2:46 March 11, 2011
It's been 3 months since the Tōhoku earthquake. I've decided that enough time has passed now to write about it without being insensitive writing about my experiences. One that pales in comparison to people directly affected by the earthquake. Nor will it cause worry or be sensational talking about the events at this point. This is going to be a mixture of my experiences, what has actually happened and some commentary on the ongoing situation and what has happened. It will most like be broken up into 3-4 posts.
Earthquake: (地震, じしん, Jishin)
Tsunami: (津波, つなみ)
The Tōhoku Earthquake was the largest in Japan's recorded history and probably of its past 1200 years. In the world's recorded history, it was the 5th largest. The 9.0 quake was off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, 232 miles (373 km) from Tokyo. Not only did the earthquake cause damage on its own, but the worst of the damage occurred from the tsunamis created by the earthquake. Waves reaching at least 30 1/2 feet (9.3 meters) [1] have wiped out whole towns and cities, while devastating the coast of Eastern Japan. With 15,467 losing their lives and 7,4822 people missing [2], it has been the worst disaster in Japan since World War II. Most of this information isn't new for any of you as I'm sure you've seen the news and video of the disaster (which is why I won't be adding any here). However, the rest of what I will be writing will be my experiences of living in Tokyo during the past few months and commentary about how the situation has unfolded, as well as the ongoing aftermath. Hopefully this helps in understanding what has and is happening with me and the rest of Japan, along with some idea of the personal impact something like this brings. Again, being in Tokyo is nothing like actually being in the disaster. Tokyo has been fine throughout this whole time except for some minor inconveniences.
When the earthquake happened, I was sitting at my desk as I could feel the beginnings of an earthquake. I've experienced a few earthquakes before this one; it's part of the territory. Being on top of 3 different plates in the Ring of Fire tends to make the ground a bit active, but the earthquakes have always been very small and only happen once every couple of months. They were always around a magnitude of 3 or 4, just enough to feel it but not enough to do anything else. When you're by yourself when it happens, the earthquake registers and you take a quick mental note and then continue whatever you were doing. When near others, everyone looks at each other to see if everyone else felt it and then continue working. Up until this one, that was basically my reaction scale. Afterwards, here's my new reaction scale giving my reaction and impact on the apartment from this earthquake.
3.5-4.0
Nothing.
"Oh, earthquake"
4.0-4.5
Light rattling noise.
"Heh, that's a strong one"
4.5-5.0
Loud rattling noise, Noticeable shaking.
"Hmm"
5.0-5.5
Stuff Starts Falling.
"This isn't good"
5.5-6.0
Lots of things falling.
"Time to bail the house?"
In Shibuya, it was somewhere around 5.5-6. Considering the 232 miles (373 km) from Tokyo the epicenter was, it was an incredibly powerful earthquake. The other shocking part was the length of it. I'm guessing it was very slow to reach its full power due to the distance travelled. At first, it was the same as any other; but it kept going and was also slowly building power until 2 1/2 minutes in, it had reached full strength. I went from continuing to chat with friends ignoring the earthquake, to being concerned, to preventing things from falling and finally to standing next to the front door debating on bailing or not. After a minute of the worst, it calmed down a little to still shaking but not as violently. The ground still shook for over 2 hours straight and aftershocks happening every 15-30 minutes after that. That first day the ground shook more often than it did not.
My reaction was probably different than what you might expect and even what I was expecting. Maybe because it was slow in developing, but more likely being a natural reaction. Once the earthquake started getting strong enough to knock things over, I went into damage control mode. Moving things away from the edge, catching items falling and moving fragiles onto safe areas on the ground. At the 5.5-6.0 level, it was strong enough to knock over smaller items and narrow based items. All of the small knickknacks in the apartment had fallen on their sides and it knocked most of my books and some small items unto the floor. Luckily there was no damage, as the closest that came to happening was the glass that holds our chopsticks fell over, but the chopsticks inside of it wedged the glass between the space behind the stove. I also still have no idea how some of the frames hanging on the wall survived as they were rocking a good 3-5 inches off the wall and then crashing back into it. Somehow they stayed intact and on the wall.
At the strongest point, I grabbed my stuff and waited at the door running through the scenarios that would make me leave. However, after a minute of everything violently shaking everywhere, it finally started to calm down a little. At this point I sat back down and started to search for news about what was happening. At this point it was no longer violently shaking, but the ground was still moving. The power and duration of the earthquake was equally astounding. After the big initial quake, the ground movement was side to side action. My guess (Warning: not a seismologist) is due to those waves being the only ones that could last the distance to Tokyo. The best way I can explain the rest of that day and much of the first week was like living on a boat. For an earthquake of this size it's not something that is a one and done. The past few months have had numerous earthquakes with 5 over magnitude 7, 82 over magnitude 6 and 502 above magnitude 5 [3]. Since the aftermath it has been almost like a cooling down effect where the aftershocks have gotten smaller and less frequent gradually. Although there are still bad days of high activity every once in a while. The end of the first month still had at least 2-3 noticeable earthquakes in Tokyo a day. At this point it's maybe a couple a week, but now it depends more on active periods and more dormant periods.
In terms of any damage in Tokyo, it has been incredibly minimal and only of things must susceptible to earthquake damage as the pictures should be pretty easy to see why.
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| Hatsudai, Tokyo: The closest noticeable damage near my house. |
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| Shinjuku Gyoen |
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| Besides the wall in the first picture, stone lanterns were the only things I saw that took damage from the earthquake in Tokyo. |
Tokyo has been less affected by the direct effects of the earthquake, but has had some difficulties due to the problems created by the earthquake. These have included shortages, an energy crisis, the failed nuclear reactor in Fukushima and its impacts. I will discuss about these in the next parts along with commentary about the media coverage, the 'flyjin' effect, how things are currently and of the future of Japan.
References:
1. "The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake," Japan Meteorological Agency.
http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/2011_Earthquake.html.
2. "Damage Situation and Police Countermeasures Associated with 2011 Tohoku District - Off the Pacific Ocean Earthquake June 20, 2011," National Police Agency of Japan.
http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/biki/higaijokyo_e.pdf.
3. "The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake," Japan Meteorological Agency.
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