3 Weeks Later...

Well, it has been 3 weeks now and things have settled only slightly. 
Granted we are not in Japan but we are still dealing 'daily' with what is happening there...my husband has to go back.  In THREE DAYS. 
I am not happy about it.  But it seems there is nothing I can do.  It is his job.

So...
what the world is like when you walk away from everything that you have (twice):

• We have lived with my mom for a bit (luckily we get along so well - because moving back in with your mom at my age...could be hazardous to most peoples health)!
• We have now moved temporarily into an apartment, as our house is occupied (we let the tenants re-sign the lease just two weeks before the earthquake)!  Great timing - I know.
• We have had to find cars...we sold both before we moved the first time.  His company has been nice enough to 'lend' us one until the one we have ordered gets here - June.  I can't just go buy what I WANT - I have to drive something that my hubby's company makes. (and I found out the "lending" ends the day my husband leaves.)  So starts the money train.
• We got here, safely -I might add, but with ONE suitcase each. So moving into an apartment has been a little strange. Having nothing but 4 outfits has been weird.  Not that I am being unappreciative in the fact that I made it out safe - but in the fact that the last time I moved somewhere with nothing - was in COLLEGE.  A tank top, pair of jeans and a bottle opener just don't work anymore!!           As I told my best friend...    I am not made to be a nomad!!

I guess it takes times like these to make you see what is important (if you don't already know).  And since I have been here - a pair of good winter gloves and a hat would've been nice!  But so much for 'thoughtful packing' during an emergency! 

I have had several people tell me that during an emergency - I would be someone they would want with them...well, I guess that would work if they didn't need that damn emergency back-pack, a handy winter coat or a pair of fingernail clippers.  I mean usually I am accused by husband of packing everything but the kitchen sink...and usually, I guess its true.  But being here in this apartment with nothing but someone else's furniture, four outfits, a borrowed computer and a few things from Target... I feel very unprepared.  I feel a little lost. My Type A - is having some real issues with it all!

But, we will get our stuff back, it may be 2 months or 6 months.  Depending on if they put my husband in a hotel when he returns. 
I will get my husband back, in 6 - 8 months, depending on when they decide his part in the project is over.  The big question is:  will he be the same?  Will he have been 'altered' by the radiation? (I don't care what anyone says...radiation, a small dose or a large, will change someone...Whether it is now or in the future).

LIFE IS SO UNPREDICTABLE...everyone says it, I am living proof of it.
All I can say:
count your blessings, say your I love yous and pack your damn fingernail clippers!!!


Here's to another radiation free day for my son ~
Deeds

Earthquake-Days 2 & 3

Saturday, March 12, 2011
Amazingly enough we slept a bit that night after the quake.  Not restful, but sleep.
We woke that morning to sunny skies and warm temps.  Like nothing had happened the day before.  We went downstairs, like any other Saturday morning, to start breakfast...and then the house started moving again.

It became all too real what had happened the day before.  Coming down the stairs and into the kitchen there isn't much to see but hallway - - -so when the house started moving again - I immediately went to the living room and was reminded of all the chaos that had happened in our house.  There was still stuff strewn all over the floor.
I yelled for my husband, "babe, its starting again..." and started briskly walking to retrieve my son.  Luckily, it was just a small aftershock...again.

So as the day progressed (one 30 minute block at a time) things became all to clear...nothing was the same. We started calling family to let everyone know we were ok.  Even though we had sent a FB message the night before, we all needed to hear the actual voices. 

While my husband and I are taking turns on the phone, time is slowly ticking by. 
Every 30 -45 minutes, the house starts swaying again.  It felt like all the "little ones" use to.  But after being in the big one...there was no way to even think of trying to settle myself to any sort of comfort level to be "okay" with it.  Panic hit me every single time the house moved.

We decided to get out of the house and see what the rest of our little area looked like.  To try and get our minds off the obvious.  To try and not freak my son out any more than necessary. We got everyone dressed and off we went. 
The sun was shining, the weather was warm, even though slightly breezy.  We walked around and surveyed the damage...a few cracks in the concrete, some of the streets had busted and the sidewalks were broken and twisted.  The bridge over the street at one of the local grocerys was blocked off - but it seemed business as usual in the city.
It was all a little "too normal" - it made me uneasy.

