Below the Surface in Tokyo

On the surface Tokyo looks normal but below the surface things just aren't like they were before March 11th. The phones work, the subways are running and people are going to work. Children are back in school and staples are slowly returning to the shelves of grocery stores. But people don't feel the same.

Those who remain alive can't sleep well at night. They lie awake with the knowledge that in their sleep, suddenly and without any warning, they can be thrown across the room and crushed to death by an earthquake. It's like waiting for someone that has a gun pointed to their head to finally pull the trigger. Everyone comes to work bleary-eyed.

Many people in the city are sad, stressed out and some feel guilty - for living. Many had friends and relatives among the 25,000+ that probably died in the earthquake and tsunami in the north. Even those who did not, see the images on the news of grieving families burying their loved ones in mass graves or searching lists of the recovered on bulletin boards in shelters. No one really feels like doing business as usual under these circumstances. It just wouldn't be appropriate.

Businesspeople don't feel like having meetings or considering starting new business. Trade shows, festivals, all kinds of events that were planned for March and April have been canceled. People are in mourning. While intensely genuine, mourning, like so many other things in Japanese life, is prescribed. According to Buddhism, the mourning period expires on the 35th and 49th day after the death. According to Shinto, the mourning period expires on 30th and 50th days after death. The soul of the deceased stays in the real world until the 49th day of death. Attaining the 49th day of death, it can leave for eternity.

Even then, I doubt that things below the surface will return to normal for a long time.

Flyer for Demonstation in Tokyo on March 20th

Tokyo Mask

Can You Help?

Young people from Fukushima (site of nuclear plant)
pleading with passersby in Tokyo today to help their hometown.
For those of you far away you can help the victims in Japan
by giving to the Red Cross fund for Japan at this site.

Traveling toothpaste

One of the mysteries of the earthquake experience that has me scratching my head is how a tube of toothpaste got from my bathroom into my son's room. When I got home I found my toothpaste on the floor in his room. It had traveled from my bathroom, through my bedroom, across the hall and into his room, making a 90 degree turn in the process. I used the toothpaste in the morning, was the last to leave the apartment and the first to return. The physics of this are just perplexing.

Redecorated

When I got home I found the 8th floor apartment in a mess. Everything had been rearranged. The dishes and glasses had fallen out of the kitchen shelves and broken in the floor, mixing with food and oil that had fallen from the shelving. Dresser drawers were overturned, lamps, TVs, books and shelves were in the floor. The force of the quake was evident everywhere.

Family members were far away from home when the quake hit and it took them 7+ hours to get home. My son spent 7 or 8 hours on a school bus. All of the main thoroughfares were packed with people hoofing it home - sometimes for many hours. The trains and subways were stopped and taxis were nearly impossible to catch. I was lucky because my apartment is only 10 minutes from my office. But everyone who survived is lucky because hundreds lost their lives. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones or can't find them. There is no pain greater than that.

Chasing earthquakes

I was setting at my desk this afternoon when the room started bucking. There's been several tremors in Tokyo recently so I assumed it was just another one. But it kept getting worse and the excited chatter from my Japanese colleagues in the adjacent room died down and then turned to screams as plaster started falling and light fixtures crashed down. I opened my door and stood under the frame but everyone else was crawling under their desks. I looked down the hall to the exit stairwell and started to walk toward it but I couldn't walk. I was being tossed around too much.

Stuff was falling off of shelves. People were just looking at each other - apparently looking for an answer to what to do. After a while it stopped long enough for us to get to the exit and down six flights to the outside. Out in the parking lot we could see the building bending and swaying and someone yelled to get away from the building. Cars in the parking lot were swaying back and forth and alarms were going off. An old stone pillar toppled over on the lawn. Windows were breaking out of the building across the street.

They say it was the worst earthquake in Japan in 100 years. As I write this tonight my apartment is still swaying from an aftershock. Ok, that's all the earthquake experience I need for this lifetime.