Harvard Workshop @ASIJ

On the day of the 3/11 Earthquake, I was at my school in downtown Tokyo. I was in the library listening to the librarian explain things. When we felt the first wave hit, most of ignored it. I had lived all my life in Japan, so I was use to the quakes. When the intercom came online, "Duck and Cover" we all knew something was different. Moments later, we were all under a desk or table, books had started to fall of the shelves. I can still remember vividly exactly where I was, almost 8 years later. When the shaking had calmed down, I remember getting up and seeing that most of the books had fallen off the shelves. When we got to our designated pick-up zone, most of us were horrified of the experience. I remember being at the pick-up zone for hours until my parents got there. It took us an extra 3 hours to get home. School was cancelled for the next two weeks. When school reconvened, many families had not returned. Some people heard the news of the radiation and left the country and never looked back.