Eigo de Essay
March 11th in Tokyo I was on an escalator of a subway station in downtown Tokyo going up to the ground level when I felt the rattling. I first thought it was some sort of a malfunctioning of the escalator, but that was the moment the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. The escalator didn't stop and took me to the ground level. Someone was shouting to stay away from the walls of the station building. All the trains stopped running. It was 2:46 on March 11th, 2011. I don't think it was really chaotic in and around the subway stations. The building didn't collapse, and neither did glass rain all over the people. The problem we had was that we lost the means of transportation. All the train and subway lines had to be checked before they started moving again. I was on my way to a friend's apartment near the station, so I walked there anyway. I didn't know how serious it was in the Tohoku region until I saw what happened on TV at her home. When I got to my friend's home about ten minutes later, the TV was showing a live video from a surveillance camera somewhere in Tohoku. My friend and I saw a lot of floating cars in a big river, or so we thought. I remember that I said those cars must have been just parked on the riverbank and empty. Later I learned it wasn't a river, and most of the cars were not empty, but occupied by people trying to get away from the tsunami. The scene was never broadcasted again. My friend said I could stay over since trains were all out of service. I was worried about my apartment and my cat. My friend's apartment was on the 2nd floor, and nothing fell, but mine was on the 15th floor. I decided to walk home. The roads were alright, but the traffic was jammed. Lots of people were walking home. It took me over two hours to get home. The elevator of our apartment building was working. Inside the apartment, I found plants, books, dishes, and even a TV set on the floor. The cat was hiding under the bed and looked unhurt. I picked up broken things and cleared everything. What I couldn't believe was that my husband, who was also in downtown Tokyo when the earthquake hit, had kept drinking at a bar until the train resumed moving.
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