Living in Japan has had its scary moments but yesterday I have to say was the SCARIEST experience I've had here. So it's Friday right, and I usually go to my dance class in shinjuku at 2:40. That day I got up around the time I usually do and went to shinjuku a little early so I went and bought these shoes that I had been eyeing since my mom came to Japan (Yeah, my mom came to Japan...and that was a very interesting experience..) so yeah, I bought my shoes and then went to Don Quixote ドン キホーテ and looked around to kill some time before my dance class...besides I love ドン キホーテ because they have everything!! So I saw this really cute bra and panty set and bought that, then headed to my dance class. I warmed up and then the teacher Kento san came and we started stretching...but as soon as we did the ground starts to shake and I thought at first someone above us was making a lot of noise or something but then after thinking about it...the dance class is on the 17th floor, the top floor and there's no one above us! That's when it really got bad and pictures started to drop off the walls and even the speaker came down! Everyone was in panic and I was probably the one panicking the most because I had never experienced this before and being on the top floor of a building really didn't help the situation a lot! But I really have to say that my dance teacher Kento san was really a leader in this situation! He was so cool and I'm really grateful to him for being there during that experience!
After the tremors calmed down a bit all the students in the building evacuated to a nearby park and there we waited for some kind of news on what to do. Everyone was really worried because the trains had stopped and a lot of people probably couldn't get home without the trains running! After waiting for around 30 min, it started to get cold and rainy so everyone in the dance school decided to go back inside since the tremors weren't as bad as before. After around an hour or so, the trains still weren't running and everyone was really starting to get worried about how to get home....especially me!!!
At first, I was with two other girls from my dance class and we decided to all take a taxi together....but that was IMPOSSIBLE. Traffic was horrible and everyone wanted to get home by any means so even the taxi line was crowed! After realizing we weren't going to be able to get a taxi that day, we decided to try to catch the bus but since the other two girls from my dance class lived in a different direction then I did, we had to split ways at the bus station and I became alone. The bus that would have taken me to the closest station to my dorm was FULL of people lined up and the last bus for that station was at around 10 I think… so it was impossible to be able to catch that bus, so I decided I would catch the bus going to nakano and from nakano, catch a taxi to the mitaka station and ride my bike home from there.
However the bus line even for Nakano was crowed as hell and there was so many people; folks were just lining up not knowing what bus they were lining up for. Everyone kept asking me and other people "What is this bus line for?" and I would just have to shrug my shoulders and tell them I didn't know because I really didn't! It was impossible to know with so many people there! I waited in that bus line for a good two hours before coming even half way close to the front and the time was around 11 at night. To make it even worse, the buses stopped running at 12 and just like planned the buses would stop running regardless of the earthquake situation! Even though people knew this, they were still lining up for the bus and looking back the line wrapped around the bus station. Waiting for the bus the line next to my line's bus came and...I guess he was the person directing the buses and giving people information was screaming "THIS BUS DOESN"T GO TO MITAKA!!" he was saying it in Japanese but even I understood and then this one guy comes up to him and asks " Can this bus go to Mitaka?" the guy's face was so funny as he said "NO! It doesn't go to Mitaka" and the guy that asked this said "本当にだめですか" Which is saying like "It really can't?" and when the guy said that he's face was soooooooo desperate!!!
After that, I was really starting to panic because it was cold and I was realizing that I probably wouldn't be able to go home that night! The cold was just too much to bear so I got out of the bus line and went back to the taxi line and tried to wait for a taxi but it was really impossible and I was hungry and cold and tired..I just wanted to go to sleep at this point so I got out of the taxi line and went to this convenience store across the street and when I walk in, there's barely nothing left on the shelves so I just bought some Pringles chips and some chicken and made my way to the train station to see what the situation was there. I knew the trains wouldn't be running but at least I could get out of the cold for a little bit. At the station people were laying down on news papers on the floor, kneeling, eating cup noodles but the most stunning thing was just how many people were at the station sitting on the floor on newspapers waiting to go home. I just couldn't believe it! It was really like a refugee camp or something! After walking around, I joined everybody and sat on the ground thinking about what I should do! At this point I didn't start crying because I knew if I got upset I wouldn't be able to do anything so I just had to calm down and think of something. I remembered that before I went on my trip to Korea for the winter break, I saved this emergency contact in my phone that my exchange university ICU had e-mailed to me, so I called the number and asked the lady how I could get home!
She told me that I wouldn't be able to get home tonight and that I should find somewhere to stay overnight....but I really had no idea where to go so she said she would call me back and let me know where I could go. After about 5 min she called me back and said that I could stay at this high school that was close to the South exit of the Shinjuku station. However, she always said that the details to where the high school was located, was difficult to explain over the phone so I had to ask around and find it for myself. So I gathered my things and made my way for the south exit. There I asked this lady "新宿高校はどこかと知ってますか" but she didn't know and so I asked this one old man working for the train station I guess and he said he had heard of it but didn't know exactly where it was. He advised me to go to the KOBAN and ask.....so I went there but even the police officer that was supposed to be there wasn't even there!!! Distraught I walked into a 7eleven and tried to ask the person working there and luckily he knew where it was! I found the high school and stayed there until morning.
At around 7:30 the high school starting kicking people out...and I think gave an announcement saying that the trains would start running at 7:00 that night.... so I got my stuff together again and left. I really didn't feel like staying in Shinjuku until the trains started to run again so I went back to the taxi waiting place again at 8 in the morning and there was barley any people waiting for a taxi so I thought I had a chance to catch one. The first one that came let out this guy and I asked the driver if he could take me to the mitaka station and he told me "Ah, I don't really know how to get to mitaka so please take another taxi" I couldn't believe he told me this!! I really felt like saying "What the fuck is your problem! You’re a taxi driver aren't you!! You're supposed to know where a place 30 min away is and besides you have a fucking GPS system! Use that bitch!".....but I didn't know how to say that in Japanese so I didn't say anything....more and more waiting until finally this one cab comes and let's out this old lady and just as I walk up, this one lady cuts me off and tries to take my cab! Right now my feeling is "oh fuck no lady, get the hell up out of my cab and get in line!" so just as she's cutting in front of me, this foreign guy comes up to her and asks her where she's going and when she's answering him I move them aside and ask the driver to take me to Mitaka and close the door behind me! I know it was a bitch move but that lady was wrong and she knew it! and then after closing the door the lady says to the cab driver "oh, i want to make a reservation" and the cab driver just looks at her and says "Well you can try at the hotel over there, but considering the situation right now I don't think it's possible" I just looked at her and wanted to say soooooo bad " Lady! There is no reservation! you get your ass in that line and wait like everyone else! Your’re no different than all those people wanting to get home!" but again I couldn't form the Japanese in my mind at that moment so I kept my mouth shut.....In the taxi I finally calmed down and collected myself and then arriving at the Mitaka station I knew the cab was going to cost a fortune! Which happened to be 4990 yen! I know that cab driver was getting over but I was willing to pay any price to get home.
After arriving at Mitaka I got my bike which was parked at the Mitaka station (and even the parking garage got over charging people 500 yen to get their bikes!!) I was riding home and finally got there!!!! When I got home, the first thing I did was pee because I really had to go bad lol but then I called my family because they were really really worried about me when they didn't hear from me in 24 hours after hearing about the earthquake. When I skyped with my mom lol she looked horrible! her hair was a mess and she really looked like Frankenstein’s wife or something but yeah after talking to my family and letting everyone know I was ok I really realized how much I was loved and how much people really care about me! Realizing this I had to just start crying because the love was just too great, I tried to not cry when I was talking to my friend in Korea but I know she probably could tell I was.
