It was 5 years ago today. I was at the supermarket and thought I felt a rumbling sensation. I asked the store clerk and he didn’t feel anything. Then shelves started swaying and things started falling down. I left quickly for the exit, encouraging others to leave as well.

Outside I had to hold onto a bicycle rack to stop from falling over. It was clear that this was the largest earthquake I had ever experienced.

People milled around outside for a while, and then the store manager announced they were closed for the rest of the day.

I headed back to my house, where I found neighbours hanging around outside and heard for the first time it was the largest earthquake in Japan’s history, a magnitude 9.

Inside, I found a lot of things had fallen down, including ceiling light fixtures. But mostly everything was OK.

The phones were down, and the trains had totally stopped, but amazingly the Internet kept on running.

After that everybody knows what happened.

It was 2:46 pm today. I’ll never forget it.

An article worth glancing at about “the woman in the blanket” – then and now.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002801793