17 March 2011

Flee for your lives! At 4.30 we rose to prepare for our hasty departure. Our taxi passed through the near-empty streets before dawn and down the ghostly expressway to Narita airport. We took up station near the head of the queue for the Virgin check-in, which was to open three and a half hours later. My heart sank as I contemplated the prospect of keeping Emily entertained all that time, but in the end it passed fairly quickly with visits to the cafe and souvenir shops. Our sleep sacrifice paid off when we got checked in ahead of the long queue and we ushered Emily through security and immigration without further delay.

After take-off, Emily fell asleep almost immediately and I got to watch Oscar-winning film The Kings Speech before she woke. Somehow the next nine hours or so passed without much stress. We exhausted all the kids TV options soon, but luckily Emma and Ellie were on our flight and the two girls got on really well. They spent hours running up and down the aisles together and played with stickers and read books. Towards Heathrow, Emily became quite distressed and I was very relieved that we didn't go into a holding pattern.

On terra firma I felt strangely numb. The sky was grey and so was the airport, as always. The gloomy and grubby corridors were a stark contrast to the smart Terminal 1 at Narita. Fortunately Fiona had been able to come to meet us and it was good to see her waiting. We queued once more for the trolley lifts and then we were home free, off down the M4 to Earley. I tried my best to stop Emily's eyes from closing on the way but 5 minutes from Fi's she gave in to the sandman. After we extracted her from the car she was on the verge of severe upset but luckily Homer hove into view and she revived. Once Fern got back from nursery Emily was rampant right until I forced her to bed at 7.30, at which point she had been awake for about 17 hours. Nick and I made it to nine o'clock and then zonked straight out.

16 March 2011

We are very worried that radiation will result in cancellation of the flight and spent the day thinking about alternatives. Emily had cabin fever and square eyes as I spent much of the day packing and she got to watch a lot of TV. Jo called to say that they were in Hokkaido as planned, in a deserted Niseko, and were flying on from there to Sydney. I felt very sad as she said Oli may lose his job because they are unsympathetic to him taking off, despite circumstances and his offer to work from their Sydney office. So I didn't get to say goodbye properly, after all this time and so much water under the bridge.

15 March 2011

Nick has been affected by all this more than me, I think, but after waking at 5am to a largish tremor I could not get back to sleep as I had such tightness in my chest. I resolved to see the doctor the same day. Around 10am Nick called from work to say that he wanted to fly home as soon as possible. His boss agreed he could take some time off and then work from the London office, but whether that means his transfer will happen and be brought forward is anybody's guess. Anyway, I managed to get a flight reservation for Thursday though the phone lines at No 1 Travel must have been red hot judging by how hard it was to get through. At the clinic, the doctor took X-rays and said that Emily has a chest infection. My blood pressure reading was still borderline hypertension and once this crisis blows over I had better take some action. Bettina and family are on their way to Thailand. Julia should be aboard the plane bound for Chicago now. Lydia called to say they had decided to go to HK earlier than planned and may well carry straight on to the UK after that. Jo returned to Tokyo briefly but only to pack ready for their trip to Hokkaido, which they are going through with. There was another big aftershock in the evening while we were on Skype with Nick's family. I had to get Emily out of bed and drag her under the table.

14 March 2011

A warm spring day lifted spirits a bit. Nick had to go in to work (very reluctantly, given the number of aftershocks and not wanting to be separated) but Emily and I stayed at home in the morning to bake a loaf of bread, as I had not been able to get any thanks to panic buying - luckily I already had yeast and flour at home. Julia called with an SOS as she needed Charlize entertained while she finalised packing ready for their departure on Tuesday. Cliff and I took the girls to Midtown park where they played happily for some time. We parted company so that Charlize could nap in the buggy and I took Emily to Appi for a while, then we returned to Julia's and stayed for pizza and bath before saying our goodbyes. It seems we are to be the only foreigners left in Tokyo. All our friends and acquaintances are out of town. Osaka seems to be the location of choice, if not returning to home countries to ride out the crisis. Nick is still putting on the pressure for me and Emily to get out too, but I don't want to go anywhere without him.

13 March 2011

We slept well, though partially woken several times by aftershocks. We decided to go out for the day as it was very springlike and because we were too anxious staying at home. The news from the north east gets more and more appalling - they now say that more than 10,000 are feared dead thanks to the tsunami. And the Fukushima nuclear plant is another worry as the shell of one reactor exploded yesterday and another is likely to blow too.

Anyway, we walked to Hamarikyu, stopping off for refreshment at a near-empty Starbucks on the way. At the park we were heartened by the beautiful plum blossom and the field of honey-scented rape flowers. A newly-married couple in their finery were having their photos taken in the park.

Emily enjoyed playing football on the grass and running around the 'maze' of peony plant beds. We had a picnic under one tree in fragrant flower

then took a boat ride up the Sumida river to Asakusa. From the riverbank there we had fine views of the Sky Tree and the Eternal Flame (aka Golden Turd).

We wandered the streets in search of a cafe we once went to and finally tracked it down in the maze of streets near Sensoji Temple. On the way, we were accosted by a couple of guys with a camera who were making a TV programme. I ended up doing an impression of a cow - I thought they just wanted me to say what noise I heard in their headphones but then they explained that they wanted me to copy the sound!

All in all, it was a lovely day out, and seemed possible to almost forget the tragic events unfolding elsewhere in the country, until we saw the TV in the cafe.

