March 25, 2012
by Kanako Mabuchi
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I was sitting on the tatami floor of the Kenninji (建仁寺) in Kyoto when the earthquake happened. My mom, two younger sisters and I were visiting Kyoto for one-day trip on March 11th. It was a refreshing trip for my youngest sister who had passed the exam for high school. Kyoto is 500 km (about 300 mile) away from Tokyo, so the quake was pretty small. I noticed the small shake, but I thought it was just because of the old and weak structure of the temple. Nobody around me did realize it. 20 minutes later, my cellphone received a text message. We were in the small museum after we left the temple. It was from my friend who was a dorm president at that time. At first, I didn’t get what was going on. It was during a spring break of my university, so usually mailing list of the dorm was not supposed to be used.“A big earthquake happened in Tokyo. I want to know if everybody who lives in 4th women’s dorm is all safe, so please reply and tell me where you are right now.”
I was so surprised by the text, and went on line to get more information. The online news said that the earthquake was level 5 in Tokyo, and the epicenter was Tohoku area where experienced the level 7 shake. My mom and I decided to go back to home soon because we were concerned if the train would work without delay or stop. I called my family at home in Gifu, and my dad in workplace to make sure if everyone is fine. We managed to go back to home without any troubles, but there was anxious and unsettling mood everywhere on the way back to home. I was shocked by the TY news of tsunami in Tohoku. I couldn’t believe that it was real. Houses, cars and people were engulfed and swept by water easily. So easily. I was also concerned about my cousins, my roommate who was traveling Tohoku area, and all my friends in Tokyo. Since the phone network was packed all over Japan, I could not reach them. I remember that everyone was posting about the earthquake on facebook and tried to know if their friends were safe.
Next few weeks, I was, and everyone else was in a quite unsettled mood. The number of death was updated and increased every single day, and the accident of nuclear plants in Fukushima followed them. The aftershocks were still continuing in the damaged area and even in my hometown. The sound of an emergency earthquake alert scared people everyday, and water bottle disappeared from the shelves of stores. I still remember the conflicting feelings of anxiety and self-restraint. Perhaps everybody shared the same feelings at the time.
