Everyone, all the teachers and staff, had been called for a meeting. We were told we couldn't leave the hall until 5:30pm, which was the time the graduation ceremony was due to finish anyway. Guess head office wanted to get their full payment of salaries worth.
There wasn't much we could do at all. All the teachers had chipped in to help clean up the decorations, the only thing left to do was watch the news reports coming in on the T.V. sets that were scattered around the hall while at the same time avoiding the supervisors.
At this stage panic had hit Japan. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake had struck!!
Tsunamis had destroyed the upper east coastal towns and cities of Japan!!
Gas storage facilities in the Tokyo Bay area and other areas of Honshu island had exploded and raging fires ensued!!
Communications were down, absolutely nobody could use their mobile phones. Only land lines were connecting people to the good news that their families and possessions were safe ... at least around the Tokyo area.
And the whole of Tokyo's train system was down!! ( In and around Tokyo, including the metropolitan suburbs, there are roughly 30 million people!! It would be an interesting statistic to find out how many millions of people were left stranded on that day.)
Some families were smart and got out of the hall and headed home by taxi straight away. There ended up being hundreds of us stranded at the hall. Quite a few families from my school were left milling around and trying to find a spot to sleep for the night.
The *Street Beer Crew* were divided on what to do. Carlos was calling around to car rental agencies to try to get some kind of transport to get us and himself home. But there was nothing left by this time. Justin and I wanted to get hold of some bikes and cycle back to Tokyo. A.J. and bro Steve, lived a couple of hours walk away from and decided to do just that ... walk home!!
Justin, J.J., and I thought that was a good idea. It was better than being cooped up in the hall during the night, and much better than hanging around with the supervisors and head office staff!! ;))
After running around and checking with my families from the school and finding out if they needed anything, and wishing them all the best, nobody had any idea what was install for us, I said my goodbyes and went to meet the guys out the front of the hall.
J.J., Justin and I waited for a while outside for A.J. and Steve but they couldn't be found.
Where are those slackers, it will be dark in half an hour!!
We started walking.
We got to the corner of the street.
It was as far as we got.
J.J. reckons we should head back down the other end of the street.
Justin reckons we should turn right at this corner!
We went back down the road we had just come up when Justin pipes up with a protest after studying his i-phones navigation.
We walk back up the road and make it to the corner again. On the way to the same corner and J.J. this time says he has ''a feeling'' we should be going the other way!!
BACK WE WENT!!
For me this was beginning to feel quite comical ... and we hadn't even had any beer yet!!
But this time, we managed only half way down the street. Around the corner and who rocks up ... the bros, A.J. and Steve!!
Their house is in the direction that Justin wanted to go.
Off we went!! The five of us venturing forward to walk somewhere dictated by a navigation system in the midst of a chaotic situation. To be honest, we had no idea!! It was going to be an interesting journey. And to top it all off, the pandemonium of the earthquake and tsunamis of what had just happened only a few hours before were still lingering in our minds.
It was plain to see that we weren't the only people to have taken the decision to walk. There were thousands of people doing the same thing!!Streets that normally have a few strollers and a couple of bikes on them ... were packed!! We had joined the herds as we all wondered back to a dwelling that held some security in our souls.
It wasn't long before a convenience store beckoned us in for a beer stop!!
It was bloody cold so a quick warm up with some food would do us good. We had a long journey ahead of us.
The streets were filling up, not only with people but the roads too. They were jam packed!! I walked into the middle of the road for a look. Those cars won't be going anywhere for a while!!
Another convenience store, another beer. This continued for our whole journey, or trek, or mission ... we had a long way to walk!!
A couple of hours had passed and it was time to say sayonara to Steve and A.J. Their pad was a couple of kilometers to the left. We were turning right up the road a bit, well that's what Justin's navi-system said anyway. ;))
My feet were beginning to hurt big time. I had worn some smart shoes for the ceremony believing that I'd be catching the trains all day. How did I know there was going to be a massive earthquake and pandemonium would take place!!
That was how it felt!!
As we were walking, we were reminded of why we were walking.
Aftershocks happening left, right and center, and sometimes it felt like they were happening right beneath us!!
A building that had fallen earlier as we passed by, taped off by the local police ... out of bounds!!
Back to back traffic in endless ques!!
The task of getting anywhere right now was either by foot or if you had a bicycle then you were on a winner. It was by far the quickest mode of transport in this earthquake stricken city of Tokyo. I wondered how much worse it could be at the epicenter regions where the earthquake hit!??
The images of the Tsunami swallowing up whole small cities flashed through my mind ...
