IT was not my first earthquake. It was my third in Japan. The first I experienced in Tokyo in 2013. It wasn’t very strong but it was strong enough to rouse a light sleeper like me. The second one I experienced the following year in the Tokyo subway. It was a mild one.
A Japanese friend once told me that earthquakes are a part of Japanese life. I later read that mild tremors occur on a daily basis in Japan and because it is located at the crossroads of continental and oceanic plates, it experiences about 1,500 earthquakes annually. But this is why in terms of disaster planning, prevention and response, it’s hard to beat Japan.
We had just visited the Kobe Earthquake Memorial Museum the day before. The museum commemorates the 1995 Kobe earthquake that destroyed 400,000 buildings, 120 quays in the Port of Kobe, knocked over ten spans of the Hanshin Expressway, triggered 300 fires and killed more than 6,000 people.
Scenes of the horrific 6.9 Kobe Earthquake were still fresh in my mind when I was awakened by tremors at 7:58 in the morning of June 18, Friday.
Within seconds, my phone set off a blaring sound—an app alerting me of the earthquake. Simultaneously, the hotel alarm rang and the public address (PA) system came on, “We confirm an earthquake. Please remain in your rooms while we assess the safety of the building.”
Suddenly, I was wide awake in Osaka.
With my phone in hand, I thought of grabbing my handbag which contained all my valuables in case of evacuation. Then, the tremors stopped. I quickly opened the drapes to check activity in the streets. Seeing no pandemonium, my practical mind took over. I ran to the toilet—because who knew when and where the next toilet stop would be if the tremors returned and all hell broke loose?
The safety of the building as well as the elevators was confirmed over the PA system shortly thereafter. I saw a helicopter flying over the hotel—likely assessing damage over Osaka. I still saw a helicopter at the end of the day.
I had full confidence not only in the structural fitness of Swissotel Nankai Osaka but in its customer care and disaster response, if needed. I had stayed here twice before and have glowing reviews of this hotel.
Three hours after the quake, the Swissotel lobby was swarming with guests checking out. I thought the quake scared them; it was the taxis they were after. Airport trains had stopped running. Six hours after the quake, the trains resumed running, Twenty-four hours later, I was taking selfies at the 40th floor of the Umeda Sky Building.
I later ribbed my cousins, “Well, you were harping about the simulation that never happened in the museum yesterday...so, today, you got an actual earthquake.”
A 6.1 earthquake struck Osaka and I experienced first-hand Japan at its finest. I will definitely be back.