We walked through the park to try and give my son a little play time and then decided to drive to higher ground (the place I went after the quake) to see what we could see of the Bay.  Once again, all seemed a little too normal. 
Many ships were parked, just waiting, off the coast.  Many more than normal.
There was one fire burning that we could see near the coast.  But all in all...nothing much too see.

We went home and tried to have a normal night...
although we ended up getting a phone call that said the French Embassy was warning everyone to fill their bathtubs, close all windows and do not use heat for fear of the nuclear plant and problems to come. This, once again, set wrong with me.
So we all took showers, we washed a load of clothes and ran the dishwasher...in case they shut off the water in the middle of the night.

Something a little strange settled in me...I chalked it up to the uneasiness still lingering from the quake.  So we called it a night, early.  My husband ended up sleeping with my son and as I laid down to read (my mind would not calm enough for me to sleep) the house started moving again...
I wondered when it would all stop.  When would it all be normal again.
Little did I know what was in store for me the next day...

Sunday, March 13, 2011
We woke again to a sunny, warm day.  But the day just started a little "off".  Bathtubs full of water, the house continuing to sway with aftershocks, and the phone - ringing.  A LOT.

During all this we had CNN Japan on the television watching what news was being given about the tsumani.  Only a bit of information about the nuclear problem was being leaked through.  We started doing a little research on the internet and then we retrieved messages from our American phone line...everyone was saying GET OUT...NOW!
From that point on...everything was a blur.

We got a call from our neighbors (also a Nissan family) saying they had made plans to leave the country.  We looked at each other and decided 'we needed to talk'~
My husband asked me what I thought and if all this was just over-reaction.  We re-listened to messages, we sat for a good 15 minutes and watched the news.  We then discussed how the Japanese don't like to fail at anything, and how there probably was more going on than being let out to the news stations.  He looked at me and said, "What do YOU want to do."  Before that moment - I had not really thought about me, about what I wanted to do.  Actually stopping to think about it - scared me.  My eyes welled up and a few tears rolled down, and I looked up at my husband and said, "If it were just us, no problem.  But that little boy in there has no idea and has his entire life in front of him...I WANT TO LEAVE."
We started looking for flights.

He got approval from work to leave the country.  The approval which took over an hour! 
Then -"Do what you have to do."  We started looking for ANYTHING to get us off that island.
We found a flight to Honolulu for the next day at midnight.  Then there were calls back and forth to the neighbors about their flight and what flights we could get out.  We decided that we all needed to go together because we had a car, it would take less time.  Especailly since all the trains were still shut down and it was better for all - to go together.
A flight was found...for 5 pm..THAT DAY.
It's an hour and 30 minute drive to the airport -on a good day!  We had just had an earthquake, parts of the interstates were shut down...it was 12 noon.  We needed to be there two hours before for an international flight.  I had one hour to pack my family.

We put my son in front of the DVD player so as not to alert him to the fast paced packing going on. My husband stayed on the phone with a phone on each ear...one to the neighbor and one to his boss.  The neighbor had two phones going too...one to us and one to the travel agent lady.

The things I packed make no sense now that I am here in the States.  My brain wouldn't think straight...
'We are leaving.  We are REALLY leaving.  Grab shoes...wait, what kind?  What is the temp where we are going?  Wait, where are we going?  L.A.?  Tennessee?  Did I hear them say that we could get to L.A. but couldn't get to Tennessee until Thursday?  Wait, what are the temps in both places this time of the year?  I HAVE NO IDEA.
OK - think. Start packing Landon...he is most important.  OK...pants, shoes, socks, shirts.  Oh, he needs toys or SOMETHING.  What if we are gone for more than a few days.  What will he do?  What will he NEED?  Ok - stop and think.  Okay, keep going...only 30 minutes till we have to leave.  Ok I have to pack snacks for him for the plane...he won't eat that food.  What about all the food we just bought at the store?  What happens to all that?"
At this point -  MY BRAIN IS HURTING.

Ultimately I got packed (and not well, I might add).  We got into the car, got to the neighbors house.  There were people out  - seemingly checking things out,  we spoke to a German guy who saw us packing up the car.  His wife was across the street on the phone.  He said they were looking at leaving too - but trying to figure out where to go.
We had heard that the day before, no one could get in or out of Narita Airport because of the quake.  We left and hoped for the best! Once we got started, the seas seemed to part.  We made it to the airport (detours and all) in roughly two hours...just under the two hour mark for international flights!

