Posted by Jess
14 March 2011
Hello again everyone. I thought I'd give a brief recount of my earthquake story - mostly so that at the end of this year when we print the blog for our own scrapbook, we remember all the details. Although I'm assuming this is a weekend we'll never forget.
I was in Texas from the 5th to the 11th for training, scheduled to leave on the 11th in the morning from San Antonio to Detroit to Tokyo-Narita, arriving 5pm on Saturday the 12th. My flight from San Antonio was at 7:20am so after dinner and shopping with a few colleagues I headed back to the hotel for a final pack-up and some sleep. I asked for a 5:15 wake-up call and a 5:45 taxi, watched some reality TV and went to sleep. I awoke at 5:15 and immediately started getting ready for the day. As I was leaving the room with two very full suitcases I picked up my phone and saw text messages from Jason. "Huge quake here, we are all ok, buildings emptied out". As I was not quite coherent and had not seen any news, I wrote back and said "ok, girls wake up?" I have to say that we have had a few earthquakes here so I guess I just thought 'no big deal'. Then I checked my email and saw that Jason had written a message to me and our family to let them know they were ok and he shared a few more details. Still doing fine - realized it was bigger, but not really getting it yet. And it was 5:30 in the morning.
I went down to check out and checked more of my inbox while the woman at the hotel worked out my bill. This is when reality started to hit me. I had an email from work asking me to report our status on the emergency system. Then the woman behind the counter printed my bill, saw the address and said "you live in Japan? oh goodness". And then the tears started. Oh my. My mind started to go crazy with all the things to do so knowing very little about what actually happened, I started figuring out alternate ways to get home and who I needed to call. First call was to my parents - knowing that they would wake up and turn on CNN, I wanted to pre-empt any panic attacks. So I called and I cried to them about how everyone was ok but that I didn't know how I'd get home and was so mad that I wasn't there when it happened. My taxi didn't arrive either so that didn't help with my situation as I was thinking I wouldn't even make it to Detroit on time.
Next call was to Delta. Can I get a flight to Minneapolis instead of Detroit so that way if the flight didn't go today I'd be stranded there instead? No, flights were full. Plus the flight from MSP to Tokyo was cancelled today already and Saturday's was too. Call back to my parents - ok, Minneapolis not an option, if I am stranded in Detroit for a few days, can I come to Green Bay?
When I arrive at San Antonio airport about 50 minutes before my flight, my flight from Detroit to Tokyo is still listed as on time. How can that be? The Delta guy at the ticketing counter doesn't believe it either and books me on the Monday flight from Detroit as well just in case. I make a few more phone calls at the gate to let people know what's going on with me, plus keep sending messages to Jason to learn a little more about what's going on at home. I also start getting an overwhelming number of emails from friends and coworkers checking in to see that we are all ok. Getting on the flight to Detroit was the best thing I could do because I had no connection to email, news or anything else. I just had to let it all go for a few hours - it was a nice break.
I arrived in Detroit and my flight was still listed as on time. I went up to the gate and asked for them to print my boarding pass. The woman told me she'd have to cancel my "just in case" reservation if she printed my boarding pass. I said "are you sure this flight is going to go?" and she said "yes" but the manager standing behind her looked at me and said "we have no idea". Mind you, the flight is leaving in less than an hour. I take the boarding pass for Friday's flight and decide to take my chances. After stepping away from the counter I notice a Detroit News Crew taping and talking to passengers.
We board as usual but the plane is really empty. I hear the man behind me on his phone saying "well, in theory, we're going to Tokyo". Exactly sir. In theory. A few conversations ensue with the other passengers about whether or not we're headed to Japan or not. In the meantime my sister calls and says "Narita shows the flight is cancelled, but Delta still shows it as on-time". I fully expect us to deplane and head back into the airport, but no! The captain comes on and tells us that Narita is open, the runways have been inspected and we'd go, but if in the morning in Japan the story is different, we will be diverted.
We sit at the gate for a long time as they take luggage off the plane of a school group that has decided that this week is not the best time for their field trip (can't blame them!) and take off about 2 hours late. We arrive in Tokyo at the scheduled time. I have no idea how, since something like 400 flights were cancelled between Friday and Saturday but I guess I was lucky.
Since there were connecting flights cancelled, many people were sent to Immigration/Customs without their documents ready and there were only a few people at the counters. Not many of the agents could get to work and I'm sure they weren't expecting too many people to come through since most flights were cancelled.
After getting my bags, its time to figure out how to get home. I took a quick picture of some people camping out at the airport as they waited for connecting flights or were stranded. Here's a quick shot from my iPod Touch.
I take my bags downstairs to see what trains are running. This is confusing on a good day. I always take the same train since I know the schedule. There are 2 express train options usually and 1 local train. The train I usually take doesn't seem to be running so I try the other express. I go up to buy a ticket and she tells me track 3. After getting on the train, I realize this is not an express at all. In fact, it will be at least a 2 hour ride into Tokyo and that will still be on the other side of town from where I want to be. Oh yeah and I have 2 suitcases that equal 140lbs.
