tokyo after quake 1

when the earthquake hit japan on the 11th march, i was organizing a seminar in Hamamatsucho, tokyo. the quake was big enough to make all the participants and lecturers panic, and soon after the quake, the seminar was naturally canceled. after about an hour of cancellation, we headed back to our office in Nishi-shinbashi, about 15minutes walking distance from where we had the seminar, while afterquakes kept hitting the country. 

what i saw on the way to the office was tremendous amounts of people evacuating from their work places with helmets on. ive learned that tokyo is the biggest city in the world with regards to population, but ive never seen that many people during the day time on weekdays in the CBD. some were just waiting, and some were already walking back to where they live. 

tokyo's public transportation system is super convenient and therefore it allows millions of people to commute from distance. yet its not necessarily resilient for its location (as a city with many natural disasters). relatively big earthquakes and typhoons can easily paralyze the transport system for hours. this time, it stopped almost a half day or longer. this led to the millions of people had choices, either to walk home, take cab home, or stay at hotels or friends' or offices. i believe they all wanted the choice "to head back home by trains" but it was out of order. i chose neither of them, cycling home as usual. 

on the way home, i saw hundreds of taxis and buses stuck by traffic jam, thousands of people walking with their determination to get home (and some failed), and millions of people waiting for taxis hopelessly. as i cycled, i reconfirmed that my choice to live near to the central was a right decision.

although it was crystal clear that heading to stations would never bear any fruits but still some did anyway seemingly. heres the shinjuku station. many were just waiting helplessly, hopelessly. 

when i passed by the tokyo metropolitan hall, the building was full of lights regardless of its time. apparently most of municipal officers had to stay overnight that day. and many police officers had to maintain peace and order.

of course this was not an ordinary thing but an once-in-lifetime urgent matter in tokyo. yet by seeing this chaos and panic, i came to realize that we are way too dependent on what we take for granted which could be of no use when we really need. many news around the globe regarded japan as the most disaster prepared nation, yet obviously we are way too far from ready yet. 

its not deniable that tokyo needs some time to get recovered (let alone northeast) yet we cannot let the lesson from this brutal disaster a waste. i hope tokyo is wise enough to make the most of this bitter experience to make it more livable. this is a crucial point for tokyo to shift its paradigm to another. as a tokyo-urbanite&planner-wanna-be, i really hope i can contribute to tokyo to be wiser.