Before you read this, I'm sorry for the bad writing, grammar errors, and all that jazz. I'm still a tad bit lazy and lacking internet time. I think typing this on my phone would take several months. :P
March 11, 2011 began like any normal school day. I woke up, ate breakfast, and headed off for school. It was test week, so school would end early at noon. I had planned to go to basketball afterwards. Because I am an exchange student, I am not required to take school tests. Ariane (the exchange student from Germany, who is also my best friend) and I decided to go shop around the store for lunch and possible gift ideas to take home. We always spent at least an hour looking around because when you can’t read, buying food juts takes that much longer. You don’t want to buy something gross, right? As we were walking back from Yokomachi store (a 15 minute walk) we felt the first small tremble. The small earthquakes are always a surprise and get your heart racing a bit, but we were almost used to them. From the first month of living in Japan I had experienced a number of small earthquakes. They always seemed harmless, if not entertaining. It’s funny to watch the girls scream and overreact. Even the first earthquake didn’t really phase me. I just accepted it as part of Japan. I’m sure I was more excited than scared. I digress.
About an hour after the small earthquake, I was studying with Ari on the top floor of the school. St. Urusula’s has three stories; one for each grade level. Since the third years graduated, we found the third floor to be a place for us to study and mess around while we didn’t have class; we didn’t have to worry about bothering anyone. Again, we felt a small tremble, nothing to worry about. Ari was always a bit frightened by any earthquake, but because I didn’t freak out, she stayed calm. We continued to talk and eat lunch unaware of anything about to happen. Ten minutes after the tremble, the big earthquake hit.
It began as a small tremble, but soon began to shake violently. Because we were on the top floor, we went through the worst of the shaking. It wasn’t like we were falling down as the building collapsed, but those are the thoughts that cross your mind. Earthquakes make a person very dizzy, and we had never experienced one very high on the scale, so we didn’t know what to do. We decided to sit on the floor where nothing would fall on top of us. I screamed a couple of times because I didn’t know what else to do. As the earthquake continued, I began to feel calmer about the situation. I convinced Ari to get up so we could find someone else. Luckily as we were headed for the stairs, we were met by a teacher. The shaking stopped for several minutes, but the aftershocks continued. Everyone in the school met in the newest gym (which by American standards would be far too old) to count heads and make sure everyone was OK.
Many students were crying, boys and girls. Everyone was worried about family. The biggest problem was the lack of electricity and phone service. We couldn’t get in contact with our families and no one knew about the tsunami. It’s hard to sit in the dark wondering what to do. Teachers decided to get everyone home, but trains don’t run during earthquakes and maybe 70% of the students take the train. Slowly parents came to collect students, but my host mom could not. I live an hour’s train ride from Hachinohe City and the train station is a 45 minute walk from St. Urusula’s. Usually walking isn’t a problem, but teachers were worried about safety because the traffic lights weren’t working and there was no guarantee we would get home. After several hours in the gym my English teacher decided to drive another student, Sakiko (my host sister) and myself home. The weather was terrible, a mix of snow, hail, and wind. With the traffic it took about 3 hours.
At home the electricity was out. Everyone arrived around the same time. No one was expecting anything like this, so we didn’t have a lot of food or water prepared for a night like that. We ended up eating sweet potatoes, baked in the fireplace, and miso soup (water with miso flavoring. It’s kind of gingery J). We listened to the radio to try and figure out how things were going. Mostly we got static. It sort of felt like a horror movie; dark with the sound of radio static. The next day was basically the same. It was lighter of course, being day, but we didn’t really leave the house and weren’t able to cook like normal. As funny as this is, my host mom couldn’t cook rice without a rice maker. She tried and it…burnt. And we ate it. It was gross.
We didn’t suffer for days or go hungry, but those thoughts cross your mind when you don’t know. Most people didn’t even hear about the tsunami for at least 4 days. Our town got electricity first. After that, it gets less interesting. Mostly sitting around and staying inside due to bad weather.
Hachinohe, Aomori
