The Anxious Trek

The story I tell is not one of my own, but rather the experiences of the over 16 million human beings who commute in and out of Tokyo for work. The earthquake besieged Tokyo just minutes before the clock struck 3 in the afternoon. On an ordinary day, the 16,000,000 people would be in the office for another five to nine hours before departing the office, either to return home, or to drink with their boss and coworkers. This day, most of the workers took one of two courses of action. Either remain in the office overnight, and make the journey home when public transit is restored, or risk the walk or drive home immediately. Greater Tokyo is a city of 36 million souls, and while its infrastructure could suit the vast majority of metropolises in this situation, the largest concentration of people in history is a different animal to contend with. The focus of this story will be on those who elected to return to their families and pets immediately. After the massive tremors has subsided, an equally massive logjam swarmed the well-kept streets of Tokyo. I have little doubt that the city had never before seen traffic like that night, and I am certain that in my thirteen years in central Tokyo, it was the most surreal sight I have seen. The roads were populated equally with vehicles and people who had spill out from the overflowing sidewalks. Looking on from my mostly stationary bus window, I could not help but draw comparisons to all those post-apocalyptic movies my brother was so keen on. A particular portrayal of the desperation was that every bicycle store in the region had been cleaned out, likely purchased, but possibly stolen. While the exact number is well beyond me, I would contend my eyes saw at least 50,000 people stream by the bus windows. The closest comparison I can make, while grotesque, is the mass migration of insects. There is no way around it, while Tokyo was unlucky to be struck my the earthquake, in almost every other respect, it was lucky. March in Tokyo is quite temperate, but that year was particularly warm. Had the earthquake hit two months ago, I shudder to imagine the fierce cold these millions would have endured. Had it hit two months in the future, heat exhaustion would have surely claimed an offensive number of lives. Furthermore, Japan is far and away the most strict with building codes to accomodate the threat of earthquakes. Had the tremors shook the hundred-year old buildings in Europe, the death toll from the earthquake would certainly rank among the worst catastrophes since the Black Plague. On behalf of all the "trekkers" of Tokyo that night, I am thankful that something unfortunate happened under such fortunate conditions.