As I am going back home next week, I need to apply for a re-entry visa at the Japan Immigration Office on my own since I am no longer a student in the language school.
I was told that I need to take a bus to the office once I arrived at the nearest train station, and I was quite excited because this is gonna be my first time riding a bus in Tokyo!
The bus inside! Only few seats are available inside the bus. :(
And no matter where you go, they charge you for 200 yen.
The bus stop is located just beside the Shinagawa station (number 8), and yes, I wasn't expecting anything to happen when I arrived here.
One thing I noticed is that the immigration officers are fast workers. They checked approx. 150 passports in one hour. Amazing.
Just 5 numbers before my turn, the Sendai earthquake happened. Everyone panicked and started to run towards to the exit, but was stopped by the officers to prevent anyone from any injuries of falling down because of the shake. Everyone covered their heads and stayed out of the window. This is the second biggest earthquake I've encountered since the earthquake that struck Indonesia in 2004. :(
After a while, the earthquake stopped and everything resumed to normal. One of the visitors turned on the news and we learned that a tsunami has occured in Sendai.
After I am done with my business in the office, I walked back to take the bus to go back to Shinagawa station. During the ride in the bus, another earthquake occured and people burst out from the building. Some pedestrians stopped walking and did nothing beside staring at the swinging cables on the utility poles.
When I arrived at Shinagawa station, I found out that all the trains were cancelled for the time being due to the earthquake. Some glass fragments were found on the floor, looks like the lights above on the ceiling dropped down. Police and the station officers directed everyone to leave the station.
A view from the pedestrian crossing bridge, people were waiting outside the station, hoping that all the trains will operate again soon.
At this point, cell phones were all dead and I couldn't make any phone calls. D:
45 minutes, 1 hour, I waited at the station but nothing seems to be moving into a good direction, so I decided to give up on the train and tried to find other ways to go home.
Taxis, buses and telephone boxes were things that I tried to avoid. There were at least 100 hunded people lining for taxis and buses and 20-30 people lining for EACH telephone box.
It was a chaos around the station.
People were queuing at every bus stop.
I realized that the best choice I had was to go home on foot. So, I thought may be I should buy some food and drink on my way because this is gonna be a long journey (10 stations apart from Shinagawa station to the station located nearest to my dorm).
It was a shocking view, every convenience store I went to, ran out of bread, bentos, maps and cup noodles (you even need to queue to enter the convenience store at some shops). I only managed to buy a drink at the first store. All department stores were closed and some 24 hours dining place (Burger King, McDonalds, 吉野家, etc.) were closed because they ran out of supplies. The streets were full of people walking back and forth, looking at the maps and asking the traffic officers for directions.
I managed to get a 肉まん and a bread (the last 3 packs) at Sunkus (I think this was the 20++th convenience store I went to).
Filled with panic, worry, excitement, I continued to walk and run without knowing the direction. And the cell phone was still not working...
After walking for around 3 and 1/2 hours, I managed to reach Shibuya! (the crowd are just unexplainable, it was so so crowded!!!) Everyone was panicking because the train stations were all closed and would not be operating for the day.
When I arrived at Harajuku, I finally managed to make a phone call to my sister, telling her that at least to inform my parents that I am alright (yeah, they were panicking because they couldn't reach me since the earthquake occured).
Filled with panic, worry, excitement, I continued to walk and run without knowing the direction. And the cell phone was still not working...
After walking for around 3 and 1/2 hours, I managed to reach Shibuya! (the crowd are just unexplainable, it was so so crowded!!!) Everyone was panicking because the train stations were all closed and would not be operating for the day.
When I arrived at Harajuku, I finally managed to make a phone call to my sister, telling her that at least to inform my parents that I am alright (yeah, they were panicking because they couldn't reach me since the earthquake occured).
After that, again, the communication system went error. I reached Shin Okubo one hour later and bought a corn dog at 7-11 store (bread and the others were just impossible to get).
After the 5-hour walk, I finally arrived at my dorm safely and my facebook was filled with notifications from worried families and friends, asking about the situation and all.
Thank you all for the concerns. =)