The train ride is horrible. Cramped and everyone has suitcases and I have two GIANT ones. Plus I'm not completely sure of whether or not I can stay on this train or have to switch trains to get to my destination. So when we stop and everyone gets off the train, I get off too - which was the right decision as another (smaller) train showed up a few minutes later with the stop I wanted to get to listed on the side. Getting back on the train with my luggage was horrendous and some Japanese woman tried to help move my 80lb bag. I'm sure she probably only weighed that much. I was so worried she was going to hurt herself I told her "it's ok!" in a bit more forceful voice than I inteded.
I got to the final stop on that train about 35 minutes later and then switched down to the local subway. After another 30 minutes, I got to the stop by our house. Luckily Jason and the girls came to meet me because the elevators at the station were still out of service and I would never have been able to haul the luggage up by myself. Once at street level, I noticed how nothing looked any different from before but that the streets were totally empty. We were the only ones out, which is not normal for a Saturday night. I arrived back at the house around 9pm and we unpacked and headed to bed around 11pm.
About 7am, Jason and I woke up to our bed shaking a bit. The girls woke up a few minutes after that and in most ways, Sunday seemed normal. We felt aftershocks about every hour or so that were about the same as the earthquakes I've felt before but nothing like Friday's quakes. I started watching the news and understanding everything that happened. And that's when we started finding out more about the power situation....more on that in the next post.
So that's the story - I'm so glad that Jason was able to send word as frequently as he did. My coworkers walked home from work on Friday in their helmets (which we all have under our desks) and for some it took 3 hours. Others slept at work on Friday night. I don't know how I would have gotten home if I had been at work when it happened and realize that being out of town was not the worst thing in the world. A part of me is sad that I missed such a monumental event in Japan's history and I'll never be able to say "I was there" but I recognize that I only say that because the experience for Jason and the girls was the best one possible in such a horrible situation.
More to come on the current situation in Japan, but I'll echo Jason's comments.
Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers and please see the American Red Cross link below for financial gifts that are very much needed.
http://www.redcross.org/
Its winter here and below freezing at night. The shelters do not have steady electricity (if they have it at all in Sendai) and people are freezing - your help can bring them blankets and food.
Kanpai,
Jess
14 March 2011
Hello again everyone. I thought I'd give a brief recount of my earthquake story - mostly so that at the end of this year when we print the blog for our own scrapbook, we remember all the details. Although I'm assuming this is a weekend we'll never forget.
I was in Texas from the 5th to the 11th for training, scheduled to leave on the 11th in the morning from San Antonio to Detroit to Tokyo-Narita, arriving 5pm on Saturday the 12th. My flight from San Antonio was at 7:20am so after dinner and shopping with a few colleagues I headed back to the hotel for a final pack-up and some sleep. I asked for a 5:15 wake-up call and a 5:45 taxi, watched some reality TV and went to sleep. I awoke at 5:15 and immediately started getting ready for the day. As I was leaving the room with two very full suitcases I picked up my phone and saw text messages from Jason. "Huge quake here, we are all ok, buildings emptied out". As I was not quite coherent and had not seen any news, I wrote back and said "ok, girls wake up?" I have to say that we have had a few earthquakes here so I guess I just thought 'no big deal'. Then I checked my email and saw that Jason had written a message to me and our family to let them know they were ok and he shared a few more details. Still doing fine - realized it was bigger, but not really getting it yet. And it was 5:30 in the morning.
I went down to check out and checked more of my inbox while the woman at the hotel worked out my bill. This is when reality started to hit me. I had an email from work asking me to report our status on the emergency system. Then the woman behind the counter printed my bill, saw the address and said "you live in Japan? oh goodness". And then the tears started. Oh my. My mind started to go crazy with all the things to do so knowing very little about what actually happened, I started figuring out alternate ways to get home and who I needed to call. First call was to my parents - knowing that they would wake up and turn on CNN, I wanted to pre-empt any panic attacks. So I called and I cried to them about how everyone was ok but that I didn't know how I'd get home and was so mad that I wasn't there when it happened. My taxi didn't arrive either so that didn't help with my situation as I was thinking I wouldn't even make it to Detroit on time.
Next call was to Delta. Can I get a flight to Minneapolis instead of Detroit so that way if the flight didn't go today I'd be stranded there instead? No, flights were full. Plus the flight from MSP to Tokyo was cancelled today already and Saturday's was too. Call back to my parents - ok, Minneapolis not an option, if I am stranded in Detroit for a few days, can I come to Green Bay?
