The impact of the earthquake

As you already know, on March 11th, the M9 Tohoku earthquake hit Japan.
When it hit Hachioji, I was correcting a musical score in the kitchen of the "Okiya", geisha house, where I work.
At first I saw flowers on the table swaying, then the "Okiya" began to shake terribly.

I quickly took shelter under the table. I felt it continued for a very long time.
When the shaking stopped, I went up to the second flower in order to watch TV.
I couldn't image the full impact at that time. Unfortunately, I was in the "Okiya" alone.

Soon after a big aftershock came, and I held on to a pillar. I tried to call to my geisha mother and geisha sisters, however I couldn't get through to anyone.

After the third aftershock, I went to my usual hair salon, because I didn't want to stay at the "Okiya" alone. Fortunately I could meet my geisha mother and a geisha sister there.

After we went back to the "Okiya", we watched TV continually, so that we could understand what had happened. However at that time, we still couldn't imagine that the earthquake was the most terrible one in recent history.

My favorite geisha sister, who I had paired up with at the "Obake" event, became pale when we were watching TV, because her parents’ house was near the seismic center.
She tried to call to her parents and brother, however she couldn't get through to any members of her family.

On that day, I had not been called to an ozashiki party, so my geisha mother said to me that I should take the place of my favorite geisha sister.

Before the ozashiki party had started, news that all trains would stop running was announced, so I would have to spend the night at the “Okiya”. Since my make-up was at home I went shopping to buy some extra cosmetics in a hurry, in case there were ozashiki parties the next day. It was my first time to stay at the "Okiya" overnight.

My geisha mother and I continued to watch TV in her private room in order to find out more information, however we couldn't get any useful information that might confirm the safety of my geisha sister’s family.

The next day, my geisha mother asked me to use her PC in order to try again to get information about my geisha sister's family.

At first we tried calling some official organisations, such as the police department, however we couldn't get through. Nevertheless we tried calling again and again.

While my geisha mother and other geisha sisters continued calling, I tried searching for information on the Internet, however I also couldn't get helpful information.

Later, I found "Person finder" which Google had set-up for this disaster, so I left some comments on that website.

Several days later, on of her relatives saw our comment on Google and called my geisha sister, so finally we could know her parents were safe and alive.

After that another geisha sister found that her brother's name was written on one of the refugee lists.

We felt greatly relieved.

However almost all ozashiki parties had been cancelled as a result of this earthquake.
In addition, Tokyo electric power company (TEPCO) announced scheduled blackouts.
In Hachioji, some scheduled blackout were enforced.

I decided to help my journalist friend, who had introduced me to Mr.X, with preparing relief supplies that he transported to his hometown by car and rental truck. This made me think what I could do for the victims.
As a result I started working for a nonprofit organization as a volunteer.

It also made me realize that I want to continue working as a geisha, so I decided to practice even harder for my future and the Hachioji geisha world.