The Royal Hospital School Association

3/11/2011
Hi, Reiko.

I tried to phone you earlier but couldn't get through.
God, this is awful. I hope you are all OK.
These earthquakes are likely to get worse because of the shift in the earth's axis causing stresses on the tectonic fault lines. (Well, that's my idea, at least...)

Anyway, please advise Misaki to:
1) always keep her mobile phone close to her body so that if she falls over or is trapped she can reach it.
2) have the phone number of a neighbour or someone living nearby stored in her mobile phone she can call them to rescue her.
Please send me Yoko and Liya's phone numbers so I can contact them in an emergency.
Take care. My thoughts are with you all at this worrying time.

Love,

From our daughter Misaki:
3/11/2011
I received an Email from Mum, she was at Shinnyoen when the earthquake happened.
All the trains stopped, so she will stay at Shinnyoen tonight.
I took sick-leave today so I was at home and fine.
The rest is Leo, I am worrying about him. I will go back to Yokohama tomorrow.

From our son, Hideki in Sydney:
3/11/2011
I'm keeping contact with Shibuya, and he just sent me an Email that says they had another earthquake, and the ceiling of HAMA-BOWL in Yokohama collapsed,,,

I think Email is the fastest way to contact Japan (even has delay though).

I'll keep awake & update information.

Love,
Hideki

PS. Hama-Bowl is well-known bowling alley in the centre of Yokohama where we used to take our kids.

3/11/2011
I just spoke with Mum and Misaki, and both of them & all Matsumoto, Fujimoto family members are fine.
Mum & Aunty Yoko will stay at Shinnyo-en tonight, they're already in bed.
Kei-chan is staying with Misaki tonight, and I asked her to look after Misaki.
Mika's mum opened her pub PORTO and she's having one customer now.
It seems that it's quite calm there and people are not worrying as much as we do from overseas.

So,,, the only concern for now is Leo and Mum will go back to Noukendai tomorrow.
This is what I know so far.
Email is taking quite long to reach, and it may be difficult to contact them timely but phone is working.

Love,

The Players:
Reiko is the wife; Misaki is our daughter (living alone in Tokyo and has a slight mobility problem); Hideki is our son(living with his wife in Sydney); Leo is our cat; Yoko and Liya are Reiko’s two sisters; Yoshiomi is Yoko’s husband; Jun is Yoko and Yoshiomi’s son; Ryo is Liya’s daughter (living in Spain) and Kei-chan is Liya’s other daughter.

Hi Phillip,

At last, I'm home with Leo.

When I came home and opened the door, Leo was just behind the door. But when I picked him up, he didn't want to see me. Looking away left and right !

We all panicked more or less because of the scope of the earthquake we had never experienced.
I was with Yoko at Hiroo in Tokyo. We attended a ceremony at Shinnyo-en Temple, had sesshin, and dropped in a nearby temple to visit Yoko's friend's grave (They were friends since their elementary school in Nishiogi.
The friend died last year and was buried in the temple only a few minutes from Shinnyo-en.)

After visiting the grave, we were walking toward the Hiroo subway station, when a big earthquake started and continued. We felt the street was wobbling underneath our feet. We went to Arisugawa Park nearby where many (mostly international) people were gathering there to wait until the earthquake subsided.

Yoko wisely suggested to go back to Shinnyo-en Temple, because all the transportation systems have stopped.
The Shinnyo-en temple was built with an earthquake-proof structure, so it was safe enough.
We were served with tea, cakes & biscuits, supper & breakfast, blankets. Our cell phones were charged by temple staff to help us contact with our family members which didn't work because no mails could be sent or received.
No phone calls, no public phone usable. Strangely, although domestic lines were cut, I was able to talk with Hideki. Liya was able to talk with Ryo.

About 100 people slept on the floor within the temple. People in the streets or at the stations must have been shivering from the cold night. Some people walked 3 to 4 hours to go back home. As we visited Yoko's friend's grave, we were able to avoid being trapped in the train. Only a ten or twenty minutes difference.

