On Monday morning, we had just started getting on with our normal routine when another quake hit the area. After dashing out of the house, I found my Indian neighbor also rushing out. We stood outside for a while and then her husband returned from office stating that the quake led to an immediate declaration of a holiday. Through the day we started hearing news about Indians returning to India, or on their way back home. This lead to a discussion between me and my husband to decide what we wanted to do. We stuck to our decision of staying back until the night when more news, panic and anxiety at home and for people around started creeping into us as well.
After that, it did not take us too much time into unanimously deciding to head back home for good. I already started thinking of plans to look out for jobs in Bangalore and settling down there for good. And by the time we got the tickets confirmed and our transport to the airport finalized, a new threat came our way with the instruction from my husband's office - "Shut your doors and windows and refrain from stepping out of the house.
The radiation from Fukushima has reached Yokohama. That news shook me more that the 7.2! But that news took my mind off the fear of another quake. I was more relaxed because I now knew that even if there was an earthquake I was expected to sit at home at a safe place. Luckily, we realised that this was only a precautionary step and there was nothing to worry - not yet.
We had a lot of groceries stored at home and with just a day to leave, I decided to cook up a grand dinner for my husband and myself and then decided to call our neighbours as well. This post strangely combines two of the most frequented topics on my blog - food and earthquake.
The menu was decided as Chole, Soya Chunk graavy, Chapathis and Nan. For starters, we had cucumber sticks with a Basil and Cheese dip. The entire course was accompanied by orange juice and cucumber-corn salad. My neighbour brought in Sambhar, rice and crunchies to add a South Indian touch to the grand dinner. With the plans and the panic associated with the safe return to India extending until 10pm, our dinner started two hours later than planned.
We were all engrossed in a conversation which could never get out of the earthquake topic when our dining table started shaking again. This lasted for 10-15 seconds and while we temporarily paused our eating, the guy on the radio calmly announced "Yes, our studio is also moving. Apparently this is an earthquake of magnitude 5. Once our table settled after the tremor, we casually continued our dinner. Well, this is what happens when you have tremors for breakfast,lunch and dinner.
The dinner, a lot of vessels to clean, clearing the entire house, packing up suitcases, another day of tremors, a lot of phone calls later we finally got into the bus that was arranged to take us and 11 others to the airport. This was the first time that I reached the airport almost 10 hours before the flight. We did not want to take any risk, but it was terribly boring at the airport. We felt a lot of tremors and only later we realised it was the flight movement that seemed to rock the floor.
A small tiff with the staff at the check in counter lead her to politely refuse to check us in if I continued to argue. Returning to India was our priority and hence I quietly swallowed my anger convincing myself that she was rude because of all the extra work she was doing at the airport given the number of people fleeing the country. We finally checked in and payed 10K Yen as penalty for excess baggage that wasn't! With no mood to do anything else, we had our lunch before proceeding to the security check fearing they might throw it away.
We returned our Alien registration at the immigration counter and walked to our gate, updated to our families that we were 30 minutes away from boarding the flight that would take us out of Japan. The rest of the journey was a regular experience on board - the fear during the take off that returned only while landing, identifying the source of entertainment, waking up in the middle of a much deserved sleep just to have a glass of coke and some semi-palatable food.
We reached Bangalore International airport by 2am and there ends this story. My heart goes out to the millions of Japanese nationals and brave expats who are caught in the after effects of nature's fury. I sincerely wish they recover soon.
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