Mackens in Japan: Earthquakes

Well, we're in the middle of a rather exciting time. We're all OK.

Japan normally has around 400 earthquakes every day, but the vast majority you don't feel, and are just picked up on the seismic monitors. The Japanese Meteorological Agency has 627 seismic intensity meters throughout the country which measure the degree of shaking at that particular point. The JMA's Seismic Intensity Scale is the unit of measure developed for Japan and Taiwan, and provides a measure between 1 and 7 with 7 being the highest. All earthquakes which measure over a '1' on the JMA's scale are reported on the JMA's website - this has become a key source of information for us recently: (http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/) each meter records a coloured 'blob' depending on how strong the earthquake was (1 - 7). You can normally feel a 1 if its in your area.

Since we've been here (nearly a year now!) we have felt an earthquake around every 6 weeks, normally being a 1 or 2 on the scale. These are enough to wobble the ground a bit, make the TV sway around, shake the bed, and make the water in the goldfish bowl swish around, quite fun, but not really scary. These have typically been around 5 or 6 on the Richter scale.

On Wednesday, when I was at work, we experienced quite a big quake, I think it was a 2 on the JMA's scale, and about a 7.3 on the Richter. The kids had to seek shelter, Neve in the sports equipment shed (as they were having PE) and Felix under the tables! One of Neve's teachers got knocked off her feet! This seems to have been the start of a whole series of serious shakes. Since Wednesday, I've been monitoring a website which gives all the 'significant' quakes across the world. Japan typically has 20% of the world's earthquakes over 6 on the Richter scale, but this week we've had loads more than this! According to this website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php there were over 50 on Wednedsay, many of which we felt. On Thursday, there were only about 10, and we didn't feel these. Yesterday, after the big one, there were 130 more - many of which we felt! Today they have been about another 60 or 70.

However, yesterday, all hell broke loose...Here are our individual accounts:

Julie

So I was at work. My office is on the 18th floor of a 30 storey skyscraper, in 'The Nishi-Shinjuku Skyscraper District' (i.e. we're surrounded by them!). We've had a couple of quakes since I've been in the office, so I know what to feel now - it's terrifying. So yesterday, around 2:45pm the building started to shake a bit, then it got bigger and bigger. The Japanese are quite calm about them, but I was getting scared, and could feel the colour draining out of my face. When the chairs started rolling round the floor, drawers started to come out, and the pot plants almost falling over, I was told to go under the desk, and I could see some of the women in the office panicking a bit. I was absolutely petrified. I could see the blinds going at 45 degrees to the window, and the skyscrapers opposite swinging by the windows. It lasted for about 2 or 3 minutes. When it all calmed down, there were lots of tanoys (my Japanese is not good enough to understand them!) but most of my colleagues were fairly calm. We donned our hard hats and walked down the 36 flights of steps to the foyer. After a few minutes there was another fairly significant aftershock, so we went outside - it was so bizarre to be in amongst a load of skyscrapers swaying around like blades of grass, with trees wobbling around - the noise was really eery - screetching and squeeking. I afterwards wished I'd taken a video on my phone, but was just too freaked at the time to think about it! There was a big TV in the foyer, and many of the office workers were gathered round watching the scenes as they unfurled. What really surprised me was how many people must have stayed in the building, and how many were apparently fairly relaxed about the whole situation. After it was deemed OK, we decided to walk back up the stairs (escalators were banned!). All my colleagues started work again, but when another aftershook started to rock the building around again, I was off (despite the fact that the tanoy was telling us that the building was the safest place to be).

Just before I left, my colleagues told me that all the trains had been cancelled. This was a bit of a bummer, as I needed to get back to get the kids. So I donned my walking shoes and set off. The streets were really crowded and there were sirens going off, but you could see that no significant damage had been done to any of the buildings, and there were no signs of any injured people. I often run home, so knew the way, but the street I go down was shut - another bummer as my sense of direction is rubbish, so I headed off in some random direction for a while, and fortunately have sufficient Japanese to be able to ask the way, and found my way back!

Another set back was that the phones were all down (just volume of traffic I think) so I had no way to call the kids or Ross. Funnily enough, my Mum managed to get through from the UK - we had no idea that it was 'International' news at this stage, so I did think it was strange that she was calling! After an hour or so, I got home, and thank goodness the kids had managed to find a 'go home alone' card at school and had got home.

The house was a mess - there was water all over the floor where the fish tank has swished out (fortunately no descicated fish though!), the filing tray contents had been scattered everywhere, apple juice, from the morning's breakfast, was all over the table, and the fridge was in the middle of the kitchen! When you opened the cupboards, the contents fell out! When the kids had arrived, a bike light had fallen out of the cupboard and must have turned itself on, so they entered to a red flashing light and thought it was a fire alarm, so they very sensibly went downstairs to Mr Hayashi (the landlord) who came and checked the house for us (shutting all the cupboards in the kitchen which also must have come open.

There were lots of aftershocks, so we put on our bike helmets, and dived under the table everytime we felt a big one. We had a reather strange dinner as I daren't go down to the combini to buy anything for fear of a large quake. Still we had some UK Heinz Beans (hooray!) and sufficient beer! By the time Ross got back, I was onto my 4th beer, and the kids into their 4th episode of 'The Young Ones'. So we all got to bed quite relaxed, and the earth certainly did move for all of us, so it was a rather disrupted night's sleep!

We later found out that the big quake measured a 7 on the JMA's scale (max) at the epicentre, and about a 4 or 5 here. Most of the aftershocks are only a 1 or 2 here, but further north they are 3s or 4s - so every 10 minutes, there is a shake almost as big as the one we had yesterday in the northern areas - how scary.