My evening run came in at 1hr 23min and afterwards I got a reading of 61.5kg (9st 10lb)! The lowest yet by miles. Must be all the worry. Actually, I have been feeling ravenous the whole time so maybe my body is in survival mode.

12 March 2011

During the night I was aware of several sizable shakes but overall was amazed at how well I slept and Emily didn't stir until at least 7am. Masahiko managed to get himself booked on a an early shinkansen from Shinagawa, and I was sceptical that he would be able to go, but Nick walked him there and amazingly he was able to take the train home. Nick said that the three lane road was closed southbound to allow for all the pedestrians, with all cars sharing the other carriageway. I was keen to look at footage but wary of frightening Emily so I didn't see much. What I did see was like nothing imaginable. I wondered at how people could build so near and low to the water level and hope they are never allowed to do so again. To be honest, it almost seems like a different country, seeing those homes smashed to matchwood, cars washed away, large ships lying askew. There are literally tens of thousands unaccounted for. We ended up having a very quiet morning at home, though with every tremor Emily was scared and I felt seasick all morning. My every move made me query whether there was a quake; my only corroboration that I was not imagining it was the rattly door and the swaying of the light cords. After lunch we finally got outside into the spring sunlight, and played outside at a couple of playgrounds. After coffee in a surprisingly normal Azabu, we went up to Julia's where Cliff was in charge while Julia did some last minute chores before their move. Emily was extremely weary and it showed. After she finally went to bed we watched more footage of the Fukushima nuclear plant seemingly blowing up, and hoped we were not about to be engulfed in radioactive fallout (just in case, we filled a 20 litre container of water and I checked our tinned food supplies). Just before bed there was a warning on TV of a strong quake off Fukushima and we surfed the wave of quivers washing through our apartment. Once upon a time a tremor like this would have terrified me, but after yesterday I am almost casual about it.

11 March 2011

We won't forget this day in a hurry. At 2:45 this afternoon a massive 8.9 earthquake hit off Miyagi and triggered a 10 metre high tsunami. The area has been experiencing strong tremors lately, some felt as minor shakes in Tokyo, so it was no surprise that it blew, but the scale was unbelievable. One of the largest quakes in the world in magnitude since records began.

Emily was at nursery and Nick at work, at the time it hit. I was walking to a dental appointment at the clinic next to Tokyo Tower. Standing at Akabanebashi crossing, a busy intersection, I became aware that the ground was rolling; akin to being on a ship in a lively sea, and I felt off-balance. When I looked around it was like a windless hurricane: trees were waving wildly and the traffic light gantries were shaking hard. People were looking around for confirmation from passersby that they were not going crazy. There was a gaijin next to me and we got talking, with a little nervous laughter, about never experiencing anything in this scale before. From where I was standing I could see Izumi Garden Tower about a kilometre away and could clearly see it swaying, so I was worried for Nick up on the 26th floor. My thoughts turned quickly to Emily and I prayed that her teachers were taking good care of her.

Once the quake was over I continued to the clinic, where I found patients and staff outside the building and felt more comfortable being able to chat with some of them. Though phone lines seemed to be down I was immensely relieved to get a call from Nick saying he was OK and that he had been able to talk to Ui and Emily was alright. After quarter of an hour we were allowed to go inside and my appointment began. However, there was soon a strong aftershock and we quickly evacuated. I realised I had been fortunate not to be indoors the first time as it was a lot scarier to be in a building. Outside the nearby koban (police box), an officer was sweeping up hundreds of stinky ginnan that had been shaken out of the ginkgo tree, and it seemed that the aerial atop Tokyo Tower had bent a little too. Finally we went back into the building and I had my check-up. After the afternoon's events it was child's play (not that I have ever been scared of the dentist's chair). However, he told me I need a number of cavities filling so it could get very expensive.

Going home, it was immediately noticeable how the pavements were packed with people making their way home. The trains had all been suspended so some commuters must have been facing very long walks and decided to start their journey early. Going into the apartment (after walking up 10 flights of stairs because no-one was allowed to use the lift) I saw that Nick had been home as his bag was there, but he was no longer home. I wasn't quite sure where he could be but eventually concluded (correctly) that he must have gone to pick up Emily. When I went into the living room it was like a bomb site. The two 2 metre high CD shelves had toppled, crashing into the table and shedding hundreds of plastic cases. The heavy upper half of the computer desk had crashed down too and the PC was hanging amongst the wreckage.

I began clearing up and was relieved to discover that there was little damage other than the CD cases and a couple of broken ornaments. The computer even seemed to be working normally. Several times I went back outside to see if Nick and Emily were coming home, entailing a tough climb back up to the 11th floor each time. Finally, they arrived home at 7.30, after walking most of the 5 km from Ginza, with Nick carrying her and her bag towards the end. At the same time, Nick's friend Masahiko arrived. He had called earlier asking if we could put him up. He is from near Kyoto and had been in the city on business and could not get a hotel room. I offered him a futon and he turned up just after they got back. I think Nick was quite happy to have someone else around to share the burden and take in the additional details emerging.

There was a truly horrific piece of footage of the tsunami pulverising a town on the coast and instantly demolishing all in its path. It seemed almost alive, and very sinister, boiling with wreckage. The early estimates of hundreds dead will surely be proven too low.

There were many more aftershocks during the evening. Emily was very scared each time the door began rattling on its catch, signalling the start of another one. I stayed with her until she fell asleep, amazed she would even agree to sleep in a different room to us, and for the first time, I left the light on in the hallway for her. On turning in, Nick and I remained half-dressed, just in case, and had emergency supplies close at hand.