At that time

At that time, I was dong the ironing. It was Friday, my day-off.
I was supposed to have a busy weekend. I had a kid English class to teach that day, had two meetings with my client newlyweds for wedding emceeing on Saturday, and I was supposed to take TOEIC on Sunday. When I was pressing my clothes, I didn't know the half of my schedule would be forced to change, at that time.

Then,I felt the sway. The movement didn't seem so big first, but it became much more shaky, gradually. Tableware sound cracking in cupboards. I run to them, and tried to hold the cupboards, preventing it from falling down. (Fortunately, they didn't fall down...) But the sway didn't stop.
Then, the awful image of the earthquake in New Zealand came to my mind.
People were under the debris. If I keep holding the cupboards, they might fall down over me!
...I suddenly became so scared that I screamed, "STOP! Please, somebody STOP it!!"

Now I know there was NOBODY could stop the threat of nature.
Even I felt so, here in Tokyo, where the seismic intensity was five. Now I can imagine how much people in Miyagi, the unfortunate state has most casualties, wanted to scream, "STOP! Please, somebody, STOP!!"

I screamed, and run out of my house with fear. But nobody was outside, even though there are 570 families are living in our condo. So I went back home, and hid myself under a table to protect myself.
After the shake stopped, I checked every room in my house. Almost all books popped out from book shelves, glasses and dishes broke inside the cupboards, golf bags and plants fell down... but I didn't hurt.

Maybe, there are a few times when people can look back their lives, thinking, "at that time, I might have died." It might not be so serious, but that earthquake could be counted on "at that time" moment in my life.

The more time passed, the more I got to know how serious the earthquake was.
I canceled my English class, and didn't go out at all on Friday. I thought it would affect our daily lives a lot.

But Saturday, I was actually stunned how people were working so hard as usual.
I had two meetings with newlyweds. The first couple came to the hotel earlier than our appointed time despite of the traffic confusion. They said they left home very early not to make me wait.
The second couple called me and they would be late one hour, so I had lunch at Udon noodle casual restaurant near the hotel. The restaurant ( like a fast food restaurant) was very small, the building was located just under an elevated railroad, looked very unstable.
Whenever the train passed over the railroad, the restaurant became a kind of shaky.
I didn't know whether the sway was because of the train or earthquake...I was terrified, but many servers and cooks were working very hard in the restaurant, and many business people were grabbing a bite to have a quick lunch there. I just realized, we should work to live whatever happened, especially, in a big city!

However, even though Japanese diligent state of mind hasn't been damaged, our infrastructure
has been damaged.
TOEIC has been canceled on Sunday.
Today, Monday, most big companies would start their work, so our electricity supply was supposed to run out. Therefore, the electricity company divided Kanto area (Tokyo and around other 4 states) into 5 groups, gave them quota time, and tried to stop the electrical supply at each group's quota time, taking turns. It gave us confusion.

The English school where I work decided not to have classes today at the last minute to avoid troubles, so I went back home. I don't know when my classes would start, and I'm sad to hear some of my client newlyweds have decided to cancel their wedding receptions. So, the earthquake has affected my business...but I'm fine.

I know this is a devastating accident. I feel awful for people who died, lost their family members or friends, or their houses by the earthquake and tunami.
We must look back "at this moment,"with a terrible feeling...but each one can do what we can do.
So far, I would like to do my best for the rest of my businesses and my household work.
Then, I hope I can look back "at this time," with a better feeling than now I have.

I dedicate my deepest condolences for people who died, lost or hurt by the quake.