Friday, March 11, 2011

Little Did We Know...

Hi All,

As you may have heard, (or if you haven’t I am questioning you), that Japan was hit by its biggest Earthquake ever! Like in it’s history, top 5 greatest ever recorded world history o.0!

I am fine. Yay =)

This is not my first earthquake experience; my first was (guess where) when I visited Japan summer 2009 –Of course. Japan counts for 20% of the worlds recorded earthquake (yeah a whole 1/5).

The experience…

Was unlike anything I have ever felt before. At first I thought, “I must be going crazy! My whole building can’t be wobbling”. I rushed out to my balcony to check for signs of people leaving and evacuating. I tried to call my friend to no success. I got a message from my friend on Skype verifying it was an earthquake and warning me that more tremors were coming.

I went downstairs and stayed in this building’s administrative office with the landlady. As we stayed we felt the following tremors and evacuated for one of them. The phones were down, incoming information was limited.

Before 4pm EST we decided it was safe to return to our rooms. The afternoon ended with a few more tremors.

The feeling…

It’s crazy looking at pictures and watching the news. I see it and think “wow this is just kilometers from where I am” and I can’t believe.

I felt loved by my family and friends. I am lucky to have them call, text and Skype with me to make sure I was all right.

I love you!!! and I am grateful for everyone who took the time to check on me.

Once the lines were up I sent massive texts to my friends in Japan and made sure they were ok as well, specially those closer to the Tokyo region. Two of them were stuck in the train, one had to stay a night at a hotel. But everyone is safe.

A thought…

I was in NYC for 9/11 and now in Japan for the greatest earthquake to strike it in its long history. I don’t know what this means but it makes me appreciate the little things, like the sandwich I had right after the experience, and candy.

No pictures this time. You can understand why.

Later.

2 comments:

  1. I am glad to see that you are safe. I hope that all your friends and their family are ok. I can't believe that all this happened just a week before I am suppose to arrive in Japan. I'm a bit nervous and I'm sure my whole family don't want me to go. Was there any damage to the buildings and roads around Mishima? Have you been feelings the afterschocks too and what not? Sorry for bombarding you with questions. You are the only person thats blogs (well from what I found) and studies at Nihon Uni. Mishima.

    On another note, do you mind if I share your blog on my blog?

    Take care of yourself and becareful! :O

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  2. Hey dude, all my Japanese friends as far as I have checked are all fine. It's a bit scary coming to Japan at the moment, specially when the general consensus is that people want to leave. Mishima you will be happy to hear is completely in tact. We felt the tremors but nothing so major that anything was destroyed. We stopped feeling aftershocks the 2nd or 3rd day so everything is calm here. Lots of traffic and trains not working properly along with schedule power-outs is about as bad as it has gotten in this area.

    I don't mind the questions at all, I'd probably be the same way. I'm not much for blogger though so feel free to e-mail me directly
    kcuevas256@gmail.com with any questions, I check my e-mail multiple times a day.

    I don't mind you sharing my blog either. It would be cool I think =)

    Any way,
    Be brave. You will be in Japan for it's great recovery. And that usually turns out to be an amazing push forward (if we look at were Japan ended after recovering from WWII) and it will make a great story when you return home and when you're older.

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