Aki, Brendan, Joshua & Kyle: 2:46....

It has now been 5 weeks since our lives here changed forever - it seems like years ago with all that has happened, so I want to write down my memories here as good as I can

THE EARTHQUAKE

It was Friday afternoon and I was just starting to read a book to a boy as we started nap time in the classroom. I noticed the slight shaking, which was unusual as I had never felt an earthquake at Landmark Tower before, and told the kids to get under the tables just as another teacher ran to the class and shouted "earthquake!" The intensity of the earthquake soon increased and it seemed to go on for quite a few minutes. It was not actually badly shaking - I could've easily walked around and nothing in the school fell down, although there are now some small cracks in the corners of the walls. We all knew it was pretty big because as I said, I had never felt a quake in Landmark Tower before, even though they happen quite a lot (smaller quakes). While under the table I sent an email to Aki - 大丈夫？(are you ok?) at 2:54. It was 1 1/2 hours before I heard back from her, but it felt a lot longer not knowing if her and Josh were safe. After it finished the kids were all very excited, but not scared. Soon after the first big aftershock came and we were back under the tables. After that the tower security said we should evacuate the building and head to Rinko Park. It was at this time that some of the older children realised the severity of the situation and started to cry. We have practiced walking down the 13 flights of stairs before, so it wasn't too bad, just more people walking up and down the stairs than usual. Just when we arrived at the bottom, a new announcement said it was safe to stay but the elevators were not working. Not keen to walk back up the stairs with the kids, we decided to practice our evacuation all the way to Rinko Park as first suggested. We walked 10 minutes to the park only to be stopped by police saying that a Tsunami warning was in effect and we should go back - at this stage we still had no idea of the severity of the earthquake in Tohoku or the Tsunami that would've already finished it's devastating carnage. We then headed to the open space of the museum next to Landmark Tower, where we ate crackers and checked to see if the elevators were working (they weren't). It was getting colder and starting to drizzle a bit so we went back into Landmark Tower to wait on the 1st floor. Here we met some parents who were able to get to Landmark Tower in the time since we left. We waited on the 1st floor for about 30 minutes before the elevators reopened. It was at this time that Aki emailed my phone to say she was stuck in Shibuya (she'd decided to go to Tokyo with Kei that day) and Joshua was safe at her mums house, so that was a relief for me. We then headed back up to the school with the remaining children (10 kids, I think?). After arriving back we were able to see the first images from the internet. We also found out many parents were unable to get to Landmark Tower, so we starting preparing to stay the night. The children happily watched a movie while the teachers were mostly in shock, trying to contact family and friends and keep a brave face. It was very surreal to say the least. It was at this time I got onto Facebook to let everyone know the situation. It was amazing to see how many people were on there offering their emotional support. It was very appreaciated. I was also watching the images form several news sites and was horrified to see the damage from the tsunami. I could have gone home easily on my bicycle, but with the kids at the school, Aki stuck in Shibuya (Hajime started driving there to pick them up), and Josh safe, it was better to stay at the school. We had some frozen foods so we ate dinner together, washed the kids up and settled down for bed. Up until this point the kids had been very excited about staying so late at school and eating dinner there, but when the lights turned off almost all of them started crying for their mamas. We manged to calm them down (with the lights on) and they soon started dropping off to sleep one by one. We then heard that all the parents were slowly heading back and so we probably would not have to stay the whole night. I fell asleep with the kids at about 12:30, was woken by my phone at about 12:40 (Aki called to say she was almost back in Yokohama - it was our first time to talk to each other after only having email communication all evening), and then all the parents arrived at 12:45. It was a blurry eyed goodbye, then I left work to bike home. The traffic in Yokohama at 1:00 that morning was like nothing I had ever seen - absolute gridlock! The trains had not been running all afternoon, highways had neen closed and people were stranded eveywhere, so cars were the only way to go (or bicycles!). I got home at 1:30 and Aki arrived a minute after me. We hugged and went to watch TV together for an hour before going to bed. There was one big aftershock at about 3:30 am, but after that I slept until 11:30...my biggest sleep-in for quite a few years!

