First of all, thank you for the kind words and care.
Apologize for the long silent, no reply and news from me.
I bet most of you must be asking about my condition here..in Japan.
If any of you were asking..was I one of the victim of the 9.0 earthquake, striking Japan recently??
Yes..I was.
I remember it very clearly.
The week supposed to be our getaway. We planned this trip in a very short time. We wanted to have a simple vacation..a kind of road trip to Tokyo. I just want it to be only the two of us.
At first we planned to do it a week before the catastrophe. But, we postponed the trip because we purposely wanted to welcome our friends (who arrived from Malaysia with her newborn twins) and also as a farewell visit to our good friends in the embassy; En. Rozian and his brother; Mami.
One of our main tentative was..going to Disneysea (this will be my 7th aim kot..coz I have a long list of shops form 1-6=p). I was supposed to go back to hubby's on Wednesday night, then only go to Tokyo on night of the next day. However, I could not wait to see him and fled on Tuesday. That means, it is possible for us to go to Tokyo on Wednesday night instead. But that's also depends on whether my husband manage to get a leave on Thursday. And it happened..he got the leave. So, we left Toyohashi for DisneySea (in Chiba) on the early morning of Thursday..
Let's skip on the story of the last peaceful Thursday I had..
Then Friday came.
Oh before I forgot, in Tokyo..we live in Malaysia Embassy's Staff Apartment, the unit of En.Rozian and his brother live of course. I bet you can listen to En. Rozian's voice giving report to the radio and TV on the day of the strikes.
Early in the morning, my friend from Malaysia with her newborn twins arrived together with her in laws. So, on the Friday, I was occupied with their arrival when we are supposed to go jalan2=p.. It happened that my foot were in pain (too much walking in DisneySea) hence I refused to go out that morning.
Since it was Friday, all men in the house went out for Friday prayers. Not many ladies in the house. Only three.
I was in my room when my husband went back from the prayer. We had a small chat when..our house shook slowly.. and we were stunned.
My husband said "oh, earthquake"
and..the shaking got harder..and harder..and he told me to run!
I couldn't move much..I ran wall to wall..my husband quickly dragged me out of the house.
I managed to snatch my handbag.
When I stepped out of the shaky house, I heard the others were screaming "Ya Allah..!!!"
We took the emergency stairs down ..I saw a lot of people also were running out of building. Some were just plunged out of buildings. When we reached the ground...I felt so dizzy..I was barefoot and felt the moving ground. The movement was intense and in circular motion. At some point, I could not stand up properly that my husband had to hold me tight. My body was still shaking after the earth stop doing that.
We waited until we felt a little calm. Then we went back to the house. We saw the others were there..not running out coz they weren't able. Everybody was looking at the TV. That's how fast it was covered by the news. We saw the tsunami came from the TV. The whole country was put on alert.
A few minutes later, another big strike shook the house. This time we were much more prepared with the bags and protection. We all ran out of the building and stayed outside. I saw all white faces..all were in fear. I tried calling my family in Malaysia but the phone was out...Internet was also down. We only have I-phone and facebook to connect to each other.
I must say, Facebook really plays an important role that day. Not just for us, but for the journalists worldwide. So, if you are FB addicts..hehe..no problem with that!
After about an hour, we were allowed to go back into the house. The caretaker reminded us to always keep our things well packed and wear sweater all the time..in case we have to run out of the house. The shaking kept coming every 10minutes to half an hour until we leave Tokyo.
On Friday and Saturday..nobody dared to leave the house. I saw everything from the news. I always stick to hubby like a baby kangaroo..hehe..
We had to sleep with our coat on..with bags at our side. The first night, most of us couldn't sleep. They were either woken up by the quake, or it was just because of adrenaline. Nevertheless, I slept like baby T_T..
We all stick together in the living room. Lucky us, the living room was so huge..very comfortable despite of numbers of us.
I have to thank Mami for the care, the food, the space and the talk he gave to comfort us all.
Thanks hubby too for always buat lawak mase tgh2 takut T_T
Looks like I failed to translate my fear on this blog. Probably it's because I had keeping it for a long time that I got immune to the fear. Notwithstanding the immunity, I have became extra sensitive to any movement surrounding me..
There are so many aspects that I have to be thankful in the incident:
1) I was with my husband. We were close to each other during the struck. I will be in so much worried if we were away from each other..ade yg kene sakit jantung.
2) We happened to live in an embassy's house. Thank God.
3) We were served like a king and queen despite of the quakes and chaos around us because of Mami.
4) We were in Japan. I cannot explained how good they are in dealing with this situation. Their humanity and calmness..I don't know other country with such spirits.
5) I have to thank my instinct for telling me to go back on the Tuesday so we could go to Disneysea on Thursday. Or else, we will be stranded all night in Chiba and got much nearer to the epicenter.
6) I accept the situation I had been in as Allah's way to show me the small thing He could do. I had experienced a very tiny winy of how doomsday felt like. I believe what I had experienced was toooo small compared to those struck by tsunami. By trust me..I was scared to death when the earth move that bit.
7) Thank you Allah again if not for Him, the epicenter probably is much nearer to where we were located.
8) It happened when we were already in the embassy. The safest place you could think of if you are a foreigner in the run.
These are the survivors in 501 (the house no.). Man at the most left, standing is En. Rozian. His brother is standing next to him. The others are our friend. We came that week purposely as goodbye visit for en. Rozian who will leave for good soon. Allah's will, He put us together to go through his test. How lucky would you consider yourself then?
I hope this story helps to clear out my situation in here.
So, you can now stop worrying about me. I am now in Hiroshima which is so far from Fukushima (the epicenter). We feel no quakes here and hopefully the radiation will not reach this prefecture.
InsyaAllah..
Thank you for your concern and doa. I really feel your love and appreciate it so much. Your doa has bring me to a safer place today. Alhamdulillah..
Pray for Japan,
Puan Wani