japan 311

Ok.. maybe it’s a bit early to be writing this, less than 24hrs after the main impact and real concerns about nuclear power plants still circulating, but thought I would do ’something’ now while everything is relatively fresh in mind. Suppose it’s fair to say that after such a massive earthquake, followed closely by a tsunami on near biblical scale, folks around here a bit edgy when you add Nuclear Power Plant explosions on top of in such short order.. it’s been quite a day!

Friday March 11th (311) started sunny and warm for us here, with a dozen deliverable tasks on my home-office desk and thankful I had no meetings planned downtown. By about 2pm was making good progress on the to-do list and had that usual TGIF feeling.. 45-mins later our world was Really Shaking and felt definite Pure Panic as it became increasingly clear this was not just another regular quake.

I know it must sound strange to people who have no experience with daily life in Japan, I was one of them once upon a time. Simply put; it’s routine to have the odd gentle sway - like being on a boat or flying down the highway.. basically not so bad once you get used to it. Of course there have been a few “memorable events” in my near decade here, all good reminders that the beast is not always so calm.

At 14:46 local time my casual in-difference changed dramatically.. within about 10-seconds. The standard side to side sway was far more violent and several vertical shudders had me standing and holding-on to my 36″ main-screen. As it increased, I managed to post this one quick Tweet via @video_link: Wow.. this is WAY MORE FREAKY SHAKER than the other day!!!!!! (we had above average quake March 9th). Looking out the window at Mt. Fuji half-fearing what I’d see.. whew = Ok!

By about 90-secs, obviously not watching the clock, my near empty coffee cup had already splashed over and it finally tipped off the edge of my big heavy work station.. genuine panic sets in. As things tend to go into slo’mo at times like these, stuff around me falling - somewhat like video embedded below, I was thinking ‘well at least the windows aren’t breaking’ indeed no broken glass here after-all.