As more and more videos of the tsunamis come in, I am left absolutely speechless. I hope all of you are safe.
For about 20 seconds there, I wasn’t sure if it was going to keep building and bring everything crashing down. Ended up walking home 40 km. Got lost. Got tired. Slow pace. Took 12 hours.
The walk was absolutely surreal, though.
I figured that the trains would start and I'd hop on one so I started walking along the tracks, but they never started. So, I just kept walking using sky tree as a landmark because my phone got smashed in an inelastic collision with sometime much heavier, leaving me with no GPS. I was against the flow of foot traffic leaving tokyo, which was the only thing flowing because the roads were absolutely jammed. I walked for hours and hours through total gridlock that was backed up into all the side streets. People were even pushing their scooters because the gridlock was too much to weave in and out of. I passed a donki that was open and in the process of selling out of bicycles. Saw a guy on a sport bike come around a corner, jam the throttle for no apparent reason, spin out and lay it down on the pavement, get up nervously half bowing his head at all the people staring at him. That was weird.
I actually at some point found my self scanning all the bikes along my route for one that was unlocked. If I'd found one, I would have had a bit of a dilemma, but (un)fortunately, none were... um... available.
Glad you are safe. I made it through ok I didn't get home until 4AM though.
ReplyDeleteHey, that's exactly the time I got home. When I emailed you, I'd been walking for about 30 minutes.
ReplyDeletewish you all the best, your families etc.. Here in Hokuriku, everything seems fine. Except of course, Fukushima blowing up.
ReplyDeleteThe evacuation area just now got extended to a 20 km radius.
ReplyDeleteSo scary about the nuclear power plant.
ReplyDeleteGlad you made it out ok. Glad you broke your phone too - something needed to push you over the edge into newphoneland. :P
ReplyDeletenew phone... of the same model~
ReplyDeleteYou should mention that Softbank is allowing use of its WiFi access points around the country for free right now during the disaster to alleviate load off of the 3G networks.
ReplyDeletejust retweeted your retweet about it and will write a post.
ReplyDelete12 hours! My walk was only 5ish - and that included beer and food at an irish pub in yoyogi hachiman - I recommend it: http://www.tullamore.jp...luckily had my phone and two iPhone holding friends with me to get us through a few awkward turns when along the odakyu path home. My battery died about 4 km from home - the iPhone batteries were still OK - didn't really matter though as the route was clear from there. Feeling lucky to be in Tokyo where a long walk (and a bit of muscle soreness, now) is the extent of the hardship...places north are much worse off...Did docomo get you a replacement phone to keep you rocking with the "original" japanese android?
ReplyDelete0.o why not upgrade...or is that just because of the insurance 1-for-1 replacement?
ReplyDeleteDamn, dude. Glad to hear you're alright. I rode the top floor in my apt building in Kanagawa during the initial slip, but it only registered a shindo 4 here. Still pretty exciting. Before coming to Japan I'd never felt a quake in my life.
ReplyDeleteSBS, I'm glad you are safe! I walked 4-5 hours during 9/11.
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