Earthquakes are scary!

Unless you were in a box today you probably heard about the earthquake in japan today. Well. I can tell ya - it was a big one!

Coming back from our Friday 'indo curry lunch' like we normally do on fridays we just got into the elevator for our buiding and around the 4th floor, the entire box we were in just repeatedly slammed into the sides of the wall - quickly we banged every button on the control panel and it opened - saw a colleague who just screamed at us in Japanese to 'get the hell out'. We ran down the four floors quicker than I have ever run.

As we got outside, everything is moving, so much so that the movement of all the buildings and cars made it difficult to focus on stuff and certainly messed with your internal depth of field. It's my first quake over a 6 on the scale and the only way I can describe it is (sorry this is only for men) trying to pee standing up on an aeroplane or train - kinda moving from side to side, but your brain doesn't really catch up with it because it doesn't see the movement.

Anyway, eventually we went back into the building - here are a few of the photos:


This was actually bolted to the floor




^^^^ my desk! Crazy thing is that blue file was behind the monior



You can tell I work for a publishing company huh!


More pics on the next post

On the way home I took some pics

This is the gaikan in Kudashita, the building on the right was having a graduation ceremony, unfortunalty its an old building, the room fell in injuring lots of students and fatally injuring one.


Train stations are blocked off to stop people going underground.



People try to watch the TVs at a coffee store to get the latest info



People try to watch the TVs at a coffee store to get the latest info


With the trains down everyone is walking home


Speaking of home....



Not too much damage


Our ornaments from Thaland didnt make it


Toki approves our Earthquake kits - they should be able to last us a couple of days

Wow, that is absolutely crazy man. I am glad to hear you guys are OK. Sounds like (according to the news) that there is a lot of clean up and stuff to take care of now. Hopefully the worst is over for y'all... Thanks for the photos! Take care~

Adam

Lastly, thanks to all the people who sent messages over twitter. The Gaming and Photography community really is amazing! You guys rule!

Obi_sean; uexpectmeto2talk, thelynxdefect, haff, martyn, darkDJ, sleeper, Fakeplastictree, leg of time, Frugal, Moroseduck, the boy matt, markrj, krypty, batty79, sharmski, Xan, dangerous bobby, adamski, johnusmaximus, frugal nory, tania, chokkan, gareth, FORDIE, fantomfanflinga, rampage, strident, Jonny5iv3, motleygunner, tecdeacon, kiddog, benjo & dits

Cheers guys!

We are still getting quakes as I write this - TV is saying that people still can't get home in tokyo and in Sendai alone over 300 people have died due to the Tsunami that washed through many villages.

A few things to learn..
The auto alert system didn't work - it is supposed to warn us of a large earthquake
Mobile phones still dont work, and its almost 8 hours later - though internet on my iphone does work
The prime minister is s*** and did nothing - as usual
Skype still works and is the best life support tool

haha, yeah I have a lot of games cos I can't rent them here - podcasting cost me a fortune!

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Haha I forgot about my mug! that was a nice birthday present from my friend, hope its ok.

Not really something i want to talk too much about, so many people lost - its a big difference between this one and one that just rumbles and you can laugh about. When I got out in the street there were a lot of people panicking.

Steve, also do you see the document on my desk (on the left), you may be able to recognise that lol. I was sorting it out before lunch and thought 'ahhh ill finish it later' and i havent been back to the office since

generally things in japan are pretty grim to be honest - a rough estimation of dead from last week are looking at around 20,000 people - which is a mind boggling figure. Issues with the nucear power plant are still evident but seems slightly more under control that before. People panicked a lot, and even if folks wanted to leave Tokyo the fact that so many refugees from Fukushima have flooded other cities there are very little places for people to move to.

I have spent the last week in Katata, its on teh outskirts of Japan's largest lake - http://goo.gl/maps/MUSC
we came here to avoid the issues with earthquakes and the problems with the nuclear factory. This week it came to a head when my wifes job has come on the line because her other coworkers are still working in Tokyo, quite honestly the company she works for are arseholes, and it's japan's biggest invstment firm- but they treat the staff as objects - personally I wish we could tell them to stick the job up the arse but with a mortgage its not always possible, plus so many japanese companies are the same.

So tomorrow we head back to Tokyo - i think we are going to always have to shop at costco from now on - it seems there is a lot of contaminated food and water - while most of teh contamination is from iodine radioactive particles (which die after 8 days) we plan not to eat anything made in japan for a long time. The same with drinking water, we have just contacted a water supply comapny from Hawaii to deliver water to us whenever we need it from one of those water cooler thing you get in offices.

Tokyo is said to be safe from radiation and I have been checking various sources that say its perfectly safe to come back though I would rather be safe than sorry in regards to food and water. I guess for showers we don't have much choice, but it should be perfectly safe to drink - though you know me.

For those of you who like Japanese cars, don't be daft enough to think that the next car you buy is going to be radioactive (i have seen this comment everywhere on the net) but people dont seem to realise that Honda, Nissan & Toyota cars are mostly made in the countries that they are sold.

I'll give a bit of a report when back in the big city tomorrow - i have to admit, I'm looking forward to my bed - though I hate that fact i'm driving towards a fucked nuclear reactor

Thanks for the update Chris. I hope things are better then expected when you get home.