I woke up to a jolt. Or was it to the alert on the phone? I think it was the phone that woke me, for I hardly felt the earth quaking in my deep sleep! I plainly dismissed the warning on the phone and went back to sleep.
Later in the morning, it was confirmed. There was a major earth quake in Osaka, with 4 reported fatalities. The tremor was felt in Kyoto too, just that I did not know it because, you know, I was sleeping. The spoon that was on the top of the shelf, now lying on the floor made sense then. We soon received a mail from university, checking upon us and confirming the schedule for the Panasonic meeting. Quickly our concern was shifted to the presentation and we forgot about the quake. For the record, I hadn’t felt it yet. Going over to Panasonic, passing through their security, and wearing their visitor’s tag, we started feeling very important suddenly. After a brief tour of their wide product portfolio, we sat down with some of their officials for the presentation. The first impact of the earth quake was felt when they wrapped up the whole thing sooner than planned, because the railway network, their major transportation system, was affected due to the earth quake. Not all of us got to present, but more importantly, we started sensing the gravity of the disaster.
Back at I-house, me and Divya went crazy assessing the situation through news and Twitter. We tried our best not to panic and went on with our evenings. I was sitting at the table, watching a movie in dark, when I felt the chair shaking. Before I could respond, there was a knock on the door. Next ten seconds, me and Divya were in the ground floor of the building, hoping to meet the rest of the residents there. Instead, what we saw was one other foreign girl climbing down the stairs, as scared as us, and the warden in his room, lousily watching TV. Perhaps, we should have taken clue from the Japanese guy in the second floor kitchen, who was cooking peacefully. Apparently, nobody was bothered, except the three of us freaking out. We lingered around for a while more, and then prepared ourselves to go back and sleep.
I am not sure if I am excited about this entire experience or scared for my life! Is earth quake so casual, that you wouldn’t budge from your cooking or miss your TV show?
The Last Straw 