Hi, Jess in Tokyo here. Sorry I have no photos to post here, but I just wanted to share some observations from Tokyo after Friday’s earthquake. I actually just got back to my place today after spending two nights at my friend’s (newer, swankier, and more shock absorbent) place (we could barely feel the aftershocks there).
Well, for one, I learned a lesson; always ride your bike. I had decided to take the train on Friday which left me with a considerable hike in order to get home as all the trains had stopped and I was over 10km away. Luckily the weather was nice and I kind of enjoyed trekking with the masses of suited business people.
Although the quake was terrifying, and the aftermath is pretty gruesome, watching the news on Friday, I learned that the event sparked a huge surge in bike sales as people just really wanted to get home and some people around Tokyo commute up to 100km by train, so they bought bikes.
An even neater thing that my girlfriend told me was that as she was heading home, it was the cyclists that were helping people find their way. Since most people take trains, they are not familiar with navigating the streets. She said that she came across cyclists giving very detailed directions to people heading all over the place.
Anyways, things feel pretty normal here in Tokyo and hopefully things will get fixed up up north soon too.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Sari // Mar 14, 2011 at 5:40 am
I saw it on the news, many deep condolences for the victims, hope everything will recover soon.
2 Marie NYC // Mar 14, 2011 at 8:24 am
Jess, how scary. I’m glad that you are OK. After 9/11, I was definitely happy to have my bike and be above ground going around town, because there was a scary ambiance in the city and nobody knew what was going to happen next. There is definitely something to be said to having your own mode of transport, but I hope we don’t have to rely more on our bikes because of darker reasons.
3 Nova // Mar 15, 2011 at 10:05 am
So glad you are okay!
The story of cyclists giving detailed instructions to help people get where they need to go is really sweet.
Other than making donations to mainstream relief efforts so that folks can get the food/water they so direly need, do you know of any community bike shack type non-profits that we could donate to, in Tokyo or other parts of Japan? It seems to me like the poorest folks are always disparately affected when disaster strikes, and not everyone can afford to just up and buy a bike.
Thanks, and take care.
-N*
4 Jess - Tokyo // Mar 15, 2011 at 10:26 am
Well, this nuclear business is still pretty troubling.
As for donations, I would go with the mainstream routes, like red cross:
http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
I have looked for community type non-profit salvage shops in Tokyo and have never been able to find one. I don’t think that any will spring up now. I do know that the evacuees are already lacking the basic necessities like food, blankets, lady things, baby things, and other hygiene products.
5 Jess Versus // Mar 15, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Jess–first of all, so happy that you are okay. How truly terrifying and tragic, watching the news just puts so many knots in my stomach….
Glad to hear that there have been some positive stories to come out of such catastrophe, however.
6 Jjay - Singapore // Mar 15, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Godspeed to those who were injured over the disaster. Be safe.
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