This is NO big story, just our family's earthquake experience.
Luckily, our base (Yokota Air Base-just outside of Tokyo) is far enough away from the earthquake that we didn't have much damage. Things shook pretty crazy, a few things fell off of dressers, but for the most part we are counting our blessings. We have power, heat, water, a home, and sunshine outside.
Shane's sister, husband, & twin boys flew into town on Wednesday night (2 days before the earthquake). Thursday we hung around our house, went to our favorite park (Showa Park) and let the kids just enjoy being together. On Friday we were all ready to go and travel. We took a 2 1/2 hour drive up into the mountains north of Tokyo to a National Park called Nikko. Our main goal was to go to Edo Wonderland to see the Ninjas.
Here are some pictures of our experience at Edo Wonderland.
Nikko Edo Wonderland
Nikko Edomura (Edo Wonderland) is a history theme park recreating Japanese town life during the Edo Period (1603-1868). The park is really a small town built in Edo style architecture and populated by townspeople in period costume, and has been used as the setting for period tv dramas. Park guests have the opportunity to dress up as well (costumes can be rented for a fee) and tour the town's historically based shops and museums, participate in games and see live shows and theater.
Just dancing around in the cold.
A creepy kitty that kept shaking its booty at the kids...it was a little wierd!
Us with the ninjas after their Ninja Show.
Throwing chinese stars.
The kids with their prizes from throwing the chinese stars.
Our Ninja family.
Tia was not very excited to go into the maze! There was a dark cave at the beginning that made her nervous.
House of Illusion
We just happened to be inside this House of Illusion when the earthquake hit. Random huh?!
A little blurb on the house:
Take one step inside, and you will have no idea which way is up and which is down. This ninja training house will deprive you of your sense of gravity. In this illusionary house, the floor is not the floor and the ceiling is not the ceiling. If you survive the training, you may be eligible to become an authentic ninja.
Here are a few pictures & videos we took in the house (before the earthquake)...
Is the ball rolling up or down?
Our bodies & minds were so confused trying to walk up and down things. Listen closely and you can hear how much Jayden "liked" this place :) he he.
At this point I started to feel really sick because I couldn't tell which way was up or down. I felt like I was going to throw up so I went outside. I sat down on the gravel to try and get my balance back. As soon as I set down I felt the ground moving beneath me. I thought it was just because I was feeling sick or because of the strong wind. After a few seconds I realized it was an earthquake. Everyone made their way out of the house and we stood out in the open and watched the trees and cliff behind us shake like crazy. It lasted at least 1 to 2 minutes before it calmed down. We couldn't believe how long it lasted. At one point I looked at the cliff in front of us and wondered if it would fall on us and where we would run if it did. I was very grateful when the shaking finally stopped.
When it stopped we looked around and nothing looked damaged so we slowly made our way out of the park since that was the last attraction we were going to. I felt sea sick for at least another hour (because of the illusion house). I'm shocked I didn't throw up.
On the way to the freeway we saw a Daiso (dollar store) and our nephews Aspen & Sage REALLY wanted to stop (me too) so we did. We still had NO idea how serious the earthquake was because we were up in the mountains and there wasn't very good cell phone reception.
These pictures were taken after the 1st aftershock and just minutes before the 2nd aftershock (which were both pretty big). I'm guessing they cleaned up a little after the original earthquake and by this point they had decided just to wait until the aftershocks calmed down. I think we had 2 aftershocks while shopping, but we just kept on going...still not knowing about any of the danger or damage.
While in the parking lot Shane's phone started to pick up 11 or so missed calls. He was the last one his unit needed to contact for accountability. About this same time we headed to the freeway and noticed it was blocked off. I then received a call from my neighbor Alisha wondering where we were because she'd tried to call us a bunch of times. Seconds later my little brother Rick in the states called. By this time we started to realize this was a lot bigger than we thought, but we still couldn't have imagined what we would see on the news when we returned home.
All 3 freeways home were closed so we had to take side roads the whole way. What took us only 2 1/2 hours to get there took us 10 1/2 hours to get home. It definitely was a long drive, but we are so grateful for fun family members to drive with, a heated car, car seats, blankets, the toys we just bought at the dollar store, and lots of snacks (because the power was out the whole way home and no restaurants or gas stations were open). Thank goodness for a barren rice field along the way that we were able to use as a restroom :)
I didn't realize this until later, but we were halfway between our house and Sendai. So we were even closer to the epicenter than we would have been if we were home. The freeway we drove up on (and were supposed to drive home on) was the Tohoku Expressway. We were still far enough away from the earthquake that there was only minimal damage done.
Here are some pictures from our drive home:
There were lots of broken brick walls & cracked shingles on houses.
10 1/2 hours is a long time for kids.
Click on this picture and hopefully you can see all the red lights ahead of us. We could have walked faster than we were moving...
...until we discovered a super secret side road.
Uncle Byron noticed on the GPS there was a tiny little road that followed the freeway. The road was so little there were no lines on it. It kind of looked like a big sidewalk. Every once in a while we would notice there was an opening between the larger road we were on and this tiny road. Not a single Japanese person was driving on it. Our patience was killing us & we finally saw an opening and pulled into it. There were construction cones all along the sides, but they were not blocking the actual road so off we went. It was AWESOME! We saved at least 2-3 hours of driving by following this road. And the funny thing was, only 2 cars followed us. If we were in the states that side road would have been bumper to bumper.
At 1:00 a.m. we finally found a McDonalds that actually had power. We were so excited to have dinner and a real bathroom (not a rice field). We made it home at 3:00 a.m. and could not have been more excited to see everything at home was just fine.
It was at 3:00 a.m. that we started to see images from what the earthquake and tsunami had destroyed. Words cannot express the pain that went through my heart, but I know you understand because I'm sure you felt the same way. I still cannot watch the news, see videos, or read about what is happening without bawling my eyes out. There are so many people hurting right now. Please keep praying for those that were affected by this disaster. I know they need your prayers, because I have and I'm not even a direct victim.
Thanks everyone for all that you are doing to help the Japanese people. I've seen so many of you put on fundraisers, donate to the Red Cross or to the LDS Humanitarian Fund. I am so touched by how many of you care about Japan and those in need. THANK YOU!!! I know every little thing counts...especially your prayers. Keep them coming!
