We were travelling on a long weekend with my parents who are visiting from the US, and had just finished lunch at the Anpanman Museum in Yokohama when the earthquake hit. Since we were already outside in the courtyard we just moved away from the glass storefronts to the center of the yard to wait it out with the other families who were being evacuated by the museum and shop staff. To their credit, the staff seemed well trained and everyone was surprisingly calm and quiet.
From the courtyard we could see a few large buildings around us moving
in the earthquake. The Landmark Tower was slightly swaying, while a
nearby tv broadcast tower was also moving quite a lot, but the most
amazing were a set of cranes on top of a nearby construction site that
were swinging and bouncing about pretty strongly. The earthquake lasted
at least a few minutes, and it was quite surreal, especially as the
Anpanman music (think cartoon theme song aimed at young children) was
blaring in the background the entire time.
Looking toward Yokohama Station
After it finally stopped, we were alerted by an announcement stating the location of the quake and that Yokohama had experienced a Shindo 5+ shaking. Of course everyone immediately tried to call on their cell phones, and the lines got slammed. But phone internet and texting still worked, so were were able to get off a few emails (that incidentally didn't get through for a few hours) and eventually our calls got through and we were able to get in contact with my wife's family.
It was definitely one of the strongest earthquakes I've felt, and we saw
minor damage to some of the buildings as we walked back to Yokohama
Station. Some were leaking water, but luckily there didn't seem to be
major damage and we only really saw some cracked sidewalks and dislodged
wall tiles.
Some damaged sidewalks and foundations around Yokohama Station
We decided to head to the station to see what the transportation
situation was since we had reservations for a hotel in Tokyo. We arrived
to find the station closed and packed with people, and they were
advising that the trains may not resume operations that day and that
people who could should go back to their workplaces to wait.
Since
we had nowhere else to go we decided to find a restaurant to regroup,
have dinner, and plan our next move. I totally underestimated the impact
of the earthquake on transportation and we later discovered that not only were the trains
indefinitely stopped, but rental cars and nearly all hotels were booked, and the line for a taxi was at least a few hundred meters long (I counted at least 5 blocks but I could't see the end of the line).
Just a small section of the taxi line
Our options were getting worse and worse and we heard that an emergency shelter was being opened up at the Pacifico convention center (which we later heard reached its capacity of 9000 people), but we were extremely fortunate to grab the last room at a hotel where we were able to rest, watch the news, and finally realize the magnitude of destruction caused by the earthquake.
Heading home the next day was no simple task. Normally we can take the Shonan-Shinjuku line directly home from Yokohama, but the line wasn`t operating. Instead we had to head to Shinagawa, transfer to the subways to Ueno, and catch the Takasaki Line home. Traffic heading away from Tokyo was ridiculously crowded with commuters still trying to get home from the day before, but luckily it was very light going in our direction.
The opposite platform was packed while ours was relatively empty
The subways in Tokyo were operating almost normally as well, but it was a completely different story once we got to Ueno where we arrived to discover thousands of people lined up to enter the station, and trains running only as far as Omiya, which is still a couple of hours drive from home.
Lines around Ueno Station
After waiting in line for an hour and only moving about 15 meters, we realized that the Tobu Lines were running semi-normally and would get us much closer to home. So we abandoned our place in line and from then on we only had to deal with packed trains and unpredictable departure times. In the end it was quite a journey and we were able to make it home in just a few hours longer than it would normally take.
Overall I was impressed with how everyone reacted. People were calm and those waiting in line were patient and orderly, despite the fact that the lines stretched for ridiculous lengths and barely moved. Also, the police and train staff appeared very well organized and were much better informed of the transportation situation than I would have expected.
