Morning from Japan,
First of all, all the family are fine.
Hisae [wife] was doing the kids' pick up from Kindergarden and on a bridge driving when the earthquake struck, scary but got home fine.
I was 55 km away in Kawasaki on a football pitch (no surprise )
On a normal day it takes one hour, yesterday I set off for home 4.00 pm arrived 3.30 am. 11 hours crazy.
All trains in Tokyo stopped running so millions of people on streets.
All mobile phones went down for 6 -10 hours.
As I write this with Kaz [son, 6] next to me, another after-shock, house shakes a little, things move a little.
All highways were shut, so hundreds of thousands of cars going through Tokyo including me by back roads.
It was like being in a Hollywood movie.
Police and fire engines zooming about, people driving with the normal rules no longer in effect, red lights don't matter when people are trying to get out of the city. Many junctions blocked by cars trucks and thousands of people.
Will call later today
going for a nap.
Love Leigh
Kaz, Sakura and Hisae
Today we spent over an hour on Skype filling out the picture. Hisae had been in the car with all three kids driving home after school. She was driving over a bridge when she felt the wind was buffeting the car, but when she saw buildings rocking she realised it was an earthquake so she got off the bridge as quickly as she could, in spite of the car ahead of her slowing up. Leigh gave a graphic description of his slow progress through Tokyo - the highways (motorways) having been closed for use by the emergency services and all trains stopped. Thousands of people were walking home so at every junction where he would have expected 10 or 20 pedestrians, yesterday there were a couple of hundreds at each crossing. Cars were driving on the wrong side of the road to get around the walkers. He said at one point in one hour he travelled 300 metres. However they all got home to Chiba and Hisae set off straight away to fill the cars with fuel and food shopping because they will probably have to stay at home until the nuclear situation is declared safe and the schools re-open - last night they were open for stranded commuters to sleep in, all hotels being full. Kaz (6) told me he wasn't scared and neither was Daddy....
Leigh, Sara-Lucy and Kaz
4 comments:
Scary times over in Japan and aren't we lucky not to have such dreadful disasters hanging over our heads like some countries have.
I do hope they cope OK.
Thank God Vivien, all our family OK too. The news is worsening by the hour though, isn't it. Unimaginable scale of destruction.
Who do you have out there, Titus ? Leigh says they won't open the schools until the radiation is at a safe level and they may not be able to get petrol until the road systems are more normal. He 's just posted some video on Facebook of his crossing of Tokyo - 11 hours to travel 25 kms - you can get it from my Facebook page. Make me shudder thinking of it - he was due to travel north-east for a coaching session on Monday.
That makes chilling reading Vivien. I'm so glad they're ok, but what a terrible situation for Japan. All my best wishes to them and their fellow citizens.
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