The airport was crazy...
there were people SLEEPING everywhere.  People from the day of the quake, people who had ended up there the day after, people from canceled flights, people trying to get out any way they could.  The airline gave us free food tickets because the VIP lounge (or whatever it was) was not operational because of the quake. We got Starbucks & Mickey D's...breakfast of champions!  We knew it was getting bad when McDonald's was running out of food, AT AN AIRPORT!  But we ended up getting a lot of food...it was free.  We ended up not eating much of it and we gave it all away... To a group of girls, a French soccer team that was stranded in the airport and had made a fort with their luggage in the corner of the food court.  They clapped and yelled when we brought over the second stash of food.  It was sad and happy all at he same time.  We were helping them and yet, there they laid in the floor of an airport...the FLOOR of an AIRPORT.

From there, we had a 14 hour flight (my poor little guy is getting so use to the flights - he said yesterday  - that when Daddy went back to work...he needed to take two planes to get there!!).
After all the chaos of the previous 2 days...I was still nervous about the flight.  If there was even a tremor: the flight would NOT take off. We would be stuck again. Only this time - in an airport.  With all the other people who were stuck.
So when the plane finally had its wheels off the ground - my heart eased a little.  I looked at my son (who was in the middle seat) then looked at my hubby and mouthed the words "Thank You"...
and he knew ~
we had done the right thing.




Now the day in L.A. was a whole different story!!!

REALLY enjoying being on solid ground,
Deeds

A friend took this at the grocery store...this is where the bread is supposed to be.  Na-da.

Sooo glad we left.

The Earthquake

***let me preface this entry by saying that my family and I are back in the United States and thanking the powers-that-be for getting us home safely.  It has been 6 days and feels like it has been 100.

Friday, March 11, 2011
It started out like any other day...
Took my son to school, came home, checked emails and started my day.  A friend called and asked if I wanted to go walk and run some errands - so off we go.
We ended up on top of the hill behind our neighborhood that looks out over the Bay.  We started talking about how close we are living to the water and what chance would we have if we had a quake and tsunami...would we make it up to the top and would it be high enough.  Conversations continued about emergency back-packs and such and she informed me that she had one and had just replaced the waters in it so they were fresh.  I told her I didn't have an emergency pack and that even though we'd been living there a year and through all the little quakes (7 since I had been there) - that it would probably be in my best interest to pack one...just in case the big one that they had been predicting for 10 years - just happened to come before we our assignment was up.
We had lunch and called it a day. 

On this particular day I had decided to leave my son at school for an extra hour so that he could play with his two best friends.  At 2:45 pm I started the ritual of finding my car keys, sunglasses and coat to go get him. 
I was standing in the kitchen and the house started to move...another little one I thought. (Funny to me how I had started refering to the quakes as 'little ones' - almost like I was getting use to them)
The house started to creak, almost like it was 'settling' in cold weather, or like the sounds you hear thinking someone is coming down your stairs in the middle of the night.  The house started to slowly sway the way it always had during every other quake I had to date been privy to.  My thought was, "you know, I have been inside the house during every one of these - I think I'll go outside and see what it looks like to watch the trees sway."
No sooner than I walked out on the porch - the bottom dropped out. 

The ground started shaking violently.  The car was moving back and forth like someone was trying to push it on its side.  The bicycle fell to the ground. The front door slammed shut.  And I was having a hard time just standing up.
There is a house being built across the street and the two Japanese  construction guys were standing there looking at me - me looking at them.  One looked at me like "What the hell?" - almost like I had done this.  I was thinking hey guy...YOU live here,not me...YOU tell ME what the hell is happening.

I walked, well stumbled, best I could to the middle of the street to get away from the house and car.  I crouched down and watched as the rest of the neighbors started running out into the street.  This lasted for a full minute at least.  A minute is not long, until the earth under you is shaking so hard, it is hard to HEAR.
As everything slowly started to stop...My first thought:  MY SON.  Oh dear Jesus.  Please let him be okay.
I took off running.

His school is only about a mile away, and as I ran - somewhere I realized I was seeing that the entire world aroung me had stopped.
The cars in the streets.  The people had all come outside of the buidlings and houses and were standing on the sidewalks. The traffic lights had all gone black.  No birds chirping.  Everything had just STOPPED.  Except me of course.  Here I am running while the ground is still shaking...
I can only imagine how crazy I must have looked to all the Japanese.  Everything they tell you is to stop and take cover during something like this.  I, the crazy white lady,  am running down the street.

