Easter Japan Earthquake | Saturday, March 12

After a rough nights sleep of waking up to earthquake alarms, my eyes no longer felt heavy. Junko made some tea for me and Isa san, an older church member that also slept at their house. Being that the power was still out and we had no working stove, we kept ourselves entertained by keeping ourselves warm and listening to the news reports. We continued to feel a number of earthquakes, each of us questioning weather or not it would be another big one. When we got the morning newspaper, we were able to see for the first time many of the images of the communities and towns that are not too far from where we are. We continued to realize how blessed we were. Perhaps it was just me, but I could have never imagined seeing that amount of devastation compared to how intact everything is around here. The news had started reporting that they were finding hundreds of bodies here, and hundreds over there. We still couldn’t believe how fortunate we were to have a place to shelter us, and that we were all safe.

Later that morning, one of the Sunday school kids that live near by rode his bike to the church and wanted me to come outside and play with him. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining. I was torn on what to do. I really wanted to keep trying to somehow find Internet or a phone connection to better report my safety to friends and family, but alas, I gave up and played with Kazuki. A couple of friends named Chikara and Josh came out as well and we all played a round of bocci ball.

Later that day, we had our normal church staff meeting because we needed to prepare for out Sunday morning service. We did our normal Saturday cleaning but this time we changed the look of our sanctuary. In order to keep people warm in a cold sanctuary, we brought in a kerosene stove and had the pews horseshoed around our only source of heat. After we accomplished our normal clean up of the church, we stayed a bit longer to clean up the mess that Friday’s earthquake made of the libraries. In our small English library, both bookshelf’s had tipped over, making big piles of books that needed replacing. In the Japanese library, many books fell off the shelf. In our photocopy room, reams of paper had fallen off the shelf making a decent sized mess on the floor. As inconvenient as it was, it by no means compared to the devastation that had happened to many families. I couldn’t help forget how thankful I was to actually be sleeping and eating under a roof, in a bed.

We didn’t think that any children would show up for our weekly Saturday School, but three kids ended up coming, despite the constant earthquakes throughout the day. Along with the 3 children, there were many young adults that help out at the church to entertain them. Eight of us had a blast running around the church playing a Saturday School favorite, Capture the Flag. When 5:00 rolled around, the kids went home and I stood there and reflected on the day, I had so much fun. But a sense of guilt quickly filled its place. I felt terrible for forgetting about those thousands of people that were missing, and people looking for loved ones and people that no longer have a home. But again, I said a prayer of thanksgiving to God for protecting us and giving us so much.

Since it was around dinnertime, Chikara, Tomoari and I were invited to join the Sasaki’s for dinner. Junko had prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner. This time I was not only thankful for food, but also very thankful for being around people that treat me like one of their family and care about me.

After we ate our meal, we all thought that it would be safest to stay in large numbers. So Tomoari and I slept over at Chikara’s apartment. Before we settled in at Chikara’s for the night, we stopped by my apartment to grab some supplies and to stock up as much water as I could. I filled my bathtub and every pot and empty bottle I had, incase of our water being turned off. I also found my big hiking backpack and packed some clean underwear and socks, my ski clothes (the nights have been dipping below freezing), some extra clothes, non perishable food, my passport and anything else that I might need incase of another devastating earthquake. The other guys gave me a hand carrying my bedding up to Chikara’s apartment, and after we made our beds. Since we had all got such little sleep the night before, we quickly fell asleep.

Eastern Japan Earthquake | Friday, March 11th

I had just returned to my apartment after coming home from the convenient store. Billy was on his way to stay here for a week visit, so I needed to pick up some food to last us a few days. Around 2:45 had just finished eating my lunch when all of a sudden everything around me started shaking. I gathered a few important items, threw them in my bag and stood there waiting under my door jam. Up until this point, the biggest earthquake I experienced was that one back in 2000 or 2001. I don’t remember how big it was, but it was only like 20 seconds long. So after 20 or 30 seconds of this one, I thought that it would start winding down. But, as we all know, it only got worse. The sound of the earth rumbling and the squeaking coming from my apartment walls only grew more intense. Things started rattled off the shelf’s and banged on the ground, a couple of my shelf’s fell down, but those were all minor things. I was wondering about the condition of the studs and the floor joists above my head were handling all of the torque from the twisting of the apartment building. I was standing there and the sight of my interior walls swaying back and forth was a little disconcerting. So, with the possibility of my apt collapsing, I also began to worry about the huge concrete retaining wall cracking and that whole hillside come crashing through my apt window.

After three minutes of violent shaking and squeaking, it finally ceased. Looking back, I think the best way to describe the earthquake from my perspective would be similar to the sound of sitting in a runaway train, careening down the tracks. Extreme shaking and the sound of squeaking train cars trying to slow down on the tracks. Mix that with the feeling of riding in a small sedan going full speed onto a dirt road full of pot holes, making it hard to keep your balance as your being tossed back and forth in your seat…I think that would pretty much match my experience of standing under my door jam for 3 minuets, wondering if I would all of a sudden have to make a quick dash out of my apartment before it collapses on me or before I get taken out by the wall outside my window.

