Of all the days to come to Tokyo!

I arrived in Tokyo around 11:30 am yesterday after spending the past 3 months living in the mountains. Decided to come a couple days before my flight so I could check out the sights and sounds of the city! Those sites and sounds ended up being much different than I expected!

Spent the better part of the day moseying around Shinujunku, I had a slight idea of where my hostel was but wasn’t in a hurry to get there and wasn’t going to get stressed about it (although in the back of my head I knew my backpack was getting heavy and I kind of wanted to drop it off.)  I think one of my favourite parts of traveling is trying to figure out where places are and discovering random stuff along the way. Isn’t there a quote for that? “It’s not the destination but the journey…” Anyway, I didn’t really manage to make it anywhere in partial for most of the day but saw some sweet stuff while strolling the streets; crazy electronic stores, some cute clothing shops, interesting looking restaurants, girls dressed to the 9’s and then decided to go over the Government building which had a free observatory deck on the 45^th floor that overlooked the entire city.  It was a clear morning but started to get a little cloudy once I got up there but still managed to see some of the famous buildings (Tokyo tower, Tokyo stadium, the Mejii shine, and many others), half of Mount Fuji and the other mountains that were on the outskirts and out to the coast.  

After that I started to get tired and was ready to tackle the subway and find the dang hostel. In china I would ride the subway for fun so I knew what to expect and figured out what line to and platform to take with little assistant! (ha Since I grew up in country I’m still fascinated with the subway and public transportation since we never had any! For other people this would be extremely normal and easy, in fact it’s all in English!) It was almost 3pm and just before rush hour so it wasn’t not too crowed yet.

I wouldn’t say I’m the most organized traveler, I tried to get things in order before I left but got busy and a couple things on my “to do list” fell through the cracks. I had an address for this joint and looked at the directions online and meant to print them off… but never did. Lucky, I printed off the reservation confirmation and at the bottom there was a small paragraph with what exist to take from the subway. So after a little searching I found it!  It is a couple subway stops outside the main area in a quieter area, if I haven’t known what exist to take I probably would have never came across it!  It looked pretty simple and normal when I first walked in- the usual slippers and shoe rack at the entrance, a couple chairs in the lobby and a cute old Japanese man at the front desk.

The man spoke relatively decent English and proceeded to check me in, as I pulled out the plastic to pay, he stopped what he was doing and said “we’re having an earthquake.”  I had just experience my first earthquake the week before and was still mind boggled by that one. I knew Tokyo sometimes had earthquake so I just figured it was normal and thought it would be over in less than 30 seconds. Then he started to panic, and things started shaking really hard!  Another man came over and they started speaking Japanese, and saying Abuni! (aka danger-1 of the 15 Japanese words I learnt!!) People across the street starting screaming and running out of the buildings. The man then made a shaking accouchement up the rooms telling everyone to take the stairs down to the ground floor. At this point, the other man and I were hiding under the lobby desk and things were still shaking!! You know when the locals are freaking out that it’s a real issue!

A minute or 2 after the shaking stopped 5 other foreigners came running down the stairs, and we all just stood there for a while trying to figure out what the heck just happened. Insta-friends to say the least.  After that we turned on the tube and really began to see what had happened, an 8.8 quake and tsauami warnings on high alert. It’s a crazy feeling not being able to do anything and being totally out of control so I just prayed. And then got a beer.

The trains shut down and the hostel instantly got full with business people that couldn’t make it home to their families. One girl walked for 6 hours trying to find a place to stay. I just keep thinking how thankful I am that I was at the hostel when it happened and not on the subway, or 45 floors up catching a view of the city, or worst lost in the streets with millions.  God has good timing and I have much to be thankful for.

The building continues to shake, sirens have been blasting all night and sleeping on the 10^th floor was a bit uneasy. I’m sitting here in the lounge watching the Japanese people trying to get a hold of family and loved one, it is so sad. The city has a weird vibe, acting like nothing happened but then you feel a shake and it’s pretty quick reminder that it wasn’t a dream.  The news is on the T.V but I’d rather not watch, it’s upsetting to see a country that I’ve grown so fawned in such a state. Please pray for Japan. I am fine, I will walk the streets again today, catch my flight on Monday and return home next week, but the people of Japan don’t have that same luxury and may not have a home to go back to.