OU Graduate in Japan: 'Well, I Might Die Today'

A recent Oakland University graduate and a current OU student, both in Japan at the time of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, are trying to get back to a normal schedule just days after the devastating natural disaster left thousands of people dead and countless more fearing radiation from nearby nuclear reactors.

"I was shopping at Don Quixote when the quake hit," said Heather Grady, 27, who graduated from OU in 2009 with a degree in Japanese Women's History and teaches English to children in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture (map here). "I remember noticing the floor shake, but everyone around me was playing it cool."

Grady, who originally hails from Holly, worked for two years as a barista at the Starbucks on the northeast corner of Walton Boulevard and Squirrel Road before moving to Japan in 2010.

"Shelves started falling and people started to look worried," she said. "Then, a shelf of false eyelashes fell on me. The shaking suddenly intensified and it was difficult to stand."

Grady said store employees began telling everyone to get outside, and people had to "stumble or crawl out of the store" because the building was shaking so violently.

"I could see all the buildings in Shintsudanuma swaying," she continued. "People were yelling and crying; it seemed like the shaking would never stop. I watched the buildings sway and crack and accepted the fact that I couldn’t move.

"I realized that if the roof collapsed or the window shattered that was supporting me, I would die. I was too in shock to be afraid. It was more of a quiet sadness that I thought, 'Well, I might die today. That makes me really sad.' I had no way of knowing at that time that thousands had already been killed."

Grady eventually made her way to a tiny park outside the building, where a crowd of people also seeking safety had gathered during the aftershocks that immediately followed the initial earthquake.

Making her way home

Grady said she stayed in the clearing for about an hour before she decided to get home, but "the trains stopped working immediately" and the train station was littered with broken glass and soaked with water from broken pipes, she said.

"I didn’t know how to get home, so I tried to follow the tracks," Grady said. "There were hundreds of people walking on the tiny sidewalks. Buses were filled to capacity and weren’t accepting passengers. It was surreal."

Grady walked the entire eight miles home, stopping by the main school where she teaches to check on things.

"The office was in complete chaos," she said. "When I saw the tipped refrigerator, I remembered my open can of Coke that I’d left in there that morning. I moved the microwave and struggled to open the refrigerator door. It was safe – and still cold! After walking for what felt like an eternity, this was a serious victory."

Grady and her co-worker left the school to find food when they noticed a mushroom cloud in the distance from the burning Ishihara City oil refinery. Eventually, Grady made it back to her apartment, which was "relatively intact" except for a toaster oven that had fallen into the sink, leaving a large dent in its side.

'Every tremor was a grim reminder of the state of things'

"Later that night, there was talk of power outages and radioactive fallout," Grady said. "I hadn’t read about any of this on the news, but my co-workers were heading to the store to get emergency supplies, so I sleepily went along."

Grady said the store was almost empty, and key supplies like flashlights, bread, water, rice and meat had disappeared from the store shelves; as of Sunday, these supplies had not yet been replenished.

"We were advised to shut our windows and turn off our air conditioners to keep out radioactive particles," she said. That night, Grady and her friends drank beer, watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and "tried to forget the seriousness of what was happening, but every tremor was a grim reminder of the state of things."

Grady says it has been a sobering time for everyone.

Michigan students in Japan

OU student and Lapeer resident Jessica Tess, who is studying abroad this semester in Hikone, Shiga (map here) through the Japanese Center for Michigan Universities, agreed with Grady.

"Many of my fellow students are staying in with home-stay families around Hikone and the surrounding towns," Tess said. "They have reported many are worried about loved ones and are greatly saddened, in general."

Tess, who was studying in her dorm room at the time of the earthquake, said the shockwaves she and her fellow JCMU students experienced were minor compared to the Tokyo and Sendai areas in northern Japan. 

"I didn't realize what was going on at first, since I had never experienced an earthquake," said Tess. "I was sitting very still and it seemed as if the room started to spin, like it would if I were going to pass out."

She likened the motion to a whirlpool, and when her curtains started shaking, she finally realized it wasn't just her.

"I heard other students out in the hallway yelling, and at this point I realized it was an earthquake. It was still relatively weak; my roommate had been sleeping and it didn't wake her."

Recovering from disaster

Despite numerous aftershocks and the looming threat of nuclear radiation, Tess said the mood in Japan is "distressed, of course, but not helpless."

"In Japanese society, the main approach is to persevere through whatever life hands you," Grady explained. "They have a phrase for it: shoganai. 'It can't be helped.'"

In Hikone, JCMU students and residents are doing what they can to conserve electricity, gas and water. Near Tokyo, including the area where Grady is living and working, three-hour scheduled outages are helping to conserve energy.

Despite all that has happened in the past few days, neither Grady nor Tess say they are considering returning to the United States, though Grady admitted, "If there was a serious nuclear leak, then yes, I would come home. But right now, things are stressful but not life-threatening."

"Unless something occurs closer to Hikone, I will be staying right where I am," echoed Tess. "I only have five more weeks at this point until the semester is over."

For now, Grady and Tess say they are just working to get back into a routine.

"The general mood is to keep going and just try to get things back to normal," Grady said, although "there is definitely tension in the air."

"We’re worried, and maybe a little scared, but we know how lucky we are. We still have our lives, unlike the thousands who don’t."