Typhoon, Earthquake..Spin & Shake

With these hurricanes coming one right after another...it's making me relive other storms.

Our house in Setagayaku was a two story frame, brick and alot of slate rock. None of the windows were windows like we have here.  All were sliding doors...the outer doors slid...the inner doors slid into a pocket.  The outer doors had a larger pocket built on the outside of the house and in that pocket was space for these metal pull out storms doors. 

Throughout the house there were over ten of these doors...and boy, it was not easy to pull those metal doors out.  You had to position your glass sliding doors just so, then slide over them the metal ones...to seal the last one you had to go out your front door and do it from outside.  Just the preparation knocked me for a loop.

Coming from safe secure NewYork I was not ready for a Typhoon.  Anyway, the news said the storm would hit during the night..and pretty close to Tokyo...so we shuttered ourselves in like sardines in can..with no view of the outside.

Somehow, that night, we managed to hold it together...did our normal routine, dinner, conversation, listening to the radio broadcasts..we could hear the wind pounding on the outside of the house.  Because of the metal doors it had a weird sound to it...almost alive.

Close to midnight, we decided it was safe enough to try to sleep.  The storm was still raging as I laid my head upon the pillow...before I knew it I must have fallen asleep.  Well! All of a sudden I feel myself being thrown out of the bed!  I awoke to find myself sitting next to the bed on the floor and the floor was shaking!

This was all too much for me, I just started crying.   Tom could not reach me fast enough, as he came to my side he said..."Oh, my God! We are having an earthquake too!"

He helped me up and headed me towards the center of the house, inside a hallway that had a doorway that we stood under...all the while the house is shaking, rolling.  I could hear objects falling in the house, pictures off the walls, God knew what else...you can't do anything.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, it stopped. We were happy that we weren't hurt, the house seemed okay except for a few foundation cracks that could be repaired.  Alot of the little things I had placed around the house were broken though.  I used to love to collect old colored glass bottles in different sizes...they fell, a friend of mine had given me a pre-Columbian statue..a small one...it broke into three pieces (still have it just for sentimental value) the pictures were fine.

So we prepared to unzip the house...as we opened each door...it was remarkable - a brighter, prettier day than I had ever seen there.  It was as if God had decided to wash away all the dirt and grime from the city.  I stepped out on the little veranda and breathed in deeply....it was so beautiful.  When I think of the day after...I just have to smile....