March 11, 2011


Friday
- Snowy and cold.

This is an unusual blog entry for me. I’m writing early on, at 9:30 at night. I won’t be able to post this for a while as we don’t have internet service at the moment.

At 2:46 today there was an earthquake measuring 8.8 off the coast of Northern Japan. Sendai, my favourite city for shopping and eating out, was hit most severely. All I knew was one minute my phone started a shrill siren warning and then the room started to shake. And shake. And shake some more. It lasted a long time and was quite unsettling.

The TV listed the quake here as being a level 5, which is one of the strongest I’ve ever experienced, if not the strongest. Since then, I haven’t been able to access the internet by computer or by cellphone. I’m worried that my family in Canada will wake up and start to worry about me.

I got tired of watching the same news over and over again, so I went outside and shovelled the snow out of F’s parking space. I did a little bit around the apartment building as well. I was out there for about 40 minutes and it felt good to get out and get some exercise and have some fresh air too.

When I came back in I tried to see if the internet was on, but I couldn’t make it work. My computer is fine, but the internet isn’t working. I understand it though, and I realise how lucky I am. About 500,000 homes in Yamagata-ken have no power, more than that in Miyagi (Sendai’s prefecture) and all over the northern part of Japan.

Fumihiko called me a few minutes ago to say he could finally come home, then called again to say that he would go by his mother’s home to check on her. He hadn’t been able to get her on the phone. (She's fine, by the way.)

The aftershocks keep coming and coming. Watching the tsunami hit land and sweep everything in front of it away on the TV is quite frightening. I’d never seen anything quite like it.

I will end this here. If you are reading this, then you know that I am okay.

This is not how I expected my day to go at all. I’m sure that for millions of us in Japan, we could say the same. I hope that we all can have a good night.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are all following Japan's events and the tsnamis hitting many countries. Stay safe. You are in my prayers. G from San Diego.

JY69 said...

It was a night full of aftershocks or new quakes. Sure we'll know more in the daylight.

Helen said...

Thanks for commenting today. Have to run, got a busy day!

shinshu life said...

Glad to see you're ok. That was a nasty one. Hope your power is on for good now.

Helen said...

Thanks thefukases! We didn't lose power where I am at all, our internet was out for a few hours yesterday though. Cellphones are still hit and miss, especially the email messages.

Thanks for visiting!

Sharon Larson said...

Found your blog again Helen....so glad you are safe.
Sharon Larson
Washington

Helen said...

Thanks Sharon. The scenes are awful though, and the aftershocks continue, but we're okay.