Why Japanese can form a line peacefully during emergency

Because we know help come. We Japanese know help should come. So, we don't have to be upset. Looting is just non-sense. This is probably because we took good lessons from the Hanshin big earthquake in 1995. At that time, help didn't come timely. Secondary accidents were serious. So, governments and people organized manuals about what should do in the case of earthquake occurrence. Hanshin lesson was well practiced for next big earthquake occurred in Hokkaido 1993, or in Niigata in 2007. Many Japnaese are fed up with Japanese cabinet, but we trust national services in that area.

Especially, Sendai people, or broadly Tohoku (Northeastern area) people including Fukushima are famous as most forbearing. Their patient characteristics is well expressed by Kenji Miyazawa's poem, "No losing to the rain". Since I am not a Tohoku native, I respect their patience when I compare with my hometown Nagoya (TOYOTA's hometown).

The power is back, but no water and no gas as of 10th day, March 20. Ken and I still join a line every other day.

On March 16, I gave up to form a line because I could see more than thousand people were already there when I joined the line at 9 am.

On March 17, I patiently formed a line for three hours in the snow.

After the snow, Sam and Dan scooped snow for toilet flushing. They enjoyed. They worked with vigor and enthusiusm. Snow in the bath tub looked like ice in the Antarctica.

As of 10th day, shopping lines get shorter. More varierty of goods we can buy. Water is scheduled to be back by March 31 for our area. Gas should take longer. Maybe by summer?

I am planning to get out of Sendai next week with my boys. We won't come back until gas is back.

I hope the town is back to be normal as soon as possible.

4th day: March 14, Mon.

We gave up around 6 am. As soon as we got out of Futon, we tried to make sure if power is back. No. No power. But we could get water from a nearby fire station, so I was encouraged and "cooked" breakfast!

It is a Japanese traditional soup with rice. Carrot, rice, cabagge, and egg with soy sauce, sea wead. It was delicious!

We had good food stock and water now. So, Ken decided to go to his office and then check the downtown. So, Ken and Sam went out together. My mobile battery was going to run out. They went to downtown to charge my battery and see what's going on. It looked almost OK in the downtown according to Ken. He charged my mobile and his and successfully took Bento lunch. Fried chicken! What a gorgeous lunch!

I bought lots of vegetables right before the earthquake, so the refragerator was full. It was lucky. Our car gas tank was half full. So, it is OK for a while.

During a day, I learned many area got power back. But we couldn't see any sign of power back. It became everning again. Ken started to set a fire. Boys prepared candles. I prepared meals. My pots were grimed because of BBQ. We finished our simple dinner again, and had nothing to do in darkness after 8 pm.

Then! It came FINALLY!!!

Power was back!!!

We screamed! I cried! Sam and Dan danced!

Light!  Heating! YES, YES, YES!!!!!

I jumped to my PC and started. So did Ken.

We watched TV.

Its screen is big!

Until then, we enjoyed 30 minutes of TV watching a day with Ken's mobile.

But now, we don't have to compete to see the small screen.

The TV programs were not what we wanted to see, though.

3rd day: March 13, Sun.

Power did not come yet. No water. No gas. Power came back for roughly half of households in Sendai that day. Many of our neibors, 5 minutes walk away, said they had power back, but we didn't.

After breakfast, we went to shopping. My older boy Sam and I joined a line for an ION super market, while Ken and Dan tried another shop. Those were 5 minute walk away.

Our line was very long. When we joined, more than 1,000 people were waiting.

I send Sam to check what we can buy. He said no water, no bread, no rice. Just some snacks, cola, diaper. So, I called Ken while I was staying in the line. He said his line was short and the shop looks good. Then, I gave up and tried to join him. When I reached him, he already finished his shopping. He bought water, fish sausages, instant noodle, snacks, strawbery, and so on. We were so lucky! YES! We punched the air.

After those shops, we tried another DIY shop. Ken wanted BBQ chacole, which we couldn't get. Their waiting line was not so long. About 200 people. 20 people were given shopping baskets and let in for 10 minutes. We bought one-time use chopsticks, cups, plates, and BBQ charcoal. Prices were not so high. Casher typed an register, so I asked her if their power was back, but answer was NO. They generated power by themselves.
While we were waiting, we saw a YAKINIKU BBQ reastrant building was collapsed.

After the shopping, we had nothing to do. Since I'm a self-employed translator, I usually work on my PC all day. The situation I don't access my acounts or chats for more than an hour was very strange to me. Aftershocks still occurred frequently. I read newspapers and some fashion magazines. I have many technical books which I am supposed to read as a translator, but I didn't want to read anything difficult. So, I picked up my boy's novels. Two junior high boys named Tom and Soya go off on adventures. It was fun. Boys read those books with me.