We had reached the point that was dictated by Justin's navigation to turn north. We had to cross over a foot bridge. At the top I paused to let the on comers pass by me. I looked back towards Tokyo Bay and what I saw was frightening. There was a massive fire in the distance!! The next day I found out that it was a gas storage facility that had exploded. I took a photo but it was quite far away and dark. The fire can be seen though ... and it was bloody big!!
Another couple of kilometers down the road and it was time for another beer. And time to do something about my feet. The little toe on my right foot was in bad condition. It had rubbed against the lack of space. The whole little toe was one big blister now ... the pain barrier had already passed. Justin had some sneaker type shoes in his bag. I tried them on. They were a size too small but the comfort level was paradise!! I put my Ferragamos in my bag. They are shoes for short occasions ... not for trekking 18 kilometers across Tokyo!! ... we grabbed another beer!!
A funny or odd situation we came across on our hike was the railway crossings. Now and then we had to cross a train line ourselves. Of course there were no trains because they had been shut down. The signals would be blaring away and people sometimes 15 deep would be waiting for the barriers to lift. It was pointless standing around waiting for no trains to pass. We took the initiative and excused ourselves thought he thickening crowds, lifted the barrier, checked the track was clear and walked across to the other side. On our merry way we look back and it had hit them at last that they could do the same thing. How long had they waited we wondered. Later we came to another crossing so we went through the barrier, walked to the other side and then with drunken acting skills, said to each other that this was the wrong way and we headed back over the track just to show it was safe to cross the tracks. Later we lifted a barrier for a guy that was driving a van, he was happy we helped him cross and was bowing to us as he drove through. We were the happy, drunk Samaritans!! ;))
Another interesting situation was beginning to develop also. As we were stopping regularly for a beer on our trek we noticed how less and less the stores had in terms of stock. By the time we got to Justin's apartment in Naka-Meguro it wasn't possible to buy bread items, tissues of any kind, toilet paper, instant noodles and water. ( it is now nearly 2 months after 3/11 and the shops are just starting to get back to normal, although it is still difficult to find water from international sources )
By the time we got to Justin's pad it was 1am. We had walked 18km!!, seen collapsed buildings!!, rivers of people walking!!, petrified traffic jams!!, the ground shaking beneath our feet!!, shops run out of stock ... and we had made it!!
We clambered and stumbled in to Justin's humble home and J.J. collapses on the bed. He never woke up until late morning, never even said good night to us. He was out!! A quick inspection around the apartment for broken things revealed stuff flung into the bathroom basin and bath. Nothing broken though. But I was puzzled as to why there were so many clothes lying around on the floor just below the wardrobe.
''HUH!! Err, must have been the earthquake!!'' replies Justin.
''yeah yeah mate ... pull the other one!! ;)) ''
Justin's girlfriend was waiting for him. We were famished, food was needed big time. We went in search of a good ramen shop ( noodle shop ) and after hobbling around the streets we finally found one that was open.
It was one hell of an evening!!
Thanks guys again for the great memories!!
( P.S., and a quick opinion on the situation right now )
Apologies for the time span between each posting. But as you have seen either on T.V. or in the newspapers things aren't normal here in Japan. It has calmed down a fair bit over here now, though we are still getting heaps of earthquakes. The vegetables and water is still a problem. I truly hope the government/ and or TEPCO, the company that owns the nuclear reactor, do the right thing and compensate the farmers for the trouble that TEPCO has caused. ( of course it's not just the farmers but also the houses that have been destroyed and the thousands and thousands of homeless it has made ) It's fair to say that a 9.0 earthquake is considered a freak of nature and is rare. But at the same time though shouldn't it be made fair also for the citizens of any country, that if a nuclear reactor is going to be built in a country that sits on top of 2 tectonic plate zones ... then build it right so that it can be safe for the people to still enjoy the lifestyle that they are used to!!!! and not have to live shoulder to shoulder separated by cardboard pieces as they are doing right now in the north of Japan!!!!
!!!! IT'S DESPICABLE !!!!
... oh yeah, ... and if your are interested to know ... my little toe's nail has almost fallen off now ... it died ;)) another victim of the earthquake!!
cheers and good health to you all ;))
There wasn't much we could do at all. All the teachers had chipped in to help clean up the decorations, the only thing left to do was watch the news reports coming in on the T.V. sets that were scattered around the hall while at the same time avoiding the supervisors.
At this stage panic had hit Japan. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake had struck!!
 |
| Our mission, to get to Justins pad ... nearly 20 kilometers away!! Left to right is J.Jey, Justin, Steve and bro A.J. |
Tsunamis had destroyed the upper east coastal towns and cities of Japan!!
