Earthquake! Part Three

In fact, the earthquake wasn't responsible for the majority of deaths. Just like in the Great Kanto Earthquake, it was what happened afterwards that did the most damage. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 occurred just about lunchtime when everyone was using gas to cook. The fires that spread as a result of broken gas lines wiped out huge swathes of the city and there were charred bodies floating down the rivers, lying on the street, etc. The Edo-Tokyo Museum has a fantastic display on that earthquake, for anyone who finds him/herself in Tokyo one day.

Gas lines automatically shut off these days, but there's not much planning you can do to stop a tsunami, and it was just that after yesterday's earthquake that caused the casualties to soar and sent the financial cost of rebuilding skyrocketing. You've all seen the images by now, I imagine, so you know as much as I do pretty much. When we were watching the news in the evening, they had to cut the video on at least one occasion when it became clear they might be broadcasting someone's death. Why people insisted on driving near the ocean, though, does boggle the mind. And driving parallel to the ocean... I would have been speeding away from the ocean, methinks.

Anyway, H. and I made it to his family's home at around 11pm. H. had called his mum to come get us when the traffic appeared to be improving, but it got worse again and we ended up meeting her only about a twenty-minute walk from the house. Driving back took almost as long. She filled us with warm soup, tasty treats and tea and then drove us home to our apartment, where, amazingly, only three things had fallen (including a mountain of laundry). Unbelievable. Considering the stuff that went flying at my office, and that was only the fourth floor, I was sure our ground-floor apartment would be at least almost as messy, especially considering my habit of stacking. Again, I LOVE Japanese building codes, as well as Japanese cupboards which close with a snap, just for these occasions.

Aftershocks continued all night, in addition to two completely unrelated earthquakes on the other side of Japan that we could feel in Tokyo. It made for an uneasy sleep. I haven't felt an aftershock since this morning, though I know it will remain a possibility for several more weeks. Right now, the worry is several nuclear power plants that have had some failures. Japanese nuclear reactors are built, of course, to extremely high safety standards that take into consideration Japan's instability, but well, it's hard to plan for an earthquake this big. And to all the people who wonder why on earth Japan even has them when it gets earthquakes, I ask you this: in a country with so few natural resources, how else do you think it can generate power to cover roughly 127 million people and a developed (if ailing) economy? Japan's in a bit of a bind on the energy front. But it does its best.

Okay, that brings me to the end of the story... so far. H. managed to get a few iPhone photos last night, but the light is pretty bad. I'll try to get them online anyway. I'll end things with a little prayer for the people up north, for those who are missing, for those missing loved ones, for those who have already been found too late, and for those working so hard to take care of everything and everyone.

And don't forget: Fireproof hat.