More Shakes Than a Crack Head...

Yesterday was the most terrifying day of my life. More so than 9/11 even. A little before 6pm I was teaching English to a group of 6 students when I had the most humbling experience of my 23 years.

It first started out like any other earthquake here. Faint shaking and a slight rumbling noise from below. Everything moved from side to side. To understand what an earthquake feels like you have to be in one. To be in a situation where you are totally helpless and must rely on the gods to spare you is really humbling. It makes you understand how lucky you are to have the gift of life.

The building swayed back and forth and no one thought anything of it. Then, after 20 seconds, people started to look up as it got stronger. I kept on teaching and ignored the quake until after about 40 seconds, as it got stronger and stronger, I saw a look of fear in my student's eyes. Now the building was shaking quite violently and you could hear the sound of less secured objects falling down on the floor above us. Then it got stronger and we could hear the building itself rattling, the windows vibrating, the pictures on the wall frantically trying to cling onto the nails holding them up. Just as everyone was about to have a heart attack it stopped. Within a second it went from us feeling like our lives were on the line, to being totally safe. A feeling of gratitude washed over us and we took a moment to pause and reflect on what could have been. The magnitude of that earthquake turned out to be 6.9 on the Richter scale and a "high 6" on the Japanese intensity scale that only goes as high as 7. Reports from the scene say it was so strong it knocked even the lightest of foot to the ground. People were unable to stand up. The news reports also say that Tokyo was only shaken a bit. I beg to differ. This morning Miho told me that for the first time in her life she actually called home to her parents to both let them know she was ok and to make sure they were as well.

Then, after about 10 more minutes, another one hit. This one was not as strong, we could tell it was an aftershock. It was not quite as long either. It was a rather strong quake, but after the one that had just reminded us how precious our lives are and in how delicate a balance we exist on this planet, it felt a bit less threatening. Again, everything moved from side to side. Pictures this time just rattled against the walls, they were in no danger of falling.

Maybe 5 minutes later another one hit. This sent everyone into panic mode. I saw a look in my students eyes that I had not seen since 9/11. One I thought I would never see again. To put it into words is impossible. I don't know exactly how they felt but I can tell you that to me it felt like the sky was falling. Unless you are in a perilous situation, one that could potentially end your life, it is a feeling you will never know. Hopefully one you will never have to know. The owner of the school started telling everyone to remain calm and stay away from the windows in case they broke. Some of the students climbed under their desks. The other teacher, who was in a different classroom, ran into mine in a full state of desperation yelling "This is not cool, I am not cool!!!" over and over again. She has only been in Japan 6 months. Last night was not kind to her.

Throughout the whole ordeal much smaller aftershocks were also rumbling the ground beneath us with relative frequency so that the shaking almost never really stopped for roughly a half an hour. We actually got used to it after a while and continued to, for the most part, carry on with the lesson.

Then came the 4th massive aftershock. This one sent all of my students under their desks and me flying towards the doorway. I remember as a child being told to stand in a doorway if a large earthquake happens. So somehow, in my now completely scrambled brain, I remembered that. In Japan people are told to get under desks or other furniture. Like a desk is going to hold up a chunk of ceiling if it gives way.

What sent everyone racing for salvation under their desks and me into the doorway was the rumbling sound coming at us from all directions. It sounded like buildings around us, or quite possibly the one we were in, were crumbling to the ground. There were all these banging sounds and things falling down and windows rattling violently, and pictures banging up against the walls. I at this point, was an absolute mess. I gave up trying to remain calm and collected when I looked down at my hands and they were shaking like Tom Hanks' hands in Saving Private Ryan. I was hyperventilating by this point too. I was an absolute mess. I excused myself from the class and went outside for a while. People were all looking up and then down at the ground as yet another smaller aftershock rattled our brains.

I was so shaken I almost fell down the stairs of the bldg. I was literally shaking like a crack head fiending for his next fix. I refused to take the elevator out of fear, even before I was advised not to by the school owner. Since the school is on the 4th floor it was not a long walk. After about 15 minutes I went back inside, still shaking, still using the stairs.

Right as I walked into the lobby the owner of the school had turned on NHK, turning off the DVD previously playing. When he saw the magnitude of the quake he was horrified. I never saw anyone react like that to earthquake info on TV here. I saw the wreckage of a temple shaken to the ground and the first thought that flashed through my mind was that this thing hit Nara, where Vin lives. I got really scared for him for a short while until I learned it was up in Niigata. An hour away by bullet train to the northwest. The cameras NHK has mounted on bldgs. All over every city to show traffic info, and among other things, how violent the shaking becomes during earthquakes were shaking so angrily that everything was just blurs. It was the strongest quake to hit Niigata in modern history.

Now the pictures of destroyed homes, massive landslides, derailed bullet trains (they have been running 40 years and never derailed, not even during the Kobe quake), buckled roads, and ever rising death and injury tolls bring me back to last night and the awful feeling I had in the pit of my stomach. I read someplace, I forget where, that the Japanese Govt. has estimated if that quake were to be centered in Tokyo as many as 7,000 people would die. It's epicenter was only 120 miles NW of here. This all a week after the strongest typhoon to hit this part of the country in a decade left everyone swimming to safety, and a week before yet another typhoon will blow through.

Events like that make you really appreciate life and all of the blessings you have. Especially if one of your blessings happens to be named Miho :)