Back home

Hello my lovelies, it's been 4 days since my arrival back home in Germany. I arrived on March, 17 and my family and my friends were waiting for me at Düsseldorf airport with flowers and presents, haha! Such a warm welcome. I also want to thank you for your comments all those last posts, I still didn't respond to them, but I read everything. Thank you so much, your support in this time means a lot to me. 

The last couple of days I just did nothing. I usually hang round at home, but yesterday and the following days I 'll meet my friends and we just spend a nice time chatting, the usual stuff. It feels good to do some normal things :-) The good thing about that whole catastrophe is: you get to realize who your real friends are, who really care where you are and what you do. I'm really glad I have such friends. Having experienced the same thing, it's really bonding.

Well, now I'm in the mood to retell you my experience which happend ever since March 11, 14:46 local time in Tokyo. It's been 11 days, but my memories are still so fresh, so I had better write everything down XD

Thursday, March 10: I picked up my friend Lara from Narita airport in the morning, she was supposed to start her one year exchange programme at a university in Yokohama on March 14, and she wanted to spend her very first days in Japan with me and my roommate Charlotte. I even took 5 days holiday from work and told my boss my very good friend is coming to Japan.

 At Narita Airport March 10

After picking her up we went to my apartment, put down her stuff and went to stroll aound in Ikebukuro, where we had some donuts at Mr. Donuts and some purikura in Club Sega. It was a calm and normal day, like every other day.

Friday, March 11 (yeah, that day that turned my perfect life in Tokyo upside down...): We woke up at around 11 am, took showers, dressed up and thought about where to have lunch. Since Charlotte and me love TGI Fridays so much we decided to go there. We are frequent customers there, and it is just around the corner where we live. We had a lovely lunch and just finished at about 14:30, and a few minutes later the buliding began to shake. At first I thought I was just feeling dizzy, but as the shaking didn't stop, no instead it became more worse and it was quite long, the waiter screamed: Everyone get out of the building! I snatched my bag and jacket and we ran out as fast as we could, while the stairs were shaking and shaking. Luckily we were only on the second floor. We had to wait outside sometime, and were let inside again for a short time until it began to shake again...

 TGI staff handing out blankets and trying to calm down customers

 The building next to TGI and pople standing outside

 Lara, me and Charlotte while waiting outside. Everything was still fine at this point. We didn't know anything about the Tsunami or the nuclear plant until the early evening.

Well, we had to leave the building again and mailed to our families with our phones at home who were surely watching the morning news to let them know we were safe and nothing happened to us. Then we left TGI and decided to head home. Our apartment was still fine, just some items were lying on the floor and the drawers were not in the cupboard anymore, but everything else was okay. No broken cups and stuff XD Then we headed outside again, but most cafes and supermarkets were closed, and even trains stopped running. Thank God I didn't have to work that day, I surely would have stranded in Juban and wouldn't make it home. Charlotte's friend Ashley stranded in Ikebukuro and we let her stay in our apartment that night. The lines for taxis and busses was increadibly long as you can imagine. We had aftershocks the whole night, but I nevertheless slept quite well.

Empty shelves in our local combini

Saturday, March 12: We met a friend in Ebisu in the afternoon, when Charlotte received a mail from her mum that the nuclear power plant in Fukushima exploded. But we sticked to our original plan to ipck up another friend in Juban, and went to Tullys where I work to have some coffee and to think about what to do. We decided to go to the German embassy and ask for advice, but the people there were not helpful at all, and we headed home again. After long Skype sessions with the families at home, Lara and Charlotte decided to leave Tokyo still that night. They packed their stuff and headed for Narita at around 9 pm. I stayed behind cause I didn't see the need to leave, and also I couldn't contact my family. 

Sunday, March 13: I stayed at home all day, just left for 20 minutes to go to the supermarket, and skyped wit my family who told me to go. They rebooked my flight ticket back for Thursday, March 17.

Monday, March 14: I met up with Juliane, to go to the immigration office in Tokyo to get ourselves re-entry permits so that we could come back with the same Working Holiday Visa. It was full, I think over 700 people were waitng to get that stamp in their passports. We were finished in about three and a half hour, but we met some girls who were already waiting since 9 hours... So crazy... The rest of the day I spent chatting and skyping with friends.

Tuesday, March 15: My boss called me while I was on my way to Juban to explain myself and to spent he whole day there anyways. He worried about me XD So I was there in Tullys Juban until they closed to see my colleagues and my boss and to say goodbye at least temporarily. They understood I had to go as well as my two Korean colleagues who also left. I was really so sad I had to leave, more than I was afraid of radiation to be honest. 

Wednesday, March 16: I bought a bus ticket to Narita in the morning and left for the airport a day before my flight. I spent 19 hours waitng, sleeping, eating and peoplewatching. It was so boring...

Thursday, March 17: My flight left Tokyo on time at 11 am local time, I arrived in London at 15, and almost missed my connecting flight to Düsseldorf. I had to ran through half Heathrow, hahaha!

Well, you know the rest of the story. I really hope the situation will calm down over there soon. I really miss my Tokyo and everything XD