» Road Trip

Story containing a road trip ...
I reguarly visit Japan from the UK as part of my job, and have a base in Sendai city, which is on the north-east coast of the main island - about 200 miles north of Tokyo. Long way to go, but interesting place.

Earlier this year, I'm sitting in my office contemplating where to go for a late lunch, when the room starts to shake. Heart rate quickens a bit, but I've felt this before - earthquakes are very common in this part of Japan and usualy don't cause any damage. I realise very quickly though that this is different: the shaking becomes very violent and seems to just get stronger and stronger. Windows break, furniture topples and slides from wall to wall, the building is groaning, cracking and creaking: its feels its about to collapse. I take cover under the desk for what feels an eternity, waiting for the floor to give way - but eventually it dies down and I run from the building into the street. Outside is not a pretty sight - cracked roads, lumps of concrete falling onto the pavement, some people obviously seriously hurt. The highrise buildings sway disconcertingly with the regular aftershocks and millitary hellecopters appear in the sky above. With no phone of power, my colleagues quickly disappear to find their families, and I am left on my own.

I wonder about for a few hours in a daze, lookinging for a working phone and something to eat and drink. Nothing is working. Everyone in a panic. I should add at this point that I don't speak any Japanese, and few people here speak english. I try to get to my apartment, but the building is damaged and I can't get in. It starts to get dark, but eventually I find myself at a school which has been converted to an evacuation centre. I spend the worst night of my life lying on the floor of a freezing school gym, rocked by violent aftershocks.

The next day army arive with food (boiled rice) and blankets. I spend the day aimlessly wandering and trying to find out whats going on. I manage to get in contact with my wife and familay back in the UK - its the first I hear that much worse things have happened closer to the coast. And that there are worrying problems at a nuclear power station 40 miles to the south of me.

I spend the next two nights at the evacuation centre. I really need to get out of here: the situation is getting worse. No running water, food and bottled water is getting more difficult to come by. But there is no way. There is no public transport at all. The airport has pretty much been swept out to sea, the railways will be closed indefinitely and all the main roads are closed becasue of damage. In any case the main expressway to tokyo goes through the exclusion zone around the nuclear power station.

I start to get really depressed and lose the plot a little bit. But then at 4am the next night I get a call (mobiles working now) from a colleague who knew I was in Sendai: he is leaving with his family and has a space in his car. He wants to leave right now - so I get my shit togther and go and meet him. He wants to get to Tokyo and has 3/4 tank of petrol. It should be just enough - filling up would be near impossible: I'd heard of people waiting in queues for a rationed 10 litres for 12 hours in the last few days.

We set off and headed north - the only open (although in some places still heavily damaged) roads, then over the mountains to Yamagatta and the west coast. The sun came up as we were crossing the mountains, snow 8 feet deep on ether side of the twisting roads - I was slipping in and out of sleep, but it was one of the most stunningly beautiful journeys I've ever had. Eventually me made it to the coast and then onto the expressway to Tokyo. We arrived in a suburb of Tokyo, 13 hours after setting off, with a nearly empty tank - a journey that should normally take a few hours. In spite of the media reports in the UK, Tokyo seemed relatively fine. I found a hotel and filled my belly with big macs and lager.

I managed to get back to London three days later. I've been back since then, and the place is getting back to normal. Don't want to do that ever again though.

Length: having been to a few hot springs, there is a significant difference.
(Wed 20th Jul 2011, 16:08, More)

» Conversation Killers

Pub
Was talking with a guy in the pub last week when I piped up with 'Don't you think its really funny when peoples families die?'. Turns out that not only did the guy I was talking to have a family, but he was also dead.

WHOOPS!
(Tue 17th May 2011, 12:39, More)