Despite the relatively low excitement in my area of Japan, the experience was a first for me and worth sharing. So if you're up for it, I'm going to share a long and detailed account of the past weekend of my life. With very few pictures to break the words up. Ready?
Friday was shaping up to be a great day. Jeff's work had a potluck for two newcomers, so I whipped up a pasta salad and went to get some good food and company. Around 3pm, Jeff let me know that he was on his way home early. I was so excited! He had time to relax, then I was cooking a good homemade pizza, then we were meeting up with some people from work for more fun and laughs. Within 10 minutes, all those plans went out the window.
I was sitting watching TV, and the apartment started rattling. Then it just kept shaking harder and harder. It got to the point where things were slipping and sliding everywhere. Movies started spilling off their shelves, books were flying in the office, water bottles were catapulting off the fridge, and I was able to save the Italian glass collectibles from crashing off the entertainment center. The power clicked off in the midst of the crashing and clanging, but I hardly noticed. It seemed like it went on forever, but it was probably 5-10minutes? I haven't looked the actual details up myself.
When it all finally calmed down to a soft tremor, I laughed at the chaos of movies, remembering I had told Jeff it would be his job to pick any fallen movies up during the next earthquake. I snapped some quick pictures to share, then left the mess for my dear husband! That's when I remembered that he was supposed to be home by now, he had called a while ago. I tried to call his cell, but no calls were going through. I was a little worried, but knew he wouldn't do anything stupid. Turns out he was parking in the parking lot of our tower as the earthquake started. He noticed the van in front of him shaking and rocking after he parked and went to leave the car, and decided to wait it out in his car. Once it stopped, he trudged up 8 flights of stairs to come check on me. Our next door neighbor came by at the same time. After the last earthquake, I went to see how she handled our first earthquake. She knew Jeff's general schedule so she figured he wasn't home yet, and came to check that I was okay by myself this time. She's such a sweetheart.
Jeff came in and surveyed the damage. In the chaos, I didn't even notice that his desktop tower had fallen off his desk! Yikes. (Luckily, it's okay. It's an old beast of a thing anyways) He laughed with me about the movies I left for him. Then we tried our circuit breakers to see if the power outage was a quick fix. Nope, no dice. I walked down to our neighbors to see if they had power (they didn't) and sat through another pretty large quake with them.
(He had picked the tower up before I realized it had fallen...so I took a picture of it anyways)
We knew next to nothing for the next few hours. We didn't know if the rest of base had power, we didn't know if it was just our tower. We didn't know squat. As it started to get dark, we were able to see that all the buildings on this side were powerless. We continued to feel aftershocks and tremors, although nothing so shaky that things went flying. We carefully lit some candles for light, keeping them in one area for fear of another quake! We dug out our flashlights and warm blankets and bundled up on the couch. Jeff found out he needed to check in with his command and notify them that we were okay, so he did. Then played some phone tag with some of the guys from work trying to get everyone accounted for. Some cell companies worked sporadically; ours only worked calling landlines and same company cell phones. We bundled into bed knowing only that base and Misawa was out of power and that it was getting cold in our apartment! We were both hoping power would be on by morning.
Again, no dice. We woke to a cold and quiet apartment, and continued to scour our pantry for food. Luckily, I had just gone grocery shopping the day before. As the hours ticked by we said goodbye to all our dairy products, but we had enough in the pantry to get by. Sometime Saturday afternoon, we decided to drive to the main side of base and see if any power had returned. We were going to browse the BX and pick up some fresh food and just get out of our quiet apartment for a while. Well, the whole base was without power. The BX was closed. The Commissary had minimal power and looked like everyone was prepping for WWIII. It was dark in the store with minimal lighting, so it was a little creepy. People were everywhere, frantically grabbing things and stashing them in their carts like they'd be eating for weeks. We grabbed some soda and snack food and got out of there as fast as we could! As we were driving home, we finally got a little scope on how bad the conditions were. The radio station continued to play, and we found out that the entire base was without power and frantically arranging for hot meals and showers. Fuel was being rationed, and bread and batteries were already sold out.
At this point, we knew the power outage in Misawa Air Base and Misawa was a big deal that was going to take some time to fix. Outside of our little world, we had no idea what was going on. The base was on top of things though, posting updates on all stairwells and entrances and updating through the radio station. They had hot meals and showers provided, as mentioned, and they were doing their best to keep business running for the more important jobs on base.
