The Earthquake

First things first, I'm fine. Nothing's broken, no wounds, no damage. I didn't reply to my text because my phone's charge/plan expired. It happened today, and I was going to renew it after school, however, their was an earthquake after school, so my plans changed.

NOW! The earthquake. I was at school when it happened. All of the sudden, you just felt things shaking. I at first thought it was me. I remember thinking, "Wow, I must be tired. The room's shaking." But everyone had the same face of, "...is it just me?" Then it REALLY started to shake. Like, stumbling around trying to get away from the windows.

We had to stand outside (which was confusing...because I thought we had to stay inside), and when it stopped, we returned...until the building started shaking again. Our teacher told us to just go home.

HOWEVER!

We couldn't go home because the trains were down. People were just crowding around in the station because, well, people weren't sure what to do. I ended up going back to school, thinking I could wait it out. I left briefly to get some dinner and since everything was still, I thought, "alright. I'll be able to go home tonight."

Well, around 7:30 they made the announcement that they would be allowing us to sleep at the school. At that point I finished my dinner, got something to drink and left. That's right. Close to eight at night, I made the choice to walk home.

Now, it wasn't totally crazy. I know my train stops. I know them well. I didn't plan on going alone, but no one else wanted to go, and I wasn't staying. The walk from the first station (Tamachi) to the second station (Shinagawa) wasn't bad. Lots of signs and such, and it was one straight line. The next stations? Very, very difficult.

Japan does not have street signs. At least, not like I'm used to. There is not a name for every street, just big main roads. That's it. I was able to practice my directional Japanese because of the mass of police men that were directing traffic, people, and keeping things orderly (people were walking in the streets a bit). In total, it took me three hours to get to Kamata station which is, get this, the half way point. By the time I got to Kamata, it was 11:14PM, I was hungry and my feet were killing me.

But I had a stroke of luck!

The Tokyu lines were up and running! I walked to the next station when I hear the train bells. And I was able to get a ride to my stop at Ontakesan. I was not the only one at the dorm. There were lots of other walkers who refused to stay at the school and simply walked.

You're probably thinking, "Gabby...Why in god's name didn't you take a taxi?" 1. It was extremely congested. I'm pretty sure I was moving down the street faster than any taxi. 2. I simply didn't want to waste the money. Once I started walking, that was it, I was walking. I had money on me, in case I gave up or something, but I was able to make it home, all for free. :D

I was also not walking alone at night. LOTS AND LOTS of people were walking. And it wasn't just the "oh, it's a night on the town" crowd, there were tons of working class people walking. I was not alone on the dark streets even once.

All in all, I'm safe. Sore and sleepy, but safe. Oh, and guess what? I got to do this three hour walk with a huge bag of vegetables on my back. I bought vegetables before the earthquake, and got to carry those guys around the whole time. How much fun...