When I finally rounded the hill in the neighborhood where my son's school is - I started crying...there he stood.  Outside his schoool with his two best friends and three of his teachers.  I ran some more.
They let him go and he ran to me.  As is picked him up he hugged me and said, "Mommy we just had an earthquake!"  He wiggled out of my arms and stood up and did this little wiggly-shaky dance..."it was shaking all around like this Mommy." 
He stopped and goes, "Wait.  Why are you crying Mommy?"
aaahhh.  He was completely unphased.

We walked home.  Talked about what happened at school.  Dodged cars at traffic lights that were no longer working.  I fielded questions about how come we were walking across the street when the little man in the walk signal was no longer there or flashing telling us it was all clear.  While I am Thanking my lucky stars the little guy is unharmed and seemingly unaltered by it all.

Then - I walked in my house.
It never crossed my mind that something might be happening to my house during all this.  It never crossed my mind what might have happened to ME if I had not had the silly little thought to go out and 'watch the trees sway'.  Looking back - I sort of went blank.

The house looked like someone had ransacked and robbed the place.  When we opened the door the pictures in the entryway were all sideways.  Stuff was strewn in front of the door.  The living room had plants thrown in the floor, candle sticks knocked over and broken, vases in the floor, art had shaken off the walls.  All the little decor knick-knacks were in the floor, souvenirs from all the places we had been were in the floor in pieces.  The 3 sided floor mirror - face down in the dining room.  The kitchen - every drawer and cabinet were open.  Things were out of the cabinets, stuff in the floor, and luckily...the few bottles of wine we had sitting on the cabinet had only shaken their way to the EDGE of the cabinet...they never made it to the floor!!!!  Yes, someone knew I would need those later!!!

The upstairs wasn't as bad.  Well, everywhere but our room.  The TV had fallen off the dresser, the big mirror was on the floor, my dressing table and all contents...EVERYWHERE.  It looked like a perfume bandit had taken each one out, smelled them and then randomly tossed them around the room. 
I found my cell phone, grabbed our coats and some water bottles and headed back outside to the street. 

It was TWO HOURS before I finally made contact with my husband.  All power, phones, everything - OUT.  Not knowing where he was or if he was ok...was bad.  I think the most frightening thing (besides my son's safety) was the fact that there was no way to know anything.  ANYTHING.  Sirens are going off, people are walking everywhere, all my nieghbors were still out in the streets...
they tell you to stay out of the buildings because of aftershocks...luckily we did.  Two more happened...and they were almost as bad as the quake itself.  
The construction workers had their truck radio on loud...the German lady across the street was translating the broadcast.  Listening for tsunami warnings.  Everything was surreal - the German lady translating the Japanese to us and everyone around was of some other nationality.
During the interim I ran back inside and packed that damn emergency back-pack we had talked about earlier.  Found my crappy little AM/FM Japanese radio (I bought to listen to the military rock channel) -hoping for some sort of news in ENGLISH, grabbed passports, all the extra money we had stashed and tossed it all in the car. I left a note for my husband taped to the door.
We headed for higher ground.

We went to the club where I take my son swimming in the summer.  It is the highest point in our area.  Many of the other expat families were there.  Well, not the families...the mothers and kids.  During this whole ordeal, which lasted about 4 hours - there were NO MEN ANYWHERE.  None.
It was all Mothers and kids, or Mothers trying to find their kids.  It was scary.
All the men were at work.  The phones weren't working and none of us could get in contact to find out if they were ok.  Or find out if they could even make it back to us. We couldn't understand the news about the tsunami because it was all in Japanese.  We were basically helpess.

It took TWO HOURS before I could reach my husband to let him know we were okay and to find out he was unharmed.  It took another FIVE HOURS for him to get home to us.
He works 15 miles away.  FIFTEEN MILES....FIVE HOURS.
The phones (cell phones) worked for 5 mintues, literally, and then were out for the next 8 hours.  We had no power, no phones, no nothing.  Just dead time....waiting.
For our husbands and for another quake.