When I woke up today (couldn't sleep well which is unusual of me), I had a backache because of the hard floor. Yoko suggested to drop in her place and have some rest. I had a nap at her place and felt fine afterwards. The trains to come back was stopping at each station (no express train).
There was no trace of the earthquake in our house. Everything was as it was.
Here, I tell you each one's movement:
Yoshiomi was alone in the house - he was to attend a party, but didn't feel too energetic and gave up the plan. He could have been trapped, if he had attended the party.

Jun (had come back from Fukushima) - he was visiting a book shop two stations away from Musashi-Kosugi. He was walking back and bumped into Setsu who was walking to see whether Yoshiomi was OK or not.
Jun could have suffered most, if he had stayed in Fukushima.

Yoko and I were at Shinnyo-en under comfortable circumstances. We could have been trapped, if we hadn't visited the grave.

Misaki at her flat - feeling not well after several days of suffering from cold and didn't go to her company. She could have been trapped, if she had gone to the office.

Kei-chan far away from Liya - asked her friend's father, who came to pick up his daughter by car, to drive her to Misaki's place. She stayed one night at Misaki's flat.

Liya shivering alone with a torch and a radio in the dark - Liya, Yoshiomi and Jun suffered from no gas, no electricity, no water.

Rei had to stay at her office - as she had a lot of work to do, she wasn't bothered with being trapped at her office, but she was annoyed to see some men who had no work were enjoying a drinking party in the next room.
Her next assignment from April is already decided to be Sendai. She could have been trapped, if she had been sent there a little earlier.

Leo left alone by his coldhearted mother (me) - he must have been hungry, but it was a good chance for him to go on diet!

Well, don't you think we are lucky?

Love,

Thanks Phillip, Everyone at the office was fine, if a little shaken up (as you can probably imagine the 18th floor rocked so much) but as no doubt you've heard the big worry now is the nuclear power plants. I really feel for the engineers and operators putting their lives on the line and struggling to get to grips with that situation. Perhaps in the long run it might be an incentive for Japan to lead the world in renewable energy as they already do in earthquake resistant structures (it's amazing that even our tower was undamaged by an earthquake of that size). Due to the fact that there were no trains last night I decided to change into my sports clothes and run the 25km home (it took about 2 hours weaving in and out of the gridlocked cars and huge numbers of pedestrians) but I guess that quite a lot of people were stranded at the office (that's the incentive for staying fit). The other thankful thing is that we still have both gas and electricity in my are (at least at the moment we have) so it isn't affecting us too much although we are now doing our best to save energy as well. In between Tokyo and Yokohama there were lots of towns that were pitch black except for the car lights. I hope that everything over there in Qatar is alright too. No consequences of the middle-eastern uprising etc. Speak to you again later. Jon

From a former colleague of Saudi Aramco working in Yokohama:
"Hi Phillip,
It was very scary. The Queen's towers were shaking like jello.
We are just asking Allah to protect us because during such incident no one can do anything.
Take care,
Ali Al Matrook"
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The Players: Grandma is my mother, Helen and Andrew my younger sister and brother. (All of them in the UK.)

3/13/2011
Hi Phillip,

I slept very well last night.
Helen, Grandma and Andrew kindly telephoned me last night, and to my surprise, two of eBay thimble sellers sent me e-mails to ask about my safety.

We are having smaller earthquakes here and there (aftershocks in Nagano, Niigata, Ibaraki), but I didn't feel them except once.

My cell phone began to send me an alarm when earthquake starts.
Once when I was using the phone, a window popped up and said "we are trying to catch you on GPS system ・・・”　and "We caught you all right."
There were lot of such things which I had never experienced before.
Very good experience for the future.

I'm going to prepare a set of keys to hand them to Liya, and to check the necessary goods for earthquake.

It was nice to hear you on the train and also to hear Hideki's voice (he was the first to communicate after the earthquake).

Love,

Many thanks for your kind thoughts and support.

Reiko phoned me last night and sounded relatively cheerful.