Gas storage facilities in the Tokyo Bay area and other areas of Honshu island had exploded and raging fires ensued!!
Communications were down, absolutely nobody could use their mobile phones. Only land lines were connecting people to the good news that their families and possessions were safe ... at least around the Tokyo area.
And the whole of Tokyo's train system was down!! ( In and around Tokyo, including the metropolitan suburbs, there are roughly 30 million people!! It would be an interesting statistic to find out how many millions of people were left stranded on that day.)
Some families were smart and got out of the hall and headed home by taxi straight away. There ended up being hundreds of us stranded at the hall. Quite a few families from my school were left milling around and trying to find a spot to sleep for the night.
 |
| One of the many sights we saw on our walk ... |
The *Street Beer Crew* were divided on what to do. Carlos was calling around to car rental agencies to try to get some kind of transport to get us and himself home. But there was nothing left by this time. Justin and I wanted to get hold of some bikes and cycle back to Tokyo. A.J. and bro Steve, lived a couple of hours walk away from and decided to do just that ... walk home!!
Justin, J.J., and I thought that was a good idea. It was better than being cooped up in the hall during the night, and much better than hanging around with the supervisors and head office staff!! ;))
After running around and checking with my families from the school and finding out if they needed anything, and wishing them all the best, nobody had any idea what was install for us, I said my goodbyes and went to meet the guys out the front of the hall.
J.J., Justin and I waited for a while outside for A.J. and Steve but they couldn't be found.
 |
| This is a picture of the early warning alerts from my mobile phone. Check out the dates!! The following week was hectic getting these warnings ... and scary!! |
Where are those slackers, it will be dark in half an hour!!
We started walking.
We got to the corner of the street.
It was as far as we got.
J.J. reckons we should head back down the other end of the street.
Justin reckons we should turn right at this corner!
We went back down the road we had just come up when Justin pipes up with a protest after studying his i-phones navigation.
We walk back up the road and make it to the corner again. On the way to the same corner and J.J. this time says he has ''a feeling'' we should be going the other way!!
BACK WE WENT!!
For me this was beginning to feel quite comical ... and we hadn't even had any beer yet!!
But this time, we managed only half way down the street. Around the corner and who rocks up ... the bros, A.J. and Steve!!
Their house is in the direction that Justin wanted to go.
Off we went!! The five of us venturing forward to walk somewhere dictated by a navigation system in the midst of a chaotic situation. To be honest, we had no idea!! It was going to be an interesting journey. And to top it all off, the pandemonium of the earthquake and tsunamis of what had just happened only a few hours before were still lingering in our minds.
It was plain to see that we weren't the only people to have taken the decision to walk. There were thousands of people doing the same thing!!Streets that normally have a few strollers and a couple of bikes on them ... were packed!! We had joined the herds as we all wondered back to a dwelling that held some security in our souls.
It wasn't long before a convenience store beckoned us in for a beer stop!!
 |
| Found this car a few days after the earthquake. Not sure if it's a result of the earthquake or if that's just the type of suspension on that car!! ;)) |
It was bloody cold so a quick warm up with some food would do us good. We had a long journey ahead of us.
The streets were filling up, not only with people but the roads too. They were jam packed!! I walked into the middle of the road for a look. Those cars won't be going anywhere for a while!!
Another convenience store, another beer. This continued for our whole journey, or trek, or mission ... we had a long way to walk!!
A couple of hours had passed and it was time to say sayonara to Steve and A.J. Their pad was a couple of kilometers to the left. We were turning right up the road a bit, well that's what Justin's navi-system said anyway. ;))
My feet were beginning to hurt big time. I had worn some smart shoes for the ceremony believing that I'd be catching the trains all day. How did I know there was going to be a massive earthquake and pandemonium would take place!!
That was how it felt!!
As we were walking, we were reminded of why we were walking.
Aftershocks happening left, right and center, and sometimes it felt like they were happening right beneath us!!
A building that had fallen earlier as we passed by, taped off by the local police ... out of bounds!!
Back to back traffic in endless ques!!
 |
| A house close by to where I live with some damage to the roof. Luckily it's not too much. |
The task of getting anywhere right now was either by foot or if you had a bicycle then you were on a winner. It was by far the quickest mode of transport in this earthquake stricken city of Tokyo. I wondered how much worse it could be at the epicenter regions where the earthquake hit!??
The images of the Tsunami swallowing up whole small cities flashed through my mind ...
