference between Sendai, Tokyo and Osaka, except that there were all in Japan and were therefore turning into radioactive wastelands.
All the phone calls, e-mails, and Facebook-ing was exhausting, and causing me more stress. There were several aftershocks throughout the weekend, some large, some not. None were causing any damage to Tokyo, but each was nerve-wracking nevertheless – because you wondered whether it would build up slowly into a big one, just like Friday's quake did. Despite doing nothing but eat, drink and watch the news, Saturday and Sunday were some of the deepest nights of sleep in recent memory.
On Sunday, my friend Maria dropped by apartment to give me a haircut – all my other weekend plans were cancelled, so why not? By Sunday evening, word had gotten out around the foreign community that people were leaving Tokyo in droves. The more people I spoke to, the more I heard were leaving. Some were returning to their home countries, others were fleeing to Nagoya, Osaka or further west. Worried, I quickly booked both a train ticket to Osaka for Monday night, and a flight to Hong Kong for Tuesday night, not expecting to use either.
I went in to work on Monday, March 14th, wanting to see how the office environment would feel. The stream of bad news on the nuclear reactors continued, and financial markets were going crazy. Whether or not where was any actual danger, stress levels around the office were clearly elevated. There was a powerful aftershock around 10 AM, similar in magnitude to a quake that we all sort of laughed off just a few days. This time around, a woman burst into tears, crumbling from the stress. Helmets were instantly being thrown on at the slightest hint of a tremor, and I was carrying my helmet around everywhere, even to the bathroom. Over the course of Monday, it became quite clear that I couldn't do my job effectively in that environment. I had a word with my manager and my team, and decided to take the rest of the week off.
I had been hearing of train cancellations all weekend, so I headed to the train station (carrying only a small backpack which I packed the night before) half-expecting my train ticket to Osaka to no longer be valid. Fortunately for me, trains going west were operating as normal – only Tohoku-bound trains had been cancelled. And so by midnight, I was safely in Osaka, well clear of the zombie apocalypse that Tokyo was reportedly turning into.
Arriving in Osaka, I instantly felt calmer and more relaxed. So many people I knew (including virtually every foreigner) was doing to same as me – escaping Tokyo for a few days due to immense pressure from home, feeling like the stress and tense atmosphere in Tokyo was just not worth it. The news reports were just getting worse, not better. I spent the next three days in Osaka, just chilling out, mostly eating, drinking and hanging out at cafes. Of course, I continued to spent huge amounts of time watching the news, e-mailing and talking on the phone, repeatedly reassuring everyone of my safety.
Tired, I decided to go sightseeing in Himeji and Hiroshima on Friday and Saturday. Might as well make the most out of a forced vacation, right? Visiting the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima was one of the most moving experiences in recent memory – more on that in a future post, maybe. Hotels and hostels were booked out completely for the weekend, due to both the long weekend and people fleeing from Tokyo. Yet, declining the opportunity to price gouge, the nice folks at K's House in Hiroshima actually gave 50% discounts to Tokyo residents.
Speaking to fellow “Tokyo refugees” in Hiroshima and Osaka, I had the same conversations over and over again – where were they during the quake, how did they react, what to do now, to flee or not to flee Japan. Couples were breaking up because one wanted to flee and the other didn't. Those with children plainly distrusted the Japanese government – is exposing your child to radiation really a risk worth taking? Many foreigners were leaving, not due to any real material danger, but just to escape the fear and panic. The phone calls, e-mails, and Facebook posts were just too much. The hysteria was being fueled by TV reports, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter (the relative silence of the Japanese government wasn't helping much either, mind you). Such is the double-edged sword that is modern technology, I suppose – a boon in times of crisis, yet capable of fueling such irrationality.
Some folks in Tokyo were hoarding food, water, toilet paper and (ahem) iodine pills. Which of course is stupid, because in any situation where such hoarding would be beneficial, you'd probably be better off just getting out of town. Or, just fight the radioactive mutant mummies with your Uzi.
Japan is amazing – less than 24 hours after the biggest earthquake in their history, most forms of public transportation were already back up and running, and supply lines were slowly but surely being restored. People were nervous, but acting calmly. No buildings in Tokyo were structurally damaged, as far as I could see. Yet, the media reporting around the world made it seem like Japan was falling apart. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper were, as expected, leading the idiot parade on CNN. The clearest evidence of media sensationalism is, naturally, the relative lack of coverage on the good news coming out of Japan. Who wants to hear about the stabilization of the Fukushima nuclear reactors, when we can have shock and awe in Libya? Yeehaw.
Throughout this experience, I stopped myself several times in disbelief at the extreme scenarios that I was apparently hedging – nuclear meltdown, widespread panic, shutdown of transportation networks. It just seemed surreal on that first Sunday night, plotting my “escape” from Tokyo. I had a memorable conversation with my friend Ronen, about times in life where you simply cannot be last one to act. In times of distress, you often see what people's values really are. When faced with a tough decision, what do they factor in? Purely to give their loved ones peace of mind, foreigners were leaving Tokyo, and many have understandably left Japan.
Fortunately, by Sunday and Monday of the (most well-timed!) long weekend, the news was turning positive. So, I caught the train back to Tokyo late Monday evening (March 21st), and was back in the office for Tuesday morning. Shibuya on that Monday evening was the darkest and quietest I have ever seen it, even quieter than the week before. The huge screens outside Hachiko were all switched off to save electricity. The office was still tense, though less so than the previous week. The aftershocks continue, even now, but people are no longer panicked. Those foreigners that did not flee Japan are back in Tokyo. The rolling blackouts continue. The last few days have remained quiet, save for a spike in tension after a report of increased radiation levels in Tokyo's tap water (those levels have since decreased.).
Tokyo is now strapping in for a prolonged period of energy conservation (a good thing, perhaps?), as it seems unlikely that the power plants in Fukushima will ever be operational again. The rolling blackouts will likely continue into the summer.
This story is far from over – with the sensationalism now dying down, attention can now rightly be focused on the hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes in Northern Japan. Or Libya.
Dazed and confused outside Mori Tower, 15 minutes after the quake.
Dazed and confused outside Shibuya station, one hour after the quake.
My friend Bob's apartment. His cabinet had toppled during the quake.
News dudes wearing helmets.
Shibuya on a Saturday night, quieter than I've ever seen it before.
The Glico man in Osaka. That's the spirit.
Cheer up. Hanami is almost here.
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which includes a layer of yakisoba.