Today, it seems the trains are running again, albeit not up to full capacity. There are rumours that there will be power cuts for some regions, although we've not had this confirmed, and couldn't understand even if it was! The kids went down to the combini this mornign to get something and reported back that all the Pot Noodles had gone - Clearly some Japanese panic buying going on! Felix and I went to the supermarket for our normal fortnightly shop, and the place was mobbed - people buying trolley loads of water, or milk and yogurt (?!) - very un-Japanese as they normally only buy a basket-load at a time! Once again the whole aisle of Pot Noodles had gone, as had all the bread! Still all the English stuff (cheese, cereal, frozen peas) was in plentiful supply - an advantage of being the odd-one-out!

We are still having fairly strong shocks, but nothing scary anymore.

Ross

I was at work in Chiba just sat at my desk when the office started to shake. Usually the vibrations only last for a few seconds and then stop. This time it there continued and started getting bigger and bigger. The office was soon noisy with the shaking and I could see the partitioning moving and the cupboards swaying. At this point we decided to put our hard hats on and make our way outside. Walking whilst the earthquake is taking place is like walking on the deck of a boat during rough weather. Outside we waited on the grass for the earthquake to subside. It was very stange feeling the ground shaking under you feet, watching the trees swaying when there is no wind and seeing all the cars bobbiing about in the car park. After about 5 minutes it stopped. Having not lived in Japan for very long our experience with earthquakes is limited so its hard to judge what's a bad one. However a number of my team said that this was the biggest earthquake they had experienced in their lives. At this point it was clear that this was no ordinary quake. We went back into the office, on the ground floor most things were still OK just some debris from the ceiling tiles. However our second storey was a little more of a mess. The building amplifies the vibration on the higher floor so the swaying is much greater. Here there were lots of papers and files on the floor and a few PCs and printers had hit the deck.

As we were clearing all the mess up, the vibrations started again so everyone headed outside for another 10 minutes. After this had subsided we agreed that staff could head home and we would shut the production down for the day. All the equipment would need checking anyway before we can run again.

We also checked our other facilities, two buildings nearby. We had one person injured by a falling cabinet and some of the pallets had fallen out of the racking in our warehouse. At this point we also started to see the details of the Tsunamis on the news broadcasts.

We had a French auditor on site who needed to do his closing meeting to finish the audit so we sat down to get on with this. Its a little odd trying to have a meeting when every ten minutes the buidling starts swaying and creaking as the after shocks come. He also could not go home as the airport was shut.

The office was by now getting fairly relaxed with only a few staff left chatting about the events. They also told me that the trains were now all shut down. This is how I get home and the distance is around 25 miles so it looked like I might be in for a long walk home.

I had two options; take a ride part of the way home with another member of staff and then walk the rest of the way or take one of the company bikes and cycle back. A number of the team were heading off to try and book hotels as they had no way of getting back home without a train. They all ended up sleeping at work along with the french auditor.

What was really frustrating is that I have just bought a bike bag to allow me to take my bike into work and then cycle home. That morning I had planned to take my bike but decided not to at the last minute as I have a cold at the moment and felt rough when I woke up. What a bummer as this would have been by far the best way of getting home.

So I opted for the lift with Aki. The traffic was terrible as everyone had decided to use their cars as no trains were running. It was really slow going and at times I was tempted to get out and run/walk. On the way we watched the TV in the car (yes most Japansese have a TV in the dash) What was clear was the level of destruction from the Tsunamis and there were some major fires including one on the coast at Chiba

After nearly 2 hours we reached Asakusa which is on the East side of Tokyo and progress became really slow. I bid Aki farewell and started running. All the marathon training proves to be very useful especially as these were the roads that I had run down two weeks ago. It was quite exciting running back. The pavements were full of workers clearly trying to walk home and the roads were grid locked. I was able to run on the roads for most of the time. It was amazing just to see the number of people trying to get home, millions I guess. I called in at a combini to get a drink. Half the shelves were empty, cleared out by the walkers looking for dinner. You may also have seen pictures of the Shibuya bus station on the news with thousands of people trying to catch buses. I ran through here and took some pictures. See below. I also ran through 'tramp alley' which no ones goes in. I had to queue to get through here and eventually jumped the fence to get onto the road. I got home at just before 10pm for a well earned beer.

During the night we were woken up by at least three more earthquakes shaking the building but they were only small ones.

Today we have been into town. The train was running normally and the shops were open. It was however not as busy as usual.

Neve

I was in the music room and the rocking started and then someone shouted earthquake and we got under the tables. Then the shaking got bigger and bigger, Kana and I were holding on for dear life. The piano started to move around the room and the guitars were falling over along with the props for the show. The drum set also fell over. Then the earthquake slowed down and we got our helmets on and evacuated the building. We had to wait outside for a long time. It was cold. We continued to get aftershocks while we were outside. The teachers checked the building after a long time and said it was OK to go back into the building. We got our stuff and then I found my unaccompanied pass which meant we could go home. So Felix and I walked home. Lots of people were walking into the school as this is the local earthquake meeting point

Felix

Felix says 'same as Neve'. What a boy!

This is gridlock at Akasaka. I ran past them all!

This is centre of Shibuya. Lots of people waiting for trains and buses

Felix and I know this as tramp alley. Usually now one except the tramps living in boxes go down here. It took me ten minutes to get thtrough here. I jumped the fence onto the road and carried on running