March 11, 2011 – Mega quake

It has just 10 years passed since the disastrous mega quake in eastern Japan and following melt down at Fukushima nuclear power plant. Japanese medias are looking back on the disaster and people suffered by it.

I was having a late lunch at a coffee shop in Tokyo around 2:45pm on March 11, 2011 when a gentleman next to me told “I feel the movement.” The movement got larger and coffee spilled out of the cup.
When the long movement temporarily stopped, I swallowed a sandwich and coffee quickly. A waitress came to serve coffee to every customer advising “stay calm as our shop is safe”. Refill of coffee, in the meantime, is not usually free at most of cafes in Japan.
While having the coffee, countless large aftershocks occurred and the coffee shop finally decided to stop the operation, when the waitress gave us a paper cup of coffee again.

Train and subway services were suspended, and I had to walk about 5km to my office, which was on my way to my home. First thing I did was to purchase a bottle of water, instant food and instant heat pack, of course after draining the cup of coffee.
Median strips of main streets are packed with office workers wearing helmets. That must have been a protocol to escape from possible broken window glasses of buildings.

I walked probably about 2 hours to returned to our office, and watched news video of the tsunami for the first time. which was sure to be shocking news image.

The reason why I was eating lunch at 2:45 was because I had an appointment with a customer at 1 pm that day. I was too busy for some reason to eat meal during lunch time.
Since that day I got afraid of taking late lunch, and have become punctual in have lunch at noon.

This was the afternoon one ordinary person in Tokyo, where damages of the earthquake were relatively light.