Finally at dusk, we went home.  I needed to clean up what glass and broken things I could before it got too dark.  I needed to find the candles, find the flashlights.  I needed to make it safe for my son to even be in the house.
After all the glass was cleaned, and paths were made to walk...
I settled my son in to watch his DVD player (Thank God I remembered to charge the battery the night before) and I had a MUCH needed glasss of wine...
and we sat and waited for my husband.

He arrived after 9pm.  The earthquake was at 2:26pm.
Trying to get home to us he had been in a co-workers car, then walked (because he could walk faster than the cars were moving) and then in a taxi.  All trains and buses had been shut down. 

After the heartswell we had when we were all together again, we cleaned a little more, had another glass of wine and reluctantly decided to try and sleep.
Precaution lead us to take the picture off the wall over our bed and our son slept with us that night.  It was not a restful sleep...afteshocks were coming about every 30 minutes.

I was scared, freaked out and worn out.
Deeds

***DAY 2 will be posted as soon as I can.
This was all I could stomach to remember in one sitting.  I am still comparmentalizing and a little in denial.  I am trying to deal one day at a time.

This is an areial shot of a crack from the earthquake...
these are not weeds...these are full grown TREES around the crack. 
Just to give you some perspective.

Driving

It took a long time, but as you probably can tell...I DID get my driver's license.

A few things that made it painstaking:
Everything about the Japanese driver system is still rooted in the 1950s:

• the building (which is way out in B.F.E.)- over an hour just to get there.
• the SCAN TRON sheet driver test
• the classroom where you take the test (only seats about 10 people - tightly)
• the eye test machine
• the cardboard box with the bell in it that rings when you put your application in (just so they know that someone is actually out there)
• and the FOUR hours it usually takes to have the test given and graded. 

and the list could go on.  But regardless of all this, I finally got my license.  Well, by default actually.
After taking the test twice - I almost gave up.
The test consisted of 10 questions, True and False.  Easy right?...um, NO.
They are trick questions.  If ONE WORD in the sentence is wrong...you are wrong.
Then if you miss 4 questions - you fail.  If you fail, they DO NOT tell you what you got wrong.  They DO NOT let you see your Scan-Tron.  They DO NOT help you - IN ANY WAY.
They let you take the test as many times as you want...but you have to come back on a different day every time and it is about $30 each time you take the test.  And if they decide that they don't want you to pass...you never will.  NO MATTER WHAT.
Lovely.

At the end of my rope - I finally told my husband to ask his company about me having a "International License"...if that would cover me on the insurance. No test, just my U.S. license and a paper from the U.S. saying 'International Driver's License.'
Well, sure-as-hell...they said it was fine.  All that trouble and time - FOR NOTHING.  Dammit.
But it will make for a good story for the rest of my driving life.

So - jump to present day...
The hubby comes home last week and informs me that he needs to take the car to work for its 6 month check-up.  I reluctantly agree to ride my bike again for a day and give up the keys.

Now you might wonder, how come we have a car and my husband doesn't use it to drive to work everyday???
It takes him one hour and 30 minutes to get to work via a bus, then two or three train changes.  A pain is the a$$, I know.
But he kept telling me it takes longer to drive than to take the trains.  I thought - yeah whatever big guy...I would be driving!


So he takes the car for the check-up.  It takes him almost two hours to get to work - in traffic at 7:30 am.
He gets home that night and tells me that he made it home in only ONE hour!
'Wow," I said, "Maybe you should start driving to work" - and then thought better of it because I would have no car anymore.  Luckily he said "nah, takes too long."


The rest of our conversation went like this:

ME:  Why after a full year, when I tell someone you work in Zama (a little town)- every time they go "ooooh"?              So how far away is Zama actually???
HIM:  15 miles.
ME:   Wait. What? 15 miles?
HIM:  Yep.
ME:  and it takes almost TWO HOURS to get there and back EVERYDAY.
HIM:  Yep.
ME:  and even in the car it takes longer to get there?  15 miles?  nooooo.
HIM:  Yep.

I sat there dumbfounded and speechless. I finally understood.  I finally realized that I could probably throw a rock and hit my husband in the head while he was working but it would take him almost two hours to get back here to ask me why I threw the rock.

No wonder he is ready to go home too!
That 45 minute commute to work in the U.S. has never looked so good.

~as I grab the keys and head out to drive on the wrong side of the road and terrorize the locals  !!!  =-)

Enjoy your day,
Deeds