On the third day of my first work trip to Japan, the 9.1 magnitude earthquake hit 150 miles away from where I was. I was working on a ship docked to land, so the entire vessel tilted about 30 degrees. My coworker and I were confused at first...thinking maybe a crane fell onto the ship. Next a Japanese worker began yelling in Japanese over the loudspeaker. We had no clue what he was saying, but we knew some fukkery was afoot.
Someone then came in our workspace to tell us there was an earthquake and we had to immediately evacuate the ship. When we walked across the brow to exit the ship, an aftershock hit which made the structure jump as we ran across it. We had to walk ~1.5 miles to reach our hotel. As we speedwalked back, tsunami sirens blared...making that 30 min walk one of the scariest moments of my life. For all we knew, a tsunami was imminent and we were literally at the shore of a huge harbor. I remember looking for stairwells or any high ground. Once we made it to our hotel, we realized we weren't in any immediate danger from the tsunami.
The next few days were very surreal. Most of the subway lines weren't working because of power grid failures. Trains are a vital aspect of life in Japan, but the Japanese continued life as if nothing happened. They waited in hours long taxi lines without complaint. Since there wasn't any major earthquake damage or tsunami effects in our area, my coworker and I agreed to finish out the job.
About a week after the earthquake, nuclear radiation began to reach closer to my work site. There was a lot of rumors, incomplete info from the Japanese govt, etc so we were struggling to find out what the actual situation was in our area. My work site had an automatic nuclear radiation detection system that went off....at the point, my coworker and I we're like we're coming the fukk home now. Because there weren't any trains running, we took a taxi from Yokosuka to Narita.....for $600+ USD. The whole situation didn't really hit me until I got back to LAX, going through passport control...and the customs officer saying, "Welcome home sir...I'm glad you made it home safely"
Someone then came in our workspace to tell us there was an earthquake and we had to immediately evacuate the ship. When we walked across the brow to exit the ship, an aftershock hit which made the structure jump as we ran across it. We had to walk ~1.5 miles to reach our hotel. As we speedwalked back, tsunami sirens blared...making that 30 min walk one of the scariest moments of my life. For all we knew, a tsunami was imminent and we were literally at the shore of a huge harbor. I remember looking for stairwells or any high ground. Once we made it to our hotel, we realized we weren't in any immediate danger from the tsunami.
The next few days were very surreal. Most of the subway lines weren't working because of power grid failures. Trains are a vital aspect of life in Japan, but the Japanese continued life as if nothing happened. They waited in hours long taxi lines without complaint. Since there wasn't any major earthquake damage or tsunami effects in our area, my coworker and I agreed to finish out the job.
About a week after the earthquake, nuclear radiation began to reach closer to my work site. There was a lot of rumors, incomplete info from the Japanese govt, etc so we were struggling to find out what the actual situation was in our area. My work site had an automatic nuclear radiation detection system that went off....at the point, my coworker and I we're like we're coming the fukk home now. Because there weren't any trains running, we took a taxi from Yokosuka to Narita.....for $600+ USD. The whole situation didn't really hit me until I got back to LAX, going through passport control...and the customs officer saying, "Welcome home sir...I'm glad you made it home safely"