There is a TESCO, Stowe-size supermarket just north of our home which Mum visited and a much bigger supermarket near the railway station.
Both are bare but Reiko says she has a stock of canned food and food packs that will last her for a week.
It's freezing in N.E. Japan but even around Yokohama it's chilly and will stay so until mid-April. Fortunately, our house has a gas cooker and the living room has a gas outlet for a portable gas heater. If Reiko is able to buy a portable gas heater, she won't be so badly affected by the rolling power cuts (originally planned for three days a week from 0600 to 1000 hrs and 1600 to 2000 hrs). But her two sisters live in apartment blocks, as does Misaki in Tokyo. The apartment blocks are all-electric (safety precaution) so it will be grim for them for the next couple of months.

Japan faces a grim, dark future but I believe they will recover. They are mostly a very dignified, composed, disciplined, intelligent and energetic people.

I hope that you are all keeping well. Once again, many thanks for your kind thoughts.

LOL,

Hi Phillip,

I went to Keikyu this morning to buy rice because I had nearly finished the stock and was thinking to buy just before the earthquake.
The rice shelf was completely empty, although I reached there at around 10:10. Luckily, before I left, I asked Liya to buy if any at Ito-Yokado, and she succeeded in obtaining several packed rice which could be cooked in an electronic range.
There was one bread pack and one muffin pack still remaining on the bread shelf. I grabbed them before someone would get them.
I wasn't feeling too urgent about foods, but when I looked these empty shelves, I thought I should buy something. Otherwise, there may be no food when I really need them.

This is like when we had Oil Shock.

Love,
Reiko

PS: Ito-Yokodo is a big supermarket with 30 checkouts near our home.

Dear Helen and Julian,

Many thanks for your kind offer of food supplies.

Just after I emailed you Reiko said she had managed to order rice via Internet so she's OK for the moment. I don't know long she will be able to do that. Still, please wait till you hear more from us before sending anything.

I was looking at this website a couple of days ago and suggested to Reiko to buy Potassium Iodide tablets just in case:

http://www.ki4u.com/

Yes, the RHSA email was a nice touch and I had an email from Ray Edward's wife asking after us. (He was my former boss / mentor in Trant's.)
Did you realize that the David Crouch who was the other recipient of the RHSA email lived on the east side of HMS Arial/Daedalus and his dad collected classic American cars?

Give Mum our love when you see her and tell her not to worry too much. Reiko and Misaki will be OK (I hope and pray ...)

All for now.

LOL,

Hi, Andrew.

I don't have any new info but I will be in touch with Misaki shortly to see how she is. (I have a Tsunami of work at present and neglected such important things.)

Reiko's youngest sister (Liya) lives down the hill from us. Liya's youngest (Kei) works in central Tokyo and is the nearest to Misaki. Last Thursday night, Kei stayed with Misaki because there were no trains running.

Misaki works in the Ginza (also central Tokyo) and lives about 20 min bus ride away in eastern Tokyo - near Tokyo Bay / inland waterways, unfortunately. In an emergency, Misaki can always call Kei for help when they are both in Tokyo.

Love to you all,

From a dear Aunt in Australia:
Subject: Troubles at Home
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:51:59 +1100
Dear Phillip,
The news from Tokyo gets worse and worse and you must be very worried about Reiko and Misaki being there.
If there is anything we can do to help please let us know. As you know, we have room here to accommodate visitors and your family would be very welcome.
We are thinking of you and send all our love,

Hi Phillip,
Thanks for your e-mail and the one you forwarded today about Misaki. I e-mailed her and Reiko yesterday and they have both replied to us today. Excellent idea about the Potassium Iodide tablets.

Yes I remember David Crouch, didn’t he used to ride a motorbike and I went to Fareham tech with his sister Ros?

Hi, Andrew.

It gets worse daily. God knows when it will end.
After the major quake in Niigata in 2004, there were constant, severe quakes for the following six months.
It's hard to gauge which is the biggest threat to Reiko and Misaki - the radiation creeping in to Tokyo or the possibility of another catastrophic quake / tsunami.

