3.11

It was supposed to be a day of celebration. The third-graders at my school were getting ready for their graduation ceremony. This would be my third time experiencing bidding adieu to the senior students, so I thought I was familiar with the day's schedule.

It started off normally enough. I woke up early to curl my hair and wear my black suit. I parked my car on the soccer field, knowing the teachers' parking lot had to be left clear for the apres-graduation parade. I had my morning coffee in the staff room, then stealthily popped into the homerooms to snap some photos with grads. Everyone was pretty enthusiastic; the boys who never paid attention in English class even agreed to take a photo with me. The lengthy graduation ceremony was pretty routine - there were endless speeches, some songs were sung and the grads solemnly received their certificates from the principal. I shed tears when I saw the students do their final procession. Haruka-chan was the first kid who I saw bawling, so my eyes started welling up, too. It was also really difficult to watch Taiki-kun struggle during the entire ceremony. The poor kid's face lost all colour, and I thought he was going to vomit while sitting rigidly in his chair. Other teachers asked him three times if he wanted to be excused for the bathroom, but he wanted to experience his special day in its entirety. After the ceremony, I snapped more photos with the kids. I was especially excited to see the Takahashi family, because I've taught five of the kids (T-kun, J-kun, K-kun, J- kun and Kinou-chan). When 12:30 rolled around, the parents and the entire student body hopped into their cars or started walking home.

The rest of the teachers and I ate a special bento lunch in the staff room. I then spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for work to finish. I think I cleaned my desk. I placed a glittery knit hair scrunchie on my desk, a farewell gift that sweet Yusei-kun gave me after the ceremony. (I wish I had taken it with me!) A lot of the other teachers must've taken nenkyu, because people kept filtering away. Even my JTE had excused herself, but that's because her poor daughter was stuck at home with the chicken pox.

And then 2:46 p.m. rolled around.

We all felt the familiar rumble of an earthquake. I've experienced them before, and we usually just wait it out calmly. But a few seconds elapsed, and the tremors were getting stronger. The heavy kerosene heater behind my desk swaying. The school alarms started blaring. Things were toppling down from the bookshelves. That's when all of us teachers ran into the hallway. I was crouched on the floor, holding onto door frame with some other teachers. I remember kyoto-sensei closed the emergency slide door, cutting the hallway in half. We looked outside, as a strange snowstorm started brewing.

We waited for what seemed like forever, but it was probably only two or three minutes that we experienced strong waves of the building rocking violently. Dust was flying all over the place, ceiling tiles were jostled and windows cracked. It was so surreal.

When the shaking finally stopped, we ran into the staff room to quickly grab any personal belongings. The teachers' room was an absolute mess. Everyone's desk had been displaced so much, that the drawers spewed out everyone's papers. The heavy bookcases no longer contained binders and the like. I guess I paused for a long moment, because the P.E. teacher, who is one of the friendlier faces in the staff room, grabbed my arm and we both rushed outside. The teachers and I stood in the parking lot, as large snowflakes dropped from the March sky. I remember K-sensei repeatedly saying: "Chotto hen tenki. Chotto hen tenki." ("What strange weather...") And then the sun burst into the sky.

We thought the worst was over. However, we moved onto the soccer field and saw the damages. Poor Motomiya 2nd J.H.S. The sliding doors of each classroom had popped out, while the picture windows were in shards. The old school gym was now leaning to the side, with its walls peeling off like cardboard. Y-sensei had retrieved four helmets from his car, and was wearing one of them. We all joked about his preparedness for disasters.

Then a wave of "aftershocks" followed. They felt so strong that we had to crouch low on the soccer field. I remember holding onto Ooki-sensei's hand, both of us hissing "Kowaiiiii." (Scary...) She's a friendly thirty-something Japanese language teacher at my school. We rarely talk, but I was really grateful for her comfort that day.  Everyone joked that it was a good idea she had changed out of her graduation kimono earlier.

The aftershocks kept going and going. Someone brought out a portable radio. C-sensei told me the earthquake reached 6 on the Japanese scale. (These days, the Tohoku earthquake is considered a 9.0-magnitude earthquake). All of my teachers were getting ready to go home. They suggested I go bunk down with friends for the night. Earlier, I had asked if they had experienced anything like it.

It was a first for everyone.

It would only be in the late evening that I'd learn about the true severity of the earthquake. Sure, my school got destroyed and everything in my house got tossed around. We would see a tsunami wiping out entire cities and villages on the coast. It was like watching a movie. And then we would later about the trouble at the Fukushima nuclear complex...

がんばろう、日本！がんばろう、東北！(Let's hang on Japan. Let's hang on, Tohoku.)