my experience

I was in class in middle school in Yokohama, Japan. It was English class and so when the ground started to shake we casually went under the desks because we were used to it. But as we sat we realized the tremors were longer than they usually were. I looked outside the window and the telephone poles were shaking so violently I realized this was kind of weird. Finally it stopped and so I went to the bathroom. As I walked back to class, the hallway started shaking again. The lockers were rattling and I was overcome with immense fear. At the end of the hallway was a window and through that window I thought I saw a fire far away (no idea what that was to this day) and I thought something really bad and scary was going on. I ran back to class. Thankfully we hadn't been dismissed yet so no one was on the subway (the students' main form of commute) yet. Everyone's parents were trying to call, but phone lines were down. As evening came we all tried to find local houses to stay in. I stayed at my friend's house and some stayed overnight at school. I didn't realize the sevreity of what happened (the tsunami, etc) until my friends and I turned on the TV late at night.