The next day was surreal. We spent the morning with Cindy, our friend and Earthquake strandee who was part of the 13 mile trek the night before. We took Ranger for a walk, showed Cindy the beautiful park just starting to come to life for Spring and took her to our favorite bakery. The bakery, which usually has a veritable cornucopia of treats Saturday mornings, was pretty much cleaned out. But we managed to grab a couple of melt in your mouth danishes to fortify ourselves until lunch. The streets were crowded like they are every Saturday. People were drinking their coffee as usual at the sidewalk cafes and sharing their stories. Kids were playing in the park. Birds were singing. This is not the scene you would expect to see after a 8.9 earthquake.
The airports were running but as you can imagine, packed with travelers desperate to get home. Even though there were no flights available Cindy decided to take her chances and attempt to fly standby. We packed her into a cab. Four hours later she had only gone 16 kilometers, less than 10 miles. I could have run to the airport and back in that time. So she decided to turn around and stay at a hotel and wait it out till the next day. We encouraged her to come back to us but I think she wanted to be alone.
Russell didn't want to stay at home because outside you can't feel the aftershocks as much plus he wanted to behave as normally as possible. Personally I think we were both in shock and the real extent of the earthquake hadn't really hit us yet. Compared to what was happening in the North we had escaped virtually scott free. So we walked through the neighborhood to our favorite noodle shop. Russell was walking really slowly because his arches hurt from the 13 mile odyssey in dress shoes. I don't recommend it.
The noodle shop was bustling as usual. You select the dish you want from what looks like a cigarette vending machine. They have pictures of each dish, you put your money in and it spits out a ticket which you hand to the nice lady and she brings the food to your table. It's cheap and exquisitely satisfying. It's comfort food, without the gravy and oversized portions, and we needed all the comfort we could get.
We spent the rest of the afternoon responding to friends and family and getting nauseated by the newscasts, namely CNN and BBC. CNN, as usual, was completely over-dramatizing the impact on Tokyo and making it appear as if the Japanese government was ill-prepared and holding back information. It was also making it look like U.S. military efforts were doing most of the search and rescue. The fact is the impact on Tokyo was minimal. Frankly it's amazing how prepared and organized they are. There has been no crime, no looting and no panic. Other than the stores being a little short of goods and some shingles off the shrine next to our house, we hadn't seen any damage around our area. And that broadcaster Becky Anderson needs to be put to sleep. She seemed almost glib. I loathe her.
BBC on the other hand was almost cold and bereft of any emotion in their reporting. Most of you know it's my personal policy to NOT watch the news because it's always negative and over-sensationalized. Let's face it - it's depressing. Watching the news, even for the short amount of time we did, just solidified this policy, and frankly, scared the crap out of us. Threat of a nuclear explosion? So we turned it off and Russell went over to our neighbors to get the scoop.
Our next door neighbor works with Russell. He's married to a Japanese woman who literally grew up in the apartment building we live in. Her brother works for Russell. Talk about a small world. They're great people. Luis gave us the straight dope. Yes there was an explosion at one of the eight nuclear power plants. The area around the plant had been evacuated within 10 kilometers, like six miles. There was no threat to us. There was some discussion on the Japanese news of the possibility of rolling black outs in order to conserve energy. Apparently the nuclear power plants provide 30% of the Tokyo's electricity. They invited us over for dinner but we had reservations at restaurant nearby. They told us to come over after and asked if we had enough candles.
For dinner we went to this tiny little restaurant near our apartment called Okada. We had tried to get into it last weekend but they were fully committed. Not so the night after the earthquake. I think we were the only diners. They sat us in their private room. The meal was unbelievable. I don't know if it was because we were just so thankful to be together and alive or what but the food was amazing! It started with house made pork pate and was followed with pork belly cooked in a cassoulet pot with lentils. I had the bone in steak with roasted turnips. Dessert was a scandalous chocolate cake, cooked in a miniature cast iron pot, served with house made pistachio ice cream. It was the first time Russell and I felt normal since the earthquake. I'm sure the wine helped.
But when we got back to our apartment we were reminded that things were not normal. There was a flood. In the center of our building is an atrium with a pond resplendent with gold fish and turtles. A water pipe had broken, presumably from the pond, and flooded the 1st and 2nd floors of the apartment building. We're on the 3rd floor which is the ground floor where the atrium is. Our building is built on a hill. Thankfully there's only four apartments total on the two floors below. The tenants were evacuated and were being put up on a hotel by the owner.
Course I was worried about the fish. So was my other neighbor who looks like a supermodel. It seems like the only people who live in our apartment are either parents with kids or super models. She has kids and is gorgeous. She and I commiserated over the fate of the fish who had been put into a bucket we thought was much too small for them. The turtles were still in the atrium wandering around looking for their friends. Guys with giant squeegies were sweeping the water down the stairwell into the basement. The elevator sounded like a waterfall and it was. They had jerry-rigged a flood pipe down the elevator shaft and out the basement.
We went over to Luis's apartment. They were just finishing dinner with two other neighbors. We presented a box of ice cream bars and bottle of wine and were invited in. There at the dinner table we heard another perspective. While Russell and I were trying to behave as if everything was semi normal, others were packing up and moving out. Apparently three of our neighbors had packed a bag and left the country in a hurry. It hadn't even occurred to us to consider this. We were surprised.
Luis and the other neighbor over for dinner had both been out of the country on business when the earthquake occurred. They both expressed regret for not being here. Of course because they wanted to be there to take care of their family but also because they missed the biggest earthquake in Japan's history and fifth largest earthquake in our lifetime to date.
Strange I feel kind of guilty for surviving unscathed. I mean we just got back from a five star meal while others in Northern Japan are wondering if they're going to survive the night.
That night we placed our clothes, emergency back-pack and shoes next to the bed just in case another huge earthquake happened or the nuclear reactor exploded and we might have to evacuate.
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