The Earthquake

I was in the kitchen at work, cleaning my teeth, when the earthquake struck.

Suddenly someone was screaming, "Evacuate!! Get out of the building!"

Outside the kitchen I could see people bolting for the door, and that's when things really started going. I spat so hard into the sink it could've left a dent, and I ran. I made it as far as the lobby and stopped, mesmerised, staring out the window. The whole world was rolling from side to side. It was both beautiful and horrific. It took a few moments for the gut-wrenching realisation to sink in: we were on the fourth floor. It was our building that was doing most of the swaying.

Time to run again. This time I made it as far as the emergency exit, where a group of people had stopped. I stood there like an idiot, wiping toothpaste off my face and trying to make sense of what was going on.

The building was still swaying strongly enough that I felt dizzy, but there were no signs that it was going to get worse, so we stayed inside. The shaking continued. Talking erupted amongst our group. Gradually the intensity of the quake lessened, and although it continued shaking for at least another ten minutes, it was much less violent.

I had a feeling. I jumped on the internet, but found no news of the quake at that point. The Japanese staff found it pretty quick on their news sites, revealing the epicenter to be just off Miyagi Prefecture, and the magnitude to be over 8. Insane.

Minutes later my next students arrived, 5-year-old twin boys who are as cheeky as they are cute. One of them hurried up to me and, with a big grin on his face, said (in his gorgeously accented English), "I'm afraid!"

In the evening I spent my short gap between classes sending some quick emails out to assure people that I was safe, and trying to get in touch with Rachel, my sister who's currently visiting Japan, but it was a no-go. It's time I usually need to plan classes, and tonight it meant I walked into my last class completely unplanned. But, not long after the class had finished, I got a call from Rachel to confirm that she was safe.

Nagano: magnitude 4
Tokyo: magnitude 5
Miyagi: magniture 9