The "damage" in our home

THE AFTERMATH

To say the two weeks following the quake were emotionally draining would be a huge understatement. The biggest reason for this was the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, coupled with overblown reports from the foreign media (see here - http://jpquake.wikispaces.com/Journalist+Wall+of+Shame ). My memories from this time are a lot more scattered so here they are in no particular order:

I was very prepared to leave Japan. Aki was not so hasty. my thoughts were influenced by the foreign media - often scaremongering stories - while Aki was influenced by the calmer Japanese media. We were very close to going to Okinawa for a week when the nuclear situation was uncertain, but decided to "wait and see." We also had a plan to drive to Mie prefecture if things suddenly went bad and we couldn't get out. Fortunately, that hasn't happened. This was extremely hard for me to think about dropping everything and leaving. Our house, possessions, job, Aki's family....it would've been very hard to just leave all that behind.
There were very real shortages of some supplies. Petrol, water, nappies, eggs, rice, milk, toilet paper and instant noodles have all been hard to find or sold out at one time or another. For about 5 days (maybe more?) there were huge queues at the petrol stations. When I was biking to work one day, I counted almost 200 vehicles waiting for a station to open at 8:00am (most petrol stations in Japan are not 24 hours). Aki's mum waited 3 hours to fill up her car. We had half a tank so were ok. When we did fill up it was "only" a 20 minute wait. There was a lot of panic buying which forced shops to limit how much each customer could buy, and many of these are still in effect.
Going back to work was very strange. We basically shut the school down for the first few days, with just 2 teachers and a few kids each day (their parents had to work and had no other daycare options). This was especially difficult for us as it was our last week of school for the year and our graduation ceremony was to take place on the 18th. In the end we celebrated the day as we had planned, and it was great to get a sense of normalcy back. The following week we opened as usual, but with less kids and we did not go outside during the day.
We have felt aftershocks almost daily, sometimes more. At first they were quite scary, I was ready to run out the door with Josh every time, but now they are becoming so normal and that in itself is quite scary. We have an earthquake bag by the door, ready to go if we need to. We also have a stock of water, enough to last a week or more if we need it.
I have been watching the news daily, including watching radiation levels (which are now back to normal in Yokohama), wind direction and learning about everything possible about radiation. We are concerned about the radiation, but I have come to believe that the risk of it doing any serious harm to us here is very small, as long as we are careful about what we eat and drink and wash well after being outside. The hardest thing is the fact that it is unseen and if it does do any damage, it will be 10 or 20 years later when we start to see the effects. However, Japan is not 1980's USSR, and I have confidence that steps will be taken to minimise the exposure to the general public. Having said that, we have also taken the extra precaution of obtaining potassium iodide tablets for free, courtesy of the NZ government.
There were blackouts, but our "scheduled" blackouts never occured, probably because they saved the required quota of electricity during the day. We had candles ready, put our perishables in the chilly bin and waited for the lights to turn off, but it never happened. Trains were stopping or running at a lower capacity and everyone is making a bigger effort to switch off lights and stuff to save power. However, I am not looking forward to the summer, where I'm certain there will be blackouts due to the high usage of aircon....could get very hot and sticky!

Joshuas end of year ceremony

TODAY

Life is normal....almost. We are much happier and emotionally stable and our day to day life is pretty much as it was. We are now talking more about returning to NZ, but we want to move properly, which will take a lot of planning and preparation. There is a good chance we will move home before Joshua starts school (late 2013), or if the situation deteriorates we could be back as early as next year. There is also still a chance we could all come home this September for the World Cup. Will keep you posted on that, but save me a ticket just in case!

Joshua has been great. He keeps talking more, both English and Japanese. He loves.... no, LOVES cars!! And ambulances, fire trucks and police cars! He now goes to preschool 3 days a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) from 9-6, and is enjoying it a lot! He is going to be a great big brother very soon....

Aki is doing ok. It has been a tough pregnancy for her, but with just 6 weeks to go we are very excited to see our new baby. We're still deciding names, but are almost fully decided, made easier by the fact that a doctor let slip the sex of the baby!!!

We have had beautiful spring weather here lately, and have enjoyed going outside more. And later today we will go to meet our new niece and cousin, Sara!!! Will put some photos here later.