A Different Reaction to the Great Tohoku Earthquake

This is a conversation I had with Haruto, a 24 year old university student from Osaka, who was job hunting in Tokyo on the day of the earthquake.

Me: So you said you went to some company seminars in Tokyo. When was that?

Haruto: Oh, last Friday.

Me: Last Friday? That was the day of the big earthquake!

Haruto: Yeah, let me tell you about it. I was in the seminar and at around 2:50 I felt the earthquake.

Me: It must have felt pretty big right?

Haruto: Well, not so big, but it went for a while, more than a minute I think.

Me: Were you scared?

Haruto: No, not at all. We Japanese are used to earthquakes you know. So we just went outside for 20 minutes.

Me: 20 minutes? What did you do after that?

Haruto: We went back in and resumed the seminar.

Me: Huh? So could you get back to Osaka that night?

Haruto: Oh no, the company organised accommodation for us.

Me: In a hotel?

Haruto: No, we all stayed in a hall. I slept on 4 chairs!

Me: You must have been cold right?

Haruto: Nah, it was good. The company provided blankets and there was aircon.

Me: Oh OK. What about dinner?

Haruto: We got rice balls from the company and this kind of umm, dried rice thing. You added hot water and waited for 15 minutes and it was delicious!

Haruto shows me a photo of it. Yeah, it looked not bad, kind of like a risotto with some chunks of meat.

Me: And breakfast?

Haruto: Just a Calorie Mate from a convenience store.

Me: So how did you get home in the end?

Haruto: Well, luckily the company wasn't far from Tokyo Station. So, after I got up at 5, I walked there in about 30 minutes and found the bullet train was still running. It was good because none of the local trains were!

Me: Cool. How long did it take to get back to Osaka?

Haruto: Well, the bullet trains were running according to the usual schedule so I got on the train at 6 and it took about 2 hours 40 minutes to get back to Osaka.

Me: Huh. Well, I still can't believe you just went back in and continued the seminar after the earthquake. Wasn't there any damage to the building?

Haruto: Oh there were some cracks in the walls. But it was no big deal.

Me: Huh.