4 Minutes in Tokyo

It`s 1:45 am, and we are violently roused from our sleep.  The bed is shaking in all directions, seemingly at once, and the light fixture above us is swinging back and forth.  It is not swaying lightly, like it would during a more moderate quake,  but whirling with momentum, as if possessed.  "This one`s pretty strong," T says to me as I cling to him; he is the only stable body in the room.  I am silent.  I can never speak during these first stages of an earthquake.  I am too busy waiting to know whether the tremors will taper off or or become even more violent.  And when they get worse, I can`t help but wonder if this is, in fact, "it."  "It," you know, is the one that everyone worries about, the one that is overdue, the one in which Mother Nature is supposed to crush all our pretensions of stability, and show the world that a global mega-city is really more of a suggestion than a constant.

It`s 1:46 am, and the shaking is long over.  T gets up to turn off the gas valve, then comes back to bed.  We lie there in silence, waiting, for the sounds of sirens, helecoptors, or any sign that the rest of Tokyo is not so ok.  Yet the night remains quiet; no noise is good noise.  Silently, we`ve survived again. 

It`s 1:47 am, and T checks the internet from the palm of his hand. 
"6.7 off of Ibaraki," he says. 
A 6.7, centered north of the capital and out to sea, I process the information.  That`s nothing.  A  6.7  could have been devastating elsewhere, but this city is practically built upon springs, I remember.  It, would have had to be more in the neighborhood of a magnitude 8 or 9.
"Tsunami warning?" I ask, knowing that we`d been forgetting something.
"Hold on," he waits a few moments for the data to come in, "Nope," he replies, "No tsunami."
"Okay then," I say softly, "good night again, love."

It`s 1:48 am, and I am already drifting back into a carefree, dreamless sleep. 

Comments

[Ashi]

I haven't experienced a quake yet, do they happen in Osaka? In any case, I'm just glad there were no deaths or bad injuries. Oh, and welcome back to Japan ^-^.

[Chris (i-cjw.com)]

First quake in my new apartment. I don't think we stopped moving for a minute or more. I'm beginning to wonder if living on the 29th floor of a tower built on reclaimed land in the bay was such a smart idea after all...

BTW I have your book on order from Amazon & am looking forward to reading it.

[Melanie]

Ohh.. that sounds like a scary one. Oh, and I'm really enjoying your book ;)

[Hyung Lee]

Hi

I am a publisher of THE EAST; the only English newspaper, which is mainly focused on the East Asian information (at the beginning of every month, more than 12,000 free copies are distributed throughout the London area, particularly, where East Asian Networks are established).

I looked at your blog the other day and have been wondering if there would be any chance that we could publish some of your interesting articles on the paper.
We think some of your blog articles should be very helpful to the Westners who are interested in Asian Culture.
The East cannot afford to pay for your articles right now (as we are non-profitable organisation). However, if you wish, we can still offer you:
1. Advertising space
2. Link to THE EAST web site blog section

We look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Hyung Wook Lee
Publisher
MBA(Edin)

THE EAST, The East Asian Monthly Business Newspaper,
Elephant Consulting Limited, 37 Charter Court, Linden Grove,
New Malden, Surrey, KT3 3BN, UK
Tel : + 44 (0) 7912 608 321 / Web site: www.theeast.org / E mail : [email protected]
Registered in England & Wales, Company No. 6254454

[Adrienne Jenkins]

Very few firsthand accounts were published in the U.S. especially since the China earthquake trumped Tokyo but it doesn't make your experience any less threatening. Thanks for taking the time to document the experience. An excerpt from your blog has been linked on Squidoo.