Guest Post: Earthquake in Japan

Today, I'm lucky enough to have a guest post by my awesome cousin Lauren who was living in Japan when the 2011 earthquake hit. This is her OTR story.

Lauren also just published a book: What is Hidden? I've read it, love it, and can't wait for the sequel. (And no, I wasn't paid to say that. I honestly feel that way. :) ) Check out her story below and her book at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.

I lived in Japan for a year teaching English, so I have a lot of stories from on the road, the craziest one being from March 2011. I lived in a city called Hitachi, in Ibaraki Prefecture, which was about an hour and a half Northeast of Tokyo by train, and right along the shore. It was about the size of an American suburb, and I had a tiny studio apartment that I loved.

Well, as you probably remember, Japan was hit by its largest earthquake ever, and the fifth strongest in recorded history on March 11, 2011. I was in the teacher's room, reading, and I can remember just about everything that happened. We were hit with a smaller one first - but still strong enough to knock books off of my neighbor's desk. It was long, too, at least a minute of constant shaking. One teacher turned on the TV, but the power was knocked out almost immediately. When it finally stopped, teachers started returning from other parts of the school to help clean up, but then the big one hit hard. It was like we were on a boat that had just been rammed. Immediately we were told to go outside, like in a fire drill, and I remember feeling weird about going outside with my indoor shoes still on. I was also translating for another English teacher who didn't speak any Japanese.

We waited outside with the students for maybe an hour or so while the aftershocks kept coming, and I chatted with the students to keep them calm. I wasn't supposed to speak Japanese in the classroom, so a lot of them had no idea I knew it. They were instantly distracted and asked me things like my favorite food, hobbies, and if I had a boyfriend (these were staples of what students wanted to know about me).

Eventually I was sent home, where everything was a mess and there was no power or water. The next day, I waited in line to get inside a supermarket where employees sold everything by hand. (Japan was still a cash-heavy country, so thankfully I had money.) There was someone handing out newspapers outside and it was only then that I realized what had happened, and how big the quake had been. It was about a 6.8 where I was, I think. Our city was mostly on a cliff, so the tsunami didn't hurt Hitachi as much as it did Sendai and other cities further north.

It's interesting the details that stay with you. I still remember how sticky the floor was from the shattered bottles at the neighborhood import store when I went to get more foot. (They had my hook-up for chips and salsa.) I remember using the 3G on my Kindle to send an email to my family, since my internet was out. I remember one of my friends back in the US posted a missing person report for me since she couldn't get a hold of me. When I did post on Twitter, other people asked me for updates about the area since information was so hard to get without power. We limited our time outside for fear of radiation poisoning - there was a nuclear plant not that far from us, and we were close enough to Fukushima that it was also a slight concern.

After a couple more days without running water, some other teachers and I headed to Tokyo. I spent a week there in hostels, and - aside from the constant aftershocks - it was almost like nothing had happened. Then, after a week there, my teaching contract was up and I headed back to Hitachi to pack up and return to the States.

Given all of this, you'd think I'd write a dystopian novel. I still might, but that's not what this one is. However, the main character Evie does have her life changed in a way she never imagined. I never thought I would be in an enormous earthquake - I grew up mostly in Kansas! I knew about tornados, not earthquakes. I learned a lot about how I react in high-stress situations, and Evie does, too, though her situation is much more personal and intense than mine was. Luckily for me, for most of the time I wasn't alone like she is, and the people I encountered were all very kind and helpful.