(Continued from Journal 2011: Day 2, Sumida River Cruise)

(First off, this one is pretty long, so apologies in advance.  It’s a day none of us will likely forget!)

We were in the small clearing just off the docks at Hamarikyu Park, and just to the east of the plum trees.  An old tree that hadn’t yet leafed out was in the center of the clearing.  I think I was looking at the map of the park at this point, maybe walking around the clearing a bit.

Then it happened.

I should mention that we’d never felt an earthquake before.  Ever.  There was a strange feeling at my feet, like I was standing in small rowboat, and someone was pushing it slightly back and forth.  I can remember looking at the family and smiling, “earthquake!”  It started rocking more and more, and then stopped.  Wow! We’d just felt our first quake!  I regrouped with the family and we smiled and laughed a bit.  Another guy sitting on a nearby bench smiled and said, “jishin!”

Then it happened again.  This time it was different.  Instead of someone pushing the boat just a little it felt like they were pushing it back and forth about a foot at a time.  Not really fast, but probably about 1-2 times a second or so.  It was almost so bad you could barely stand up.  In fact, the kids sat down on the ground.

It was obvious that this one was much, much stronger.  The locals seemed to be getting a bit nervous, which was understandable.  It lasted probably a good minute or two, which seems much longer when you’re actually standing there.

Much like the previous smaller one, I remember marvelling at the silence.  Forget what you see on TV and in the movies.  There was no big rumble, nothing at all except the sound of the tree branches rustling.  (And after watching the video we took, the birds squawking. I will post it here later….)

It passed, and I happened to glance across the river, and caught sight of a black cloud of smoke billowing up.  (See pics)  Still having no yardstick to measure my experience by, I chalked it up to just a random quake-related accident, and it would be no big deal.

We made our way through the plum trees, and started to notice helicopters in the air.  Quite a few of them.  I assumed at that point that they were maybe medical birds or news helicopters heading towards the fire, or just back from.  Then I noticed they were circling around the skyscrapers just to the west of the park.  Maybe there was a hospital there, and they were landing on the roof, I had no idea.  Some sirens went off somewhere closer to the river.  Some sort of warning?

The field of yellow flowers was amazing to behold, and the huge plant at the center was certainly interesting.  It looked like a huge ancient aloe monster that would make Lovecraft proud.  Then it hit again.

Aftershock!  Not nearly as strong, or as long, as the big one, but the construction cranes atop a nearby building were definitely getting after it.

Closer to the west exit of the park, there was another.  At this point we noticed a news crew out and about.  I think they were the same people we’d seen earlier at Asakusa, what a coincidence.  Then we noticed the people pouring into the park from the adjacent buildings.  Quite a few of them were wearing helmets, and it was obvious that they were grouping and taking roll call.

One of the people manning the entrance to the park here spoke English, and asked us where we were from, and if we’d ever felt an earthquake before.  She remarked that even for here, this was quite strong, and that there was a tsunami warning out.  Sirens explained.

The helicopters were increasing in number now, and just circling around.  I did at one point see a military helicopter fly over (it was obvious) but I couldn’t tell who’s it was….

The plan was for us to spend time here at Hamarikyu, then make our way around to Hamamatsucho station and head “home” on the Yamanote.  We could see out the exit we were at that traffic on the freeways was at a stand still.  We made a decision to stop here and wait, and see if we could find out anymore information, or if nothing else, just see what happened.

We waited around for probably an hour or so to see what everyone else was doing.  I figured they had experience in this sort of thing, we didn’t.  So observation was best at this point.  But nobody was going back to work.  In fact, it looked like nobody was going anywhere.  A quick glance out of the exit showed that the traffic on the freeway hadn’t moved an inch.  Now I was starting to get worried.  We heard that the trains would likely be stopped now.  Uh oh.  That’s understandable really.  They’d have to inspect things to make sure no rails or power lines were damaged….  I figured, given that marvelous efficiency that things would be back up in no time.

Even so, it was time to find a station.  From where we were, the map showed that we needed to get to Shinbashi station.  No problem, right?

Wrong.

Next: Stranded in Tokyo.

PBS’s NOVA program had a special edition on the Earthquake.  You can view it online here…  NOVA | Japan’s Killer Quake

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