4th day after the earthquake

It was the biggest earthquake I ever experienced.

First the tremor was not so big and I turn on the TV as usual to get information.

On the TV screen it showed that the epicenter was offshore of Miyagi.

But suddenly the tremor got bigger and I hid myself under the dining table with my son.

The tremor got bigger and bigger and I felt the epicenter was a lot closer.

I called out to my daughter to hide under the table but for some reason she did not come to me immediately, I found out later that she was in the bathroom.

As my daughter suggested us to go out side.

Usually we have trained to hide under the table during the first tremor and after the tremor we should go outside. But the vision of the recent earthquake in New Zealand where a lot of Japanese died in the collapsed building was recalled in my head and I rushed outside with my son. The house was violently shaking and I felt the frame of the front door was shaking which made opening the door difficult!

Outside the ground was shaking in the way I have not experienced before and I felt standing up still was not easy. After the tremor we enter the house and made sure the damage. It was unbelievable that the damage was almost none comparing to the violence of the tremor. The only damage was a wine glass which fell down in the cupboard. The two glasses and the milk carton which were left on the dining table were safe. The big cupboard in the kitchen moved forward, which is very heavy and I tried to push it back but couldn't, and dishes inside also moved forward and there were some nearly falling down but no dish was broken or cracked. A clock on the wall of the dining room fell down and hit an apple. I feared that tall furniture like cupboard and TV might fall down but it didn't happen in our house. Just books on the desks of my children and books on the bookshelf on the second floor jumped out on the floor.

The following photo is my daughter's desk after the earthquake.

To be honest my daughter is not good at keep her things tidy and sometimes the similar scene can be seen but definitely the textbooks scattered on the floor were caused by the earthquake. But I can't tell about the drawer. My daughter often leaves the drawers open.

After the first tremor many tremors came. At first we rushed outside whenever we felt tremors. About 15 minutes after the first tremor we had second earthquake in the same epicenter. And we had another offshore of Ibaraki which is closer to our house.

All the TV stations started to broadcast urgent news program after that.

I kept watching the news about the earthquake. Warning for tsunami were issued. And I saw shocking scenes of deadly tsunami approaching people.

The following video was taken from TV which was reporting about tsunami disaster in Kamaishi-shi of Iwate.

On the day of the earthquake all the train stopped.

My husband works in Tokyo and at first he tried to come home on foot.

I thought it is not a good idea and suggested him to go to his parent's house in Tokyo not very far from his office, which he did finally.

We still have many medium to smaller quakes.

The number of casualties increases day after day.

We hear about the serious situation of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

There was an explosion of the No.1 reactor on Saturday and I hear there was an explosion of No.3 reactor today.

Major electric power supply company announced implementation of rolling blackouts last night.

We are expecting blackouts for several hours twice a day during this week.

Number of dead should be more than 10,000.

Because of the difficulty of transporting we expect shortage of gasoline in many gas station.

I tried to purchase some yesterday but at the nearest gas station the gasoline was already sold out.

Rolling blackouts affected public transportation in Kanto area. No JR runs today. Most of all other private railway company announced diminished services which makes commuting difficult to work places or school.

Just after the quake telephone didn't work and it was difficult to make sure my husband and our parents were fine. About three hours later the line got recovered and made sure our relatives including my husband's safety.

Influence on my children's school life;

School lunch providing facility was damaged by the earthquake and they announced us of suspension of providing school lunch until the end of the semester. Children are going to be released before lunch time everyday until the school finishes on 24th.

Today I went out with my children by bike. On the way I saw a very long line of car waiting to purchase gasoline, I guess about 50 cars! That gas station in our neighborhood where I saw the sold-out sign yesterday. I didn't know that they still had gas to sell for the next day!? Do they keep some gas to sell tomorrow? Although many cars were in the line the station sign says sold out. After I got home I called this gas station but nobody answered! I wonder when I can refill gas for our car!

I did not expect the situation so serious. The shopping mall in the neighborhood is closed today because of rolling blackouts and commuting difficulty of the employers. In the evening of Sunday we could still get groceries but I wonder if we can buy enough food for tomorrow at present. Definitely the situation is a lot more worse than I thought here in Chiba.

Thinking of people who were suffering from the disaster in Tohoku region I fell really sorry. I can't stop feeling of going there and help. I wish the people still waiting for the rescue will be saved as soon as possible.