When I arrive at San Antonio airport about 50 minutes before my flight, my flight from Detroit to Tokyo is still listed as on time. How can that be? The Delta guy at the ticketing counter doesn't believe it either and books me on the Monday flight from Detroit as well just in case. I make a few more phone calls at the gate to let people know what's going on with me, plus keep sending messages to Jason to learn a little more about what's going on at home. I also start getting an overwhelming number of emails from friends and coworkers checking in to see that we are all ok. Getting on the flight to Detroit was the best thing I could do because I had no connection to email, news or anything else. I just had to let it all go for a few hours - it was a nice break.
I arrived in Detroit and my flight was still listed as on time. I went up to the gate and asked for them to print my boarding pass. The woman told me she'd have to cancel my "just in case" reservation if she printed my boarding pass. I said "are you sure this flight is going to go?" and she said "yes" but the manager standing behind her looked at me and said "we have no idea". Mind you, the flight is leaving in less than an hour. I take the boarding pass for Friday's flight and decide to take my chances. After stepping away from the counter I notice a Detroit News Crew taping and talking to passengers.
We board as usual but the plane is really empty. I hear the man behind me on his phone saying "well, in theory, we're going to Tokyo". Exactly sir. In theory. A few conversations ensue with the other passengers about whether or not we're headed to Japan or not. In the meantime my sister calls and says "Narita shows the flight is cancelled, but Delta still shows it as on-time". I fully expect us to deplane and head back into the airport, but no! The captain comes on and tells us that Narita is open, the runways have been inspected and we'd go, but if in the morning in Japan the story is different, we will be diverted.
We sit at the gate for a long time as they take luggage off the plane of a school group that has decided that this week is not the best time for their field trip (can't blame them!) and take off about 2 hours late. We arrive in Tokyo at the scheduled time. I have no idea how, since something like 400 flights were cancelled between Friday and Saturday but I guess I was lucky.
Since there were connecting flights cancelled, many people were sent to Immigration/Customs without their documents ready and there were only a few people at the counters. Not many of the agents could get to work and I'm sure they weren't expecting too many people to come through since most flights were cancelled.
After getting my bags, its time to figure out how to get home. I took a quick picture of some people camping out at the airport as they waited for connecting flights or were stranded. Here's a quick shot from my iPod Touch.
I take my bags downstairs to see what trains are running. This is confusing on a good day. I always take the same train since I know the schedule. There are 2 express train options usually and 1 local train. The train I usually take doesn't seem to be running so I try the other express. I go up to buy a ticket and she tells me track 3. After getting on the train, I realize this is not an express at all. In fact, it will be at least a 2 hour ride into Tokyo and that will still be on the other side of town from where I want to be. Oh yeah and I have 2 suitcases that equal 140lbs.
The train ride is horrible. Cramped and everyone has suitcases and I have two GIANT ones. Plus I'm not completely sure of whether or not I can stay on this train or have to switch trains to get to my destination. So when we stop and everyone gets off the train, I get off too - which was the right decision as another (smaller) train showed up a few minutes later with the stop I wanted to get to listed on the side. Getting back on the train with my luggage was horrendous and some Japanese woman tried to help move my 80lb bag. I'm sure she probably only weighed that much. I was so worried she was going to hurt herself I told her "it's ok!" in a bit more forceful voice than I inteded.
I got to the final stop on that train about 35 minutes later and then switched down to the local subway. After another 30 minutes, I got to the stop by our house. Luckily Jason and the girls came to meet me because the elevators at the station were still out of service and I would never have been able to haul the luggage up by myself. Once at street level, I noticed how nothing looked any different from before but that the streets were totally empty. We were the only ones out, which is not normal for a Saturday night. I arrived back at the house around 9pm and we unpacked and headed to bed around 11pm.
About 7am, Jason and I woke up to our bed shaking a bit. The girls woke up a few minutes after that and in most ways, Sunday seemed normal. We felt aftershocks about every hour or so that were about the same as the earthquakes I've felt before but nothing like Friday's quakes. I started watching the news and understanding everything that happened. And that's when we started finding out more about the power situation....more on that in the next post.
So that's the story - I'm so glad that Jason was able to send word as frequently as he did. My coworkers walked home from work on Friday in their helmets (which we all have under our desks) and for some it took 3 hours. Others slept at work on Friday night. I don't know how I would have gotten home if I had been at work when it happened and realize that being out of town was not the worst thing in the world. A part of me is sad that I missed such a monumental event in Japan's history and I'll never be able to say "I was there" but I recognize that I only say that because the experience for Jason and the girls was the best one possible in such a horrible situation.
More to come on the current situation in Japan, but I'll echo Jason's comments.
Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers and please see the American Red Cross link below for financial gifts that are very much needed.
http://www.redcross.org/
Its winter here and below freezing at night. The shelters do not have steady electricity (if they have it at all in Sendai) and people are freezing - your help can bring them blankets and food.
Kanpai,
Jess
3:47 AM |
Category: |
0
comments
Comments (0)