We had spent the past two hours quivering inside the Guest Relations building. Packed together with 100 other people, tight as sardines in a can. It was a dreary routine. Wait for endless amounts of time inside, then when the tremor alarm goes off, run outside and wait, then come back in when everything is clear. Painful and dull to the extreme sense of the word.

But that does not mean we weren’t grateful, we were REALLY grateful and happy that Mom had thought of going to Guest Relations, and we had squeezed in. Sadly, my dad refused to come inside for almost all of our time at G.R. He shivered outside in the cold thinking about how to keep us warm, stoutly refusing to take up a little person’s space. I’m very proud of both of my parents:  my mom for having the state of mind to realize and execute what turned out to be an excellent plan, and my dad for suffering so someone else could be warm. We asked a Guest Relations employee to try and call Mrs. Karen’s cell phone, and wrote down her number and a message. I think his name was pronounced (Oh-no), I don’t recall the spelling. He came back five minutes later and said that he HAD reached Mrs. Karen and she said she was o.k. He had also delivered our message that we would not make it for dinner, something Mrs. Karen found extremely funny. Here we are in the aftermath of an earthquake, and we called to say we wouldn’t be able to make it to dinner! During this entire escapade, there were continued announcements; the favorite of the announcer: “(something in Japanese) (pause) Ladies and Gentlemen, there has been an earthquake.  We would like to inform you that our engineers are checking buildings and attractions for safety.  We will keep you informed with further announcements after this.” I cannot even begin to imagine how many times we heard this message. After a while I began to get annoyed:  Why thank you announcer, you have repeated a statement that is of NO USE!!! Great they’re CHECKING buildings! Why don’t you let us buy some clothing from a store???!!! THAT would be HELPFUL! (Sniff- regains composure) Anyway, at some time during the night, at around 7:00pm I would say, the announcer gave us a very different message. This time he didn’t repeat the message in English though, so we asked one of the G.R. women. “Hmmm? Yes how can I help you?” “What did that man just say?” asked my dad. “He said that everyone who is not a child or elderly must leave the building”. “Thank you”. O.K. small problem. As soon as we were done talking with this woman, we would have to go outside. OUTSIDE! The cold, harsh, plastic outside! Oh the horror! Actually it was only un-bear-ably cold when you started running. Then the wind chills you to the molecule. Ironic huh? Run to get out of the cold and you end up even colder.

Dad had been thinking about “worst possible scenarios” as he always does, and he decided that if morning came around and the trains still weren’t running, and the roads were still congested, then we would have to walk for 7 hours to get back to the ANA Intercontinental. “Could I have a big white map please?” asked my dad “Russell” my mom hissed,”we are NOT going to WALK back to Tokyo!” I know, I do a pretty good Gina. My dad countered with the fact that he wanted to get them before they ran out. Mom agreed, but I know the non-visible parts of her eyes were straining, wanting to give the biggest eye roll in history. It was time to leave our little shelter. Dad told us to pack some bubble wrap under our coats as insulation. When we said we didn’t have enough, he whipped out the blue backpack. Apparently, while he was waiting outside, someone had come around with bubble wrap and plastic trash bags and my dad took the opportunity to stuff the backpack full of both. Looking like Superman’s cousins, twice removed, on his father’s side, we stepped out in to the cold^. Thankfully, our G.R. woman had told us that the theaters were letting people in to sit down, and a few restaurants were also doing the same thing. We rushed towards the “Broadway Theater”. Around us, there were streams of people walking and shuffling around the courtyard. Like lost souls. Some of them were being rescued though. Ahead of us, in front of the “old Italian” arch, stood a human funnel. Disney employees shivered and directed. Waving glowing, yellow, airplane-directing-like things, and small, green glow-sticks. We headed through the funnel, thanking the employees as we went. They were still smiling, even now. When we saw the glowing sign “BROADWAY”, we stopped. Yes my parents actually went and asked for DIRECTIONS! Thankfully, they made the right choice. The man we asked said the theater was, “At full capacity, no worry, I bring you restaurant.” He brought us on what seemed like a secret shortcut and dropped us off at a “New England Clam Shack Themed” restaurant. Quite a few people were closing in on the already packed doorway, and we made a beeline for our safe haven. Only the two people behind us got in before the doors were closed. Phew! All the seats were taken but my mom was unfazed. She led us over to a sturdy brick wall with ceiling-to-floor windows on either side. The windows were a bit behind the wall so she wasn’t worried about glass; she said something to Dad about hoping it was tempered safety glass.  Just in case. We sat down on the floor between two tables. One for each window. Dad went scouting and when he came back, he had an armload of cardboard. “When people managed to get in the restaurant they left their boxes and cardboard outside. I grabbed as much as I could and came back here. And guess what! They have bathrooms in the restaurant! We’re all set!”

Dad and Katherine made the cardboard in to a “tatami” mat for us all to sleep on. We wanted to be like a real Japanese family and so took off our shoes. That’s when we realized that we had to keep our shoes on. We might have to leave at any moment, and any delay could prove to be fatal. At first Mom and I sat with our backs against the wall, but then I realized that Dad’s back would hurt him if he didn’t have support, and so I switched with him. Katherine then helped him by giving him stuff to support his lower back. Eventually Dad switched to a chair, and Mom, Katherine and I all spent the night on the mat. Dad stayed in the chair the entire night, like sleeping on a plane. Katherine used her newest hat, a massive Mickey Mouse hat with a tiny body hanging off the back, as a pillow. Mom used her purse. I used the blue backpack. Yeah, the blue backpack is great, until you use the side that has hard plastic cases and bottles instead of the bubble wrap side. It turns out it didn’t matter. When I woke up in the middle of the night I would usually reposition myself, and sometimes the blue backpack (I woke up a lot). Sadly the bubble wrap had been squashed and was useless until it was un-crumpled.  But you know me. I’m a master of falling asleep. So sleeping on a floor with an uncomfortable pillow was NOT that much of a challenge. J When I woke up, I felt like I was in the middle of a bank of fog. Everything seemed unreal. Employees were passing out rice and tea. Everyone was talking. But there was yet another surprise. My Dad was NOT sleeping in that chair. He stayed awake ALL night in case there was a violent aftershock. What a great guy. My family is awesome. We survived an Earthquake. In fact, we survived the biggest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history, and the 5^th biggest ever recorded in the WORLD! I wouldn’t want it to happen again. NOTE:  for some of the lessons we learned getting along after a disaster see here.