March 11th as a HS Student in Tokyo

I was sitting in my middle school band class at the American School in Japan. My teacher was talking at the front of the class drawing a diagram of a man playing a tuba when the room started to shake. We were too busy laughing and listen to understand it was an earthquake; we just thought it was just the vibrations from a student playing the large drums, but soon, we realized that the shaking was getting stronger. We all decided to get under our band chairs, as we did in our earthquake drills. The evacuation process was simple, as our school field was right outside the band room. But the majority of the school was going to the main field while we were still at the middle school. None of us knew what to do, so we were worriedly standing on the middle school field awaiting further instruction. After a small period of waiting, we all went to the main high school field, where panic was arising. Many people in my grade (7th grade) were crying and none of us knew what was really happening. Phones were shut down, so the limited amount of information we were getting came from the few students that had iPhones and internet service. After an hour and a half on sitting anxiously on the main field, we were moved to the buses to go home. Our school is about 45 minutes away from downtown Tokyo, but we weren't expecting the level of traffic we endured. Everyone was scared and hurriedly getting onto the buses to go home. As all the elementary students stayed home, my bus was almost completely empty. The highways were completely shut down, so we had no choice but to take the local roads. After a seven hour bus ride, we finally made it home. A couple days later, my family and I went to Los Angeles to stay with my aunt, as none of us wanted to remain in Tokyo. It was almost scarier in the U.S., as the American news programs were dramatic and constant. At least in Tokyo, we had limited information to panic about. But a few weeks later, we returned to Tokyo, but some never did.