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EARTHQUAKE in Tokyo
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^^^^^^Local Tokyo Time^^^^^^
Direct link to start of quake photos - You can return to the main site by clicking on the 4WARND logo at the top of the gallery pages.
3/29/2011 6:21pm - Well I had to break down and have one of my guys come out here and help me move some stuff. The big steel tool case and the steel rack that fell required two people to move. Now all I have to do is put everything back where it belongs and pitch the stuff that's destroyed, easy to say not so easy to do. In the room with the racks boxes of screws and nails fell and lots of other small parts are all over the floor. Fun, fun.
3/29/2011 7:55pm - Had yet another very long aftershock (6.3). Seems like everytime I finish cleaning up something or put things away that had fallen we get one. In this case I had just put my server back on top of my steel tool chest. It's like it is either taunting me or telling me to be careful where I put stuff.
3/29/2011 10:15pm - It's coming up on three weeks since the earthquake and we are back in Tokyo and back to work. Many of the stores' shelves are still bare but it does appear to be improving. The trains are running limited schedules and the rolling blackouts come and go but it is starting to feel like people, for the most part, are moving back from the edge to reengage life and living. In front of my place construction is continuing on a new building for the movie studio, across the street the soccer field and tennis courts have people playing, and in the city parties are still being held (though a bit earlier since the city is shutting down around 7-9pm to conserve electricity).
The threat of radiation from the Fukushima plant is still in the forefront of everyone's mind as is the continued concern about other geological ripples potentially coming our way. For the time being I am going to wind down this blog since it has served its purpose. If any new, relatively big change occurs I will again post here. One good thing is now everyone knows where to find out what's happening on this side of the planet.
When I walked out of the door of my apartment I had compressed 18 years of my life into the rolling carry-on bag and the small backpack you see below. I wanted to believe that I would be back but I knew that there was a very real possibility that I wouldn't see my Tokyo home again.
I've been lucky in the past, no fire, flood, or quake has taken my home and livelihood from me so I can only imagine what those who have suffered those losses have felt. I think I might have an inkling of their feelings now. Everything was left behind, photographs, vacation videos, personal trinkets, mementos, and letters, my collections of kites, lights, knives, watches, and all my other paraphernalia stayed. I took a few tools that would keep me up and running, some clothes, and my memories. That's all I had to show for 18 years. It was the strangest feeling I think I've ever had and I don't really know any way to describe adequately.
I will say that writing about it here, in this location my home in Tokyo, is much easier than it would have been if I was elsewhere. Now even with the continued threats there is a certain amount of peace. Part is because I'm back but I think part might also be because I was able to leave and live with those feelings even if it was for a short time. I had never really thought that something would take my home from me, that I would have to walk away from everything. Now I have a bit more confidence in myself. As mentioned before I had prepared for most physical calamities and had faith in my tools and my ability to use them. I really had not prepared myself for some of the mental aspects; you can't put that into a bug-out-bag.
When I left Tokyo the only thing I knew for certain was that nothing was really certain. Sure I had a ticket to Osaka from Haneda Airport but the trains weren't running much, there were a ton of people trying to use the few that were, and there were no guaranties of getting a taxi to take you all the way into town, nor that the flight would leave as expected if/when you got there. Getting to Osaka was only the first stage of the plan but the plan itself was very fluid; how long in Osaka before leaving to the Philippines or going back to Tokyo, how to keep in touch with our guys that stayed behind, how to handle the limited business/clients that would wait for nothing not even a national disaster, it was all up in the air/play it by ear (insert your favorite cliché here). So how certain am I now? It would be great to say that the toughest part is over but that's just not very likely. However, we will persevere.
We want to thank all of you that sent email, instant messages, called or visited this website to check on us. Your concern, prayers, and offers of help mean a lot. We are going back to our lives to recover as best we can before attacking the challenges to come. We've already managed the survival stage now it gets really interesting.
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18 years in 2 bags
For those interested in the contents of the bags, here is the list more or less:
ThinkPad X61 tablet, webcam, travel charger kit with mini router/AP, 5x USB drives, home/office data backups (2x500GB Transcend StoreJet 25M/3 portable hard drives, 2TB desktop hard drive), iPod Touch, iPhone (no sim card), cell phone, Surefire M6 based custom LED flashlight with 3 sets of rechargeable batteries and charger, several AA flashlights (Eternalight, Jetbeam RRT-0, Energizer Night Strike LED), 2x Zebra AA headlamps, pelican box of lithium AA batteries, large Leatherman multitool, small Leatherman multitool, several Fox40 whistles, neck lanyards, several sets of Hearos ear plugs, 2x heavy duty disposable dust masks, Canon G10 camera/extra battery/charger, Kodak Zi8 video camera, Camelbak Unbottle, 2 pair prescription glasses, ESS brand CDI sunglasses with extra lenses, Exped Air Pillow, 5x yellow bandannas, Casio Sea-Pathfinder solar powered watch with compass, clip-on triple sensor watch, Gorilla pod, collapsible cane, 180s earmuffs, helmet liner, Columbia Titanium rain shell and liner, clothes, medicines, toiletries, passport, credit cards, cash, travelers checks, money belt, Fresnel lens, pens, notebook, messenger bag (unloaded), tie wraps, Zip-locs, many small cases/bags for tools etc.