Apart from the horrific earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region (north-east of Tokyo), there was a major earthquake at Nagano (200 km north of Tokyo) and a major quake in Shizuoka (200 km to the west of Tokyo). I am praying hard there won't be a 7.5+ (Richter) quake in Sagami Bay (about 40 km south-west of Tokyo. It would be logical if there was and it must be quite a strong possibility. If it does happen, say goodbye to Yokohama and Tokyo...
Judy emailed me today offering a temporary home for Reiko and Misaki but I doubt they will leave Japan until they are on their knees. And if there was a nuclear holocaust, we could never return to Japan for many years afterwards - if ever. We would lose everything - our house, savings, jobs, friends - you name it.

Perhaps I am being overly depressed. I don't know. I do feel totally helpless and at a loss what to advise them.
Sorry, I am going to have to sign off for a few days because I have a tsunami of work and also so many people in Japan to reply to in my free time.

Lots of love to you all, and take care.

Hi Phillip,

I have enough food. As to the portable gas heater, not successful. All the gas heaters which use city gas are sold out. Luckily, the temperature outside is improving and I don't think it matters a lot.

We had an earthquake actually gave shakes last night. It was from Shizuoka Prefecture. Because such a large scale movement of the earth plates occurred in Tohoku, other plates under Japan are moving to take balance which seems to cause smaller earthquakes.

Just after this earthquake, Misaki rang me up. Misaki hardly suffers from the effect.
She uses metropolitan bus service so that she can commute OK. Kei stayed one night yesterday at Misaki's place, because it took 3 hours to go to her office and 2 hours to come home two days ago. This is because of power cut.

According to Kei, people, especially Chinese, are trying to run away from Japan and she has been busy.

Please don't worry. Luckily, I had ordered Leo's food just before the earthquake.
Our area hasn't been affected by the power cut yet.
It is nice to have Liya living nearby. We can exchange information.
She telephones me every now and then and gives me information about Ito-Yokado, etc.

Love,

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv#utm_campaign=fupcoming&utm_source=3&utm_medium=news-breaking-news

Today, while I was at uni Mika received a phone call from Aunty Judy asking Mika to bring families from Japan to Melbourne.
It's very kind of her, though Mum is still thinking about Leo.
I also suggested Mum to offer rooms to people who evacuating from Fukushima and have nowhere to go, if she's not going to stay overseas.
I hope that the trouble of the nuclear plant will be settled before explosion.

Love,

Hi Phillip,

This is nice. Thanks to your good memory. I'll search tomorrow, because we had a power cut for 3 hours from 16:50 to 20:30 this evening. Unfortunately, the temperature outside was very low (very cold all over Japan), and I felt really cold.

In the dark, the radio was telling that we can fill a plastic bottle with an orange cup with hot water and use it as a hot water bottle. So, I will buy such a bottle (usually containing tea) tomorrow, if obtainable.

I tried to catch Leo to use him as a hot water bottle, but he came near me, watched me and ran away. He repeated this many times as if he sensed something unusual. I said to him, "Useless creature ! Don't you understand you can help me !". He looked enjoying this game.

They succeeded in pouring water into No.3 atomic generator. I wonder why they didn't do this at the earlier stage when radiation wasn't so high. It looks common sense to use fire engine for reducing the heat. Probably they were unable to reach near enough in the beginning because of the road problem?
It is kind of Jaqui and Judy to offer us accommodation. Helen also telephoned me yesterday and told me to remember there is always a place to shelter.

My handy phone gives alarms every time aftershock occurs, but I only felt shakes when it occurred in Shizuoka pref.
We had one in Chiba tonight when I was talking with Liya over phone. She felt shakes, but nothing in this house.
This area is certainly on the solid base rock.

I go out in the garden for gardening (weeds are out now) to divert my mind from constant worry about the atomic power station. Made three bags full with weeds, leaves and branches.

I never felt lonely or insecure by living alone, but it is nice to hear voices of Hideki & Misaki, receive emails from you, Helen, Andrew, Jaqui and many friends.

Many thanks and with love,

3/18/2011
Hi, Misaki.

This is good PR for Ricoh in the world media. Is it your office?

I hope that you are managing OK for food and able to keep warm. The weather is expected to get a lot warmer for the next few days, which is a blessing.

We all think about you and Mum, Aunty Yoko and Liya and their families, and wonder how you are suffering. And of course all those poor people in northern Japan.

Take care. Things will get better one day.

LOL,

Dad