We spent another night in the cold and dark. I've never been so thankful for my collection of blankets! I have a family quilt that became a lifesaver, since it packs a lot of warmth in a thin layer. I snuggled under that all weekend with some sweats and was warm and toasty. We were a little sick of candlelight, cold, and pantry raiding, but we were getting through. My husband's extra crabby attitude on Saturday turned out to be some kind of bug or cold he'd been fighting. He slept off and on all day, which never happens. When he woke up with congestion and a sore throat, I forgave his cranky attitude.
On Sunday, he was feeling a little cramped in our apartment. He figured there had to be power at a nearby mall area, so we were going to get out and around. Maybe get some real food too. We got in the car and started driving, and the radio updated us again. I don't remember what we heard exactly, but we found out that the problems stretched much further than our little town. We found out that the earthquake was large and far-reaching, followed by the tsunami, and that the power outages and problems spread much further. So we nixed our plan and went for sandwich fixings at the commissary. Which was still crazy, but not WWIII crazy like the day before. We stocked up on junk food and easy meals like Pop-tarts, because all the updates gave no date for power being turned back on.
Throughout all of this, we stayed pretty calm. We were worried about our families back home, wishing we could contact them so they'd stop worrying about us and our safety. We were worried about Jeff having to go to work and me being home isolated from everyone and everything. We were mourning the loss of a fridge full of dairy and leftovers (remember, I had just shopped on Thursday and stocked up!). We were worried about gas and groceries, since both were in short supply and slow to receive shipments here on base. We were fearing just how cold our apartment would become with no heat for days. We were cranky and tired and ready for "normal" again.
Sunday night, part of normal returned. Our power came back on! After 48 long hours, power was returned and with it came heat and television. I cooked a real meal for dinner, we watched some movies and enjoyed walking around without candles or flashlights. Internet was still down, which made us both impatient to send word back home that we were fine.
I can't remember now if it was Sunday night or Monday morning that we sat down to watch the news. Whenever it was, I was shell shocked. To see the damage, to hear the deaths, to discover the power plant issues, to learn individual stories about loved ones lost and buried under debris. The first time I watched a news update about the "Disaster in Japan", they showed a clip of a town literally leveled by the quake and tsunami. A thriving community of houses and businesses turned into complete rubble in a matter of minutes. I choked back tears and changed the channel. I had no idea how bad the earthquake and tsunami had been in other parts of the country. The power plants were obviously frightening, but the super efficient Japanese had already begun evacuations, so those concerns were overwhelmed by the stories of the people. I still can't watch more than 5 minutes of the news stories without tearing up. I can't make sense of such catastrophic damage just hours from our relatively undamaged base. Sure, there's some water leaks and damage to some buildings. Sure some people probably have some broken household items. Dealing with limited and shaky power and scarce resources is tiring. But at the end of the day, I have a bed, in a home in an undamaged building.
The base is still a place of chaos right now. Rumor mills are obviously running at full steam. The fear of radiation has leaked all the way up here, almost 5x further than the US (some official name I forgot after the brief I watched a few hours ago) recommended safe distance, aka 50 miles. We're 240 something miles north. Misawa Air Base is safe. But that doesn't stop the crazies from throwing those rumors in amongst all the other things. Annoying to say the least.
In reality, things are shaky here, but working. The grocery store continues to have food, although things like bread and batteries are severely limited. Gas is rationed as well. Fill-ups are maxed at 10 gallons, and your vehicle must be below 1/4 tank to fill up at all. The base is urging for severe conservation efforts. Minimal cooking, minimal appliance use, minimal electrical anything. Most work centers are up and running; Jeff's just got power today. All other businesses are at a standstill. Last I checked, schools were still closed, although I pay little attention since we don't have kids. Basically, we've got the bare minimum up and running and we're slowly working towards normal again. It won't be fast and it won't be soon, but for now, we've got what we need. We're safe and healthy, and that's more than enough.
After almost a week, I'm still adjusting to reality. I still find it hard to believe
what happened and how terrible things continue to be in this country. I also caught Jeff's bug and have spent the majority of that week drowsily vegging out on the couch. There's a lot of questions and rumors going around base, so we're doing our best to learn accurate facts and do what we can to return the base to normal.
I'm going to continue nursing myself and my husband back to health and vegging out on the couch for a while. The base grocery store is supposed to receive its shipment of corned beef tomorrow, so we're planning an Irish feast this weekend. I've got all my Irish music ready and we'll thoroughly enjoy celebrating our Irish roots, even if it's a few days late. I may have to dig up some old Irish dancing pictures to share...
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