We had reached the point that was dictated by Justin's navigation to turn north. We had to cross over a foot bridge. At the top I paused to let the on comers pass by me. I looked back towards Tokyo Bay and what I saw was frightening. There was a massive fire in the distance!! The next day I found out that it was a gas storage facility that had exploded. I took a photo but it was quite far away and dark. The fire can be seen though ... and it was bloody big!!
 |
| This is the fire I saw as we crossed the foot bridge. It's that orange glow to the left/center ... this picture doesn't show it very well. That fire was huge!! And many many kilometers away from us |
Another couple of kilometers down the road and it was time for another beer. And time to do something about my feet. The little toe on my right foot was in bad condition. It had rubbed against the lack of space. The whole little toe was one big blister now ... the pain barrier had already passed. Justin had some sneaker type shoes in his bag. I tried them on. They were a size too small but the comfort level was paradise!! I put my Ferragamos in my bag. They are shoes for short occasions ... not for trekking 18 kilometers across Tokyo!! ... we grabbed another beer!!
A funny or odd situation we came across on our hike was the railway crossings. Now and then we had to cross a train line ourselves. Of course there were no trains because they had been shut down. The signals would be blaring away and people sometimes 15 deep would be waiting for the barriers to lift. It was pointless standing around waiting for no trains to pass. We took the initiative and excused ourselves thought he thickening crowds, lifted the barrier, checked the track was clear and walked across to the other side. On our merry way we look back and it had hit them at last that they could do the same thing. How long had they waited we wondered. Later we came to another crossing so we went through the barrier, walked to the other side and then with drunken acting skills, said to each other that this was the wrong way and we headed back over the track just to show it was safe to cross the tracks. Later we lifted a barrier for a guy that was driving a van, he was happy we helped him cross and was bowing to us as he drove through. We were the happy, drunk Samaritans!! ;))
Another interesting situation was beginning to develop also. As we were stopping regularly for a beer on our trek we noticed how less and less the stores had in terms of stock. By the time we got to Justin's apartment in Naka-Meguro it wasn't possible to buy bread items, tissues of any kind, toilet paper, instant noodles and water. ( it is now nearly 2 months after 3/11 and the shops are just starting to get back to normal, although it is still difficult to find water from international sources )
 |
| J.Jey after the long trek back to Justin's pad. Just took his shoes off and that's it. Note the one glove ... not sure if that's a Micheal Jackson thing there!! ;)) |
By the time we got to Justin's pad it was 1am. We had walked 18km!!, seen collapsed buildings!!, rivers of people walking!!, petrified traffic jams!!, the ground shaking beneath our feet!!, shops run out of stock ... and we had made it!!
We clambered and stumbled in to Justin's humble home and J.J. collapses on the bed. He never woke up until late morning, never even said good night to us. He was out!! A quick inspection around the apartment for broken things revealed stuff flung into the bathroom basin and bath. Nothing broken though. But I was puzzled as to why there were so many clothes lying around on the floor just below the wardrobe.
''HUH!! Err, must have been the earthquake!!'' replies Justin.
''yeah yeah mate ... pull the other one!! ;)) ''
Justin's girlfriend was waiting for him. We were famished, food was needed big time. We went in search of a good ramen shop ( noodle shop ) and after hobbling around the streets we finally found one that was open.
It was one hell of an evening!!
Thanks guys again for the great memories!!
( P.S., and a quick opinion on the situation right now )
Apologies for the time span between each posting. But as you have seen either on T.V. or in the newspapers things aren't normal here in Japan. It has calmed down a fair bit over here now, though we are still getting heaps of earthquakes. The vegetables and water is still a problem. I truly hope the government/ and or TEPCO, the company that owns the nuclear reactor, do the right thing and compensate the farmers for the trouble that TEPCO has caused. ( of course it's not just the farmers but also the houses that have been destroyed and the thousands and thousands of homeless it has made ) It's fair to say that a 9.0 earthquake is considered a freak of nature and is rare. But at the same time though shouldn't it be made fair also for the citizens of any country, that if a nuclear reactor is going to be built in a country that sits on top of 2 tectonic plate zones ... then build it right so that it can be safe for the people to still enjoy the lifestyle that they are used to!!!! and not have to live shoulder to shoulder separated by cardboard pieces as they are doing right now in the north of Japan!!!!
!!!! IT'S DESPICABLE !!!!
... oh yeah, ... and if your are interested to know ... my little toe's nail has almost fallen off now ... it died ;)) another victim of the earthquake!!
cheers and good health to you all ;))
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