In the evening, a block association's car patroled our community, and announced that water is given at a fire station. So, we rashed to get there and filled a 20 litter bottle as well as three 2 litter bottles!

It became evening. No sign of power back, although we have been waiting for sound or sign. Ken gave up and started to build a fire. We ate instant noodles, bananas, and some snacks. Around 8 pm, it was dark and we couldn't see each other. Aftershocks in darkness was scary. My younger boy Dan didn't want to go to rest room by himeself, so Ken or I had to go with him. 

Toilet! No water means you can't flush what you did. We move water in the bath tub to the toilet once or twice a day. You can't flush every time one member did. You have to wait until 2 or 3 did. Uhhhhhhh....

At 9, we went to bed. We four set up four futons in the living room and slept together so that we can make sure everyone OK when next big earthquake comes. Also, if you sleep together, the room can get warmer.

2nd day - 2: March 12, Sat.

After the lunch, we had nothing to do. Ken went to the office to see what's going on. My boys went hang out with their friends. Without power, I had nothing to do. No computer. No internet. My mobile was running out of battery. So, I had to save the power to communicate with my parents, sister and friends who constantly ask if I and my boys were OK.

On March 12, we planned to go and see a movie. It was to start at 18:00. So, I wondered what if powear is back before 6 pm, although Ken and boys were gone. But my worry proved in vain. Around 3 pm, Ken was back. Around 5 pm, we found lights north. About 15 minutes drive away from here. We shouted for joy. Power should be back to us in a couple of hours!.... But it didn't come.

So, Ken made a fire with BBQ set for us. We poured hot water into the instant noodle cups which we bought yesterday. Our dinner was the noodle, banana, and snacks. We lit candles instead of lights. It was fun. My boys didn't know how to stand candles. Ken dripped several candle drops and then stand it onto those drops. Sam and Dan were surprised. I told them an old Chinese anecdote about candles.

"A young Chinese man was haunted by a spirit who looked old with long beard. The old spirint told him that he is going to die, because a short candle in front of him represents the length of his own life and the candle is going to run out. The young man looked at the candle in surprise, and broke a long candle next to his and added the broken one onto his. The old man smiled slyly, and told him that the long one is his son's who was just born."

My boys, especially, Dan was frightened. So adorable. We laughed. It was around 8 pm. Cold. We kept close each other. We went to bed before 9. We were tired because we couldn't had good sleep in the car except Dan :-)

2nd day - 1: March 12, Sat.

We woke up around 6 am. Partially due to several aftershocks during that night, we couldn't had good sleep. Dan fell asleep as soon as he finished his banana, and he started snoring. How self-centered he is!

While we had small breakfast with banana and snacks, Ken told us that we had three consecutive earthquakes at that moment yesterday. He showed us one-segment TV program on his mobile. We couldn't believe our eyes. What are we watching?

When we got out of the car, we saw 40 or 50 neighbor families also spent their nights in the car in that parking area. We came back home since Ken wanted to check the rooms. Dan still complained it was dangerous, but we shouted him. Books and bottles are scattered in our computer room, but monitors remained where they were supposed to sit. Only several cups were broken. Our 37-inch TV set was slightly moved, but did not dropped. Light cover dropped. Book shelves kept standing. So did my drawer.

Our rooms are at the second floor. It was built after the great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, so the building implements quake absorbing structure. Ken joyfully declared those were nothing. His office was much more disasterous. His office building was closed now and to be destructed. He cannot get in there to take his belongings.

We checked everything. We confirmed no power, no water and no gas. It was still chilly. We wore coats in the rooms and went blank for a while. From the Hanshin earthquake lessons, we were certain that help should come in a couple of days. Power should come back maybe in a day. Water and gas may take longer, but probablly in a week. Many volunteers and Self-defense Force should bring something to eat. We had earthquake drills, so we had rough idea about what we should do.

So, we started to clean the rooms. Kids did their room. I did kitchen. Ken did our computer room. we finished our mission by noon. We had lunch. I cooked salad. Cucumbers, tomates, and lettuce. We enjoyed adding dressing. But. I forgot that water stopped. When you put salad on four dishes for each. You should rinse them. How? I served chopsticks for each. How can I clean them? I opened a large bottle of water, which is the one I stocked for earthquake. It expired in 2007, so it is not suited to drink. I used the water for rinsing.

