Friday March 11th.. Further update

Thanks for all the comments and good wishes.  Tokyo is still shaking and we are still experiencing many aftershocks.  Today will live long in my memory.  It was an extremely frightening experience.  I think it was sometime between 2.30pm and 3.00pm that I noticed some shaking in my apartment.  By the time I got out to the front door there were three other people there and we all decided that it would be best to go outside as every second that passed the quake was getting stronger.  We were running for open space by the time we reached the open street... People screaming and running everywhere... I was not only concerned about the buidlings collapsing but also the many power lines overhead.  I eventually found a wooden frame to hide under by a fork (split) in the roadway.  Every building and powerlines were swaying violdently... and the ground was like jelly... Eventually after what seemed like an enternity the fierce shaking stopped but the whole place was still swaying..  Felt like being on a boat... Eventually I made my way to a small park where I often go for an hour to sit and think.. There must have been a couple of hundred people there just standing and waiting for the shaking to stop.

There are lots of choppers in the sky and I can see on the news that many places around Tokyo are on fire.  It is obvious from the news that there is much devastion and many many people dead or injured in northern Japan...  Thoughts and prayers must go to those people... We have gotten away lightly in Tokyo by comparison.  It's strange and you may not believe me but... ever since I have arrived here in Nippori since the group left, it has crossed my mind everyday about "what if"... "what if" an earthquake happened here... Afterall, they say that the "Big One" is imminent... Was this it?  Let's hope it was and that there is no more to come.

I must go out to the common area in the hotel now and just sit down with everybody else who stays here.  Thanks again to all of you for thinking about me