My Tsunami Experience in Chiba, Japan 2011

It was a fine sunny morning in Chiba, a perfect time to go out for a stroll.  My youngest sister decided to take us to Ikspiari Mall, a mall connected to Tokyo Disneyland. The mall has a "California feeling" to it.  Some of the shops are located inside a building while some are scattered outside the building creating alfresco dining and shopping. 

Since I am the only Muslim in my family, my sister had to search for shops selling seafood and vegetarian food.  While we couldn't find halal restaurants, a lot of them sell vegetarian dishes. I had a seaweed salad with takoyaki (octopus dumpling with sauce) while my mom and sisters went for bentos and sobas.

Just after we finished our lunch, we felt the earth swayed.  I thought I had too much food thus feeling dizzy (it happened very times).  But when my sisters and mom felt the same way, the word earthquake came instantly to my mind. I took my mom and sisters outside the mall, moving far from glass window displays.

After 10 seconds, it stopped and we just smiled, telling each other how usual it was to have earthquake in Japan.  We sat on the stair and took pictures of ourselves to remind us that we experienced earthquake in Japan.  Seconds after we finished taking pictures, we felt another movements, this time stronger and longer than the first one.  My mom held on to me while my sister Vivi held my youngest sister, Yulli. Some visitors  sat down on the floor, some just stood quietly..... nobody screamed, nobody cried and nobody ran. So I was calm and relax too... I still thought it was a normal thing to happen in Japan.

I heard announcement from the mall management but unfortunately we couldn't understand a thing.  Although my sister understood some Japanese, she has not mastered it yet.  What she could understand was the word "follow the attendants".  So we followed the crowds walking outside the mall.  We didn't know where we were heading and when we asked the attendants, they just asked us to follow the directions.. There were more than 1000 people walking with us.  My sister tried to call my brother in law, but the phone line was dead.  While walking, we noticed bus stops toppled, roads cracked, water spurred from the ground, and the roads became muddy. 

The ground dropped by about 30 cm

The road infront of Disneyland cracked

Only then my sister checked on twitter and facebook.  Only then we found out that it was not the usual earthquake.  Only then we found out that there was a tsunami somewhere in Japan.

After walking more than 1 hour, the rain started to drizzle, and we still didn't know where we're going.  My mom decided to leave the group and walk to the nearest hotel instead. We used fixed telephone line to call taxi but after several attempts we gave up.  No taxi was available.  We couldn't check in because the hotel was fully booked.  We just lingered in the lobby, sheltering ourselves from the strong wind and cold weather, for about 2 hours. While we knew we couldn't stay in the lobby forever, we also knew it's impossible to go home.  We needed to find another hotel.

We walked out braving the strong wind and cold night (it was 6 C), looking for a hotel sign.  We saw a Eurasia Spa & Hotel about 1 km away and walked there.  Since it was dark, we didn't know that the road was very muddy... it was a very difficult walk.  Our boots sank into the mud and the wind hit us very strong, it was difficult to even keep our balance.  But there was no turning back.

my boots when we entered the hotel lobby

When we reached the main entrance, the security guard denied entry... Our hearts sank.... They said they were closed and couldn't accept anyone in.  We didn't know what to do.. I just prayed and prayed and prayed to God and sat on the floor.  My mom and sisters just stood by the entrance and tried to influence Yulli to talk to a lorry driver on the street to give us a ride.  We will pay as much as he asked. But it was too windy to walk and most lorries didn't stop.

Eurasia Spa & Hotel at Maihama, Urayasu - next to Disneyland Tokyo

As we were losing hope, suddenly an old security guy called me and asked me to use hotel fixed telephone line to call taxi.  I wanted to explain to him that i did try to call but no taxi but i didn't speak Japanese and he didn't speak English.  Besides, i thought " better be inside than outside of the building, even for 10 minutes... it's too cold".  While climbing the stairs, i told the guy that my sister was sick (she got stomach cramps few times).  Suddenly he felt sorry for us and took me to the receptionist.  I saw hundreds of people in the lobby, some sleeping on the floor, some sitting in the cafetaria (closed) and some playing with their handphones.

He said something to the guy and we were offered a shelter in a spa...!!  God answered my prayers..!! We didn't need to walk to train station and sleep there.. They sent us to a room filled with adjustable sofas, the kind we see at the business class flights.  We had access to toilets, drinking water and internet. I could send emails and notice on FB to tell my friends n relatives that we r OK.





One of the shelters provided by Eurasia Spa & Hotel



We were very fortunate to get the reclining sofas with attached TV

The management even distributed onigiri to everyone. We are forever thankful to the Eurasia Spa & Hotel for giving us shelter that night.  Without them we would have slept on the floor of train station together with thousands of others evacuated from the mall and Disneyland.

With the help of his kind neighbour, my brother-in-law picked us up the next morning by car.  It was an experience that intensified my faith in God, my admiration for Japanese and my belief in prayers.

During that difficult times, I saw how the Japanese were still very discipline and helpful.  No chaos... everyone walked and queued. Chefs and shop keepers stood by the road side, giving directions and helps to their "customers" (all of us, the mall attendants).  When the hotel distributed free food, all formed a line and queued, took only 1 piece per person. I can't imagine if this thing happened in Indonesia or Malaysia, everyone would definitely trying to "berebut" and take as many as they could.  People would fight over free food...

I left Japan few days after the tsunami.  I took a 5.30am train to Narita for my 11 o'clock flight.  The airport was packed and the line for my flight was already very long when I arrived at 8am.

I am thankful for Malaysian Airlines (MAS).  While other airline took advantage by charging extorbitant fee to fly out from Japan, MAS waived any charge for changing flight schedule (despite the fact that i bought a cheap restricted non-changable ticket) and keep to their normal fares.  Their service has been great...

Narita Airport at 7am

Waiting in line, I talked with some people who were also trying to leave Japan.  While I was talking to one guy who had to take flight to KL-Singapore-Franfurt-Paris-then train to Nice, I didn't realize that suddenly there was a guy stood by my side.  He tried to make conversation with me asking me where I came from.  When I told him that I was from Malaysia, he said he was also from Malaysia and kept on talking.  I told him that the queue started 5 meters behind me and that he should go there.  He pretended he didn't hear me and talked as if I was his relative.  I was MAD.  He cut the queue...!! I turned my head, told him to queue and pushed my bags against his bag. 

He was not happy but I really couldn't stand people who refuse to queue.  I stood there for 2 hours and suddenly this guy appeared and stood by my side, queing together. 

Inside the plane, I kept on praying for the survivors of the tsunami and earth quake...  May God give them strength to rebuild their lives.

I was forever thankful for my friends and relatives who had cared and prayed for us.  God really answered my and their prayers.. It was such a beautiful feeling to know so many people care and love us.  I got a lot of emails and messages inquiring our safeties, all wishing and praying for good things.  I feel so lucky to have them in my life.  May God always bless their lives.