Wow. This was certainly unexpected (then again, since when does one expect a natural disaster, to say the least the worst recorded quake in Japan’s history?)
Thank you all so much for your concern. It’s really touching. I am fine. I just got power back a few minutes ago.
Things here in Aomori City weren’t so bad at all. It was a 4ish on the scale, although the Japanese scale is a little different. Things rattled kinda strong, but nothing actually fell. Only one quake was enough to feel very off balance. There have been about 15 or more detectable aftershocks. While things shook, there seems to be no structural damage and only (:() three deaths. All the foreigners in the city are taking care of each other and the JET people in charge have done a good job of making sure everyone is safe.
But yeah, by comparison, Sendai, where the earthquake hit, was an 8.8 I believe, so about 10,000 times as strong. They also got hit by a tsunami, soooo, many houses got swallowed by the earth and are now floating down the river… It’s so bad there.
Thank you all again so much for your concern. Never feel bad about detective work. I keep myself pretty searchable online anyway. My parents and friends have been notified.
Let me tell you, sleeping during an aftershock is an experience I’ll never forget. Almost therapeutically massaging if your lizard brain wasn’t screaming “OMG WE GONNA DIE” at a volume of 11. Again…damn.
Because this specifically highlights my experience, I am cross-posting this from the main earthquake thread.
At school now. We have a shortened schedule. I only have class second period. The principal looked dog-tired and pale, but everyone else has been remarkably unfazed, at least on the tatemae.
I can’t wait to get back to my office honestly. My supervisor informed me that because our building is also the fire department, it has specifically been built to withstand up to a 6.0. Unless we get a direct hit, at least me and my co-workers should be safe. I feel kinda selfish when I think of others though…
I got the stress shits. Ugh. TMI sorry.
Last night I managed to get in contact with a friend I haven’t talked to in a few years, but I knew she was from Sendai. When I got through, she was at work, and she seemed almost bothered to hear from me! Then again… she is a newscaster and was probably at the end of her rope. I mainly called because 15 people on her FB were worried and it is the only way they know how to reach her.
No school lunch for the kids today. Food trucks can’t make it through to the city. Yesterday I stocked up at the supermarket, which was surprisingly not crowded at all.
My American shopping list: Pizza, beer, meat, grains, canned goods. This got a good laugh from my Japanese friends.
There was one market open in my town the day of the quake, and my friend and I made it in just before it closed. The people at the registers were bent over calculators, totalling orders in the fading light from the windows. We were ecstatic to get food, but with 12 hours of darkness approaching, we were happy to be able to pick up some beer. We definitely weren’t the only ones.
They’ve got to be able to get deliveries up here. Up the western coast, or even by ship. We do have a port. In fact, the port was so important that it was decimated by the Allies in WWII. So if not trucks, ships.
No… I don’t have any of her RL contact info. All I know is her first name, Eden. I am now searching Facebook on the off chance we have a mutual friend or that I can recognize her from the results.
On my end, things are surpisingly back to normal. The kids are cheerful as ever. I briefly mentioned the recent happenings, and they said everyone was OK and then didn’t want to discuss it further. Can’t say I blame them.
I did some Internet detective work and didn’t turn up much except that I believe lynkster is male, and I found his Flickr site, which hasn’t been updated since Nov. 2010, so that’s unhelpful.
MsWhatsit found his (oops, my bad), Facebook page but it is closed to non-friends. I will send a friend request later in the day and see what else I can find out. Sure hope he is OK.
Soooo, yeah, Aomori City is still fine. Classes are still at half-days. Teachers still stay until 7. All elementary and middle schools are designated shelters, although the past few days I have not seen anyone staying in the gym.
Everyone is remarkably unfazed. I am not sure how much of this is the Japanese being very skilled in hiding true emotions, but, then again, Aomori has been extremely lucky. The kids are very genki though, and it seems genuine. There is a good deal of misinformation and hysteria floating around though. Today was snowy and some girls were mortified that I was not wearing a mask. The snow was radioactive you see… I know that maybe if the situation gets worse, that could very well become a reality, but still…
So, still right now we are only suffering from minor inconveniences, food and gasoline shortages. Oh, we also have intentional rolling blackouts. And scary aftershocks. Yeah life isn’t peachy now, but nobody is hurt or dead, no homes have been lost.
Tomorrow the power will be off all morning. There is no school, but teachers will come in to work. I have no clue what anyone will actually do, but I guess I am going to find out.
A lot of JETs are fleeing Japan now. I can’t say I blame them…
OK, I feel like a massive stalker, but I found lynkster’s sister’s Facebook page, and she has a post indicating that her brother is OK. I was quite relieved to read that and thought I’d pass it along to you guys. I’m sure lynkster will check in when he can.
One thing that hasn’t been clear in the news reports since the extent of the tsunami damage became clear is… how damaging was the earthquake in itself?
Not that bad, from what I understand. If you look at the number of deaths in each prefecture, you can see that by far the worst hit prefectures were those on the coast, north of Tokyo (Ibaraki, Fukushima, etc).
I was in Yamagata city (about 60km west of Sendai) when it hit. It was scary and it lasted a long time but there was almost no damage to buildings in our town, and only one death in Yamagata prefecture.
But the power cuts and fuel and food shortages are more wide-spread. Shops in both Yamagata and Tokyo (where I am now) were low on supplies. In Yamagata and Niigata I saw *really *long lines at petrol (gas) stations - cars were lined up for blocks and blocks.