1st day - 2: March 11, Fri.

We came back home around 4:30. It grows dark around 5 in Sendai because of its longitude (?). It is already March, but spring has not come yet. It was chilly and snow flied that evening. Aftershock continued. Some of them were big enough to frighten my younger son Dan terribly.

Between those aftershocks, I sneaked into my house several times and grabbed blankets & bedding, coats, and an emergency bag. I also put rice into lunch box. The rice was warm in the rice cooker. I powered hot water from the pot into water bottles.

Neighbors in our condo were hanging around at the parking lot. I didn't know some of them. We were the first met, but shared that situation. We lost power. It was getting dark. It was chilly. How was it going? Can we go back to home and sleep on the Futon tonight? Boys and girls were screaming and laughing every time aftershock occurred. All what we concerned were that we got in trouble. That's it. We had no idea what disaster occurred in the coast area. No power means no TV program, thus no fearful video.

My husband Ken, a University associate professor, travels a lot. Overseas every quarter, Tokyo trip every other week, any other domestic trip every other month. Roughly he travels for two weeks a month. But. That day, he was in Sendai. Oh, god. How lucky we were. I paged him when I successfully picked up my boys, but couldn't reach him. I tried more than ten times. I e-mailed a message to his mobile phone. His gave me a reply saying OK for the first time. In a hour, he was gone. I e-mailed several messages to him telling where we were, but no response. I didn't worry so much. I just understood that the traffic was busy.

I drove our car and parked at an outdoor parking space across our condo building, because Dan importunated to get out of our parking structure.  He scared to death. As soon as we got onto the car, it started to snow. It was almost blizzard. I worried about Ken. No answer yet. In the car, Dan kept complaining and quaking. Sam kept quiet. He tends to internalize stress, but Dan does not.

Finally, Ken came back. It was around 7:00 pm. How relieved we were. I cried. Dan cried. Sam almost did. Ken told us that some Tsunami hit the coast area and it seemed disasterous. But we did not care so much. What we have to think about at that time was how we survive that night. 

We had hot water in the bottle. We had warm rice, but no seasoning. No other dish. Where do we sleep? Firstly, we walked to a nearest supermarket to get something eat.  It was dark. It was snowing. No light. No traffic light. And there were hundreds of people formed a line and waited for their turn at the supermarket. It took an hour. Another aftershock occurred. Dan cried, but we kept waiting in the line. No one complained. No one tried to take them all when their turn came. We bought two large bottles of water, two large bottles of oolong tea, a bunch of bananas, ten pot noodles, and so on. We ate them in the car and slept there that night.

1st day -1: March 11, Fri.

It was around 3 pm. I was working on my computer. Firstly, I noticed joggle. Since a manitude 7 eartuquake occured in this Miyagi area two days ago, I thought it was only an aftershock for the first moment. I reluctantly found a refuge under the desk with my coffee cup. I didn't want to damage my computer by coffee.

Large earthquakes occur in this Sendai, Miyagi area every three-four years. I live here for good ten years, and experienced magnitude 5 or 6 earthquakes several times before. One in 2004 or 2005, the other in 2006 or 2007. So. I just thought that was one of those big ones, which does't last long. But. This one was different. It was long. Almost 3 minutes with two pauses. Quake didn't stop. I saw my books and my lotion bottles drop. Bounce and jounce. I covered my mouth with my hand and couldn't stop crying and screaming.

Finally, it stopped. I quickly grabbed my bag and mobile phone and rushed to get out of my condo. I saw many of my friends also evacuated from the condo. I dashed to the ground and told my crying friend at the 8th floor that I was going to pick up my boys. Since Japanese people, especially people in this North-east region, are shy, loud conversation between the 8th floor and the ground is not common. But. That was different. Everyone was crying, loudly.

My older boy, Sam, 6th grade went to the park after lunch because his class was closed that day due to  Influenza. My legs were still trembling, but at that time I didn't know that quake caused such a big disaster. It was big, but it was gone. So, I was rather settled. I found Sam on my way to the park. He came back home by himeself. So, I went to pick up my younger boy, Dan. He was at school. I ran into a friend. She was also going to pick up her girls. So, I talked with her and how big it was, but at that time, out conversation was rather competing each other how scared it was and which was more disastrous.

When I reached the school, kids were evacuated from the building and peacefully sitting on the ground. I easily found my sweet boy Dan. As soon as his cute face, I couldn't stop crying and tried to hug him. He coyly refused me, though! (he loves my hug when his friends are not around us). I took several pictures for fun. We noticed channels were broken and water spouted out of the ground.