4/09/2011 11:39am - I had not anticipated writing here again any time soon but I've received a few emails asking about the 7.1 quake the evening of 4/7/2011. It was a pretty good rattler, water sloshing, building creaking, TV swaying but nothing fell here. I did hold on to the TV after it had been going for a bit. It was another long one with reports saying 1-2 minutes here it was on the long side of that estimate. This time however we lost a potted plant over the balcony at the office downtown so that was different since the previous one didn't do much down there. Fortunately it was late at night so no one was injured by the "sky falling."
YouTube video of buildings downtown - Buildings in Shinjuku (one of my haunts) swaying as they were designed to do. That feature is not one that my concrete building shares. Concrete apparently acts more like an amplifier of energy, at least that's my take after seeing what happened here.
Original unedited version of the video above.
Very informative USGS PDF about the quake. - Unfortunately it hasn't been updated recently to include the latest 7.1 temblor and other data.
New quake pictures start here. - I've added some graphics and maps to show approximately where I am. Wish I had a seismograph here in my apartment so I'd have a better idea of what hit here. I have that app on my iPod but for some reason I neglected to fire it up; must have been distracted. ;-)
4/11/2011 10:16pm - It's been one month since the big quake and you will likely be reading about the aftershock (rated 7 magnitude by the Japanese and 6.6 by USGS) we had this afternoon. Nothing fell at the office or here at the apartment thankfully. It's telling though that while I was at the office having a conversation with a Japanese businessman he looked around and the extent of his comment was "hmm this is kind of long." Meanwhile I'm watching the router on the top shelf against the wall wobble and listening to one of my staff in the other room moan my current favorite mantra, "enough already." The big one is still in everyone's collective mind but you can feel the urgency slipping a bit. I'd put money that very few Japanese have created a bug-out-bag and in 6 months or a year they won't be able to find the flashlight that was so important just moments ago (of course they might keep better track of the flashlight if we have more rolling blackouts).
It has been coming out a little at a time that more information was available early on but was withheld by either TEPCO or the government. I wouldn't be surprised if this is still the case. It would be easier to say I don't believe TEPCO, the government, the news, but that is predicated on anyone saying something of value in the first place. Just tonight on the way home one of my regular taxi drivers was complaining that even the Japanese don't know what to think and in his view "the guys at the top are lying." I'll spare you the rest of my soapbox rant this time around because frankly it's been a long day.
Agency told to reveal projections
Japan weather agency publicly releases tentative radiation projection
Plant radiation monitor says levels immeasurable. . . and not in a good way.
4/12/2011 12:08pm - Well a 6.2 quake only 47 miles from Tokyo was my alarm clock this morning; not as strong as some but closer. Got up to read the news and found that the nuclear problem has been upgraded to a level 7, the same as Chernobyl. Not the best way to start my day I think but at least the weather is nice and the cherry blossoms are blooming; another day in Tokyo.
Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst.
4/15/2011 1:00pm - I don't really want this blog to become a news aggregator for the situation over here; there are many good links I've already listed for that. However I thought perhaps to list a number of articles that reflect the problems we are facing including those on the business front (our model agency and import/export company). Here's the executive summery: Corporate tax reduction plans likely canceled, additional "earthquake rebuilding" tax probable, profit margins squeezed, Japanese feeling/practice of "restraint" (keeps commerce from rebounding, in my opinion), fashion models leave Japan, radiation back to pre-quake levels in Tokyo, 10-30 year plans for nuke plant clean-up, 20% shortfall in electricity production, possible aftershocks as high as 8 for six months, and finally one of the reasons it's hard to trust the information we get.
Japan PM Suggests Government To Suspend Planned Corporate Tax Cut
In Wake Of Disaster, Tax Hike Issue Revisited
Japan quake to squeeze profit margins
Japan's Economic Fallout Worse than First Thought
In Deference to Crisis, a New Obsession Sweeps Japan: Self-Restraint
Restraint replaces revelry in post-quake Japan
Japanese unite in show of self-restraint
Fashion model exodus from Tokyo! Many flee to a different runway
Number of foreigners leaving Japan soars 8-fold
Radiation in Tokyo returns to pre-disaster level
Heavy price for nuclear crisis
Scientists say aftershocks far from over
Why Japan's Mainstream Media Can't Be Trusted To Report Objectively On TEPCO
Is Japan's Bureaucracy Strangling Humanitarian Aid? - "But in Japan, there is a legal wall that stops everything." Japanese shipping company NYK offered to provide a container ship for helicopters to land on when ferrying in relief supplies to coastal areas. But the government rejected the offer because the NYK shipmates lacked the proper licenses to help with such work. After some wrangling, volunteer foreign doctors were told that because they didn't have Japanese medical licenses, they could conduct only the "minimum necessary medical procedures" in the disaster zone."
Japanese perplexed by slow quake response - "In a nation known for speed and efficiency, people wonder why it took so long for the government to mobilize relief for the areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami."
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