The first thing that I needed to do was to walk up to the church and make sure that everyone was ok, and to let others know that I was ok. Hiromitsu and his wife Ayumi met me as they were getting in their car to listen to the news reports. Being that the power was out, sitting in the car was warm and we could safely hear the news reports. There were immediate tsunami warnings. They initially reported a 6m tsunami, but that number was changed a number of times. As you have all seen the terrible video footage of the tsunami hitting eastern Japan, you probably have heard or figured out that it was a 10m tsunami. I later heard that in some places it was an astonishing 20m high. That is hard for me to even comprehend...all of a sudden the ocean rose 60ft? Unbelievable! After listening to a quick report about the earthquake. Hiromitsu, Joshua and I walked around the churches neighborhood to see if there was any damage, and to make sure that our church members were safe. Fortunately, and unbelievable, we did not find any damage, only things fallen over in peoples yards or in the road.

Well, as you might have guessed, the rest of my English classes were canceled and I was not going to be picking Billy up because all forms of transportation were shut down. As for Billy’s current where-abouts that afternoon?...I had no idea. I didn’t know if he had already landed in Narita, or if he would be diverted to a different airport. Like I mentioned earlier, the electricity, internet and phones were knocked out at the time of the earthquake so there was no way to find out what is flight was doing or for that matter, let family and friends in America know I was safe.

When it got dark, I took refuge at the Sasaki’s house where they fed me dinner and let me sleep on their couch. Being alone in these situations is not safe and not healthy for ones mind, as it was easy to relive the feeling of those frightening 3 minutes. The aftershocks and rumbling of the tectonic plates continued through the afternoon and into the evening. We had candles lit and sat around a wind up radio hearing about the devastation that was going on around us. Since I can’t understand Japanese, I really had no idea what was going on outside of Ayashi. All I knew is that the tsunami came and took out the airport…but I had no real idea of the result of todays earthquake. As we were sitting there listening to the reports I remembered that my friend Chikada has a pocket wifi devise. There was a minimal chance of it actually working since the cell phones weren’t working, but I thought it was worth a shot. I knew that this earthquake was big enough to make immediate news in Seattle, so I needed to let my family and everyone know that I was ok.

We were able to get a small signal, and I was able to get online. I immediately went to facebook and saw that close friends and family had flooded my wall with their prayers and thoughts. I was so touched by those that were thinking about me and saw the need to let people know that I was ok and in a safe place. At that time I was able to update my status and actually chat with my mom. I told her that I was ok, and that I was staying at the Sasaki’s. Then Billy popped on chat and I was able to talk with him. I found out from him that his flight was rerouted to Nagoya before it touched down in Narita. He was safe and in a hotel, but still had no idea how to meet up being that all transportation coming and going from Sendai was shut down. It was then that I took a look at the images that BBC had published on their website and share them with the eyes of those surrounding me. All of our jaws dropped and we could not believe that all of that devastation was going on 20 or 30 min down the road from us.

As we turned in for the night, it was difficult to get any sort of good sleep because it felt like the earth was shaking more then it was being still. At times I was not sure if it was my body trembling from being cold or if it was actually the earth trembling. Nonetheless, after the images that I had seen, I knew how lucky I was to have a place to sleep in, and was so thankful to have food to eat. Throughout the night we were woken three times by “big earthquake” warning alarms. Right when we heard these alarms we gathered are things and ran outside for safety. After all of that excitement, it was difficult to calm the nerves enough to get any sort of good sleep. Eventually by 5:00 am, the sun was starting to light up the inside of the house and I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Eastern Japan Earthquake | Quick 'I'm okay' message

If you are friends with me on facebook, you have hopefully heard or read that I am ok, and that the town that I am living in was not devastated by the tsunami or earthquake. All of us here at the church feel so blessed and protected by God that no major damage happened here. Here are a few pictures of where I’m at, as you will see, these pictures should calm your nerves compared to what you hear and see on TV.

Our power just turned on yesterday, so now we have Internet and we can communicate. I am unsure of how long we will have this luxury, considering down the road about 20 or 30 min reflects the images you see on TV. We are expecting and prepared/ready for another big earthquake.

Since Fridays disaster, I have constently been thinking and reminding myself how lucky I am and how blessed we are to have water, electricity, and a church family that can come together in this time of sorrow. I will share my story through on this blog when I have time and electricity. I want to share what it was like experiencing a 3 min 9.0 mag earthquake, and how I have been spending my days preparing for the worst, when our current situation could not be better under these devastating circumstances.

Please continue to pray for the safety of the relief workers as they work long hours helping find and save victims.

My apartment is still in good shape!

Even the scary wall outside my window stayed intact...but its a little scary to sleep there with earthquakes still happening...

...so I've been sleeping and spending my days here at my church with friends

A few pics of church property...as you can see, all looks safe :)