life more beautiful: The Japan Quake (2): The long ride to Sendai

This is a continuation of the first post, found here.

We woke up early the following morning. Definitely not my typical Sunday. I didn’t get more than a couple of hours of sleep actually, but given that I didn’t sleep the night before, it was better than nothing. The SCDF team had to get up at 6am to tend to their canine charges, and the three of us journalists got up soon after. We were joined later by another photojournalist from our paper, who arrived the previous night on a later flight at Haneda Airport.

But the bad news came soon after. The Japanese foreign affairs ministry’s liaison officer for the SCDF team confirmed that we will not be allowed on the Self-Defence Force C130, which will take them to Fukushima’s Soma city, because of military sensitivities.

So we had to find alternative ways to get up north. There were some problems, however:

The Tohoku Shinkansen, which normally would be the most efficient way to get to Sendai, was suspended after the quake.
Rental cars were unavailable.
Taxi companies, which usually take passengers from Narita to as far as Sendai, have temporarily suspended such trips because of the radiation scare at Fukushima. One reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant exploded the day before.
Sendai Airport, which was inundated during the tsunami, was still closed. The closest airport with flights from Tokyo that day was Yamagata, but all flights were fully booked. There was only one option – to fly to Misawa in Aomori (the northern-most prefecture on Honshu), and then make our way south. But even if we did take that flight, we still had to deal with the question of renting a car or hiring a driver.

Things were looking quite bleak by then, and then we got lucky. A couple of friendly photojournalists from the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily, curious about the SCDF team and the dog cages, came by to chat with us. And they told us that their local correspondent had arranged for drivers and a vehicle to take them north to Sendai. Without us asking, they offered to let us on, as long as there were seats.

As it turns out, the van was big enough to accommodate their team of three (they had one writer with them) and the four of us. We thanked our lucky stars and braced ourselves for a long day on the road. The drivers, Wang and Guo, said the ride would likely take double the usual 6 hours it takes to get there. We set off at around 11.30am.

The journey was quite uneventful, actually. There were some queues at petrol kiosks, but most of the kiosks were already closed because they had run out of petrol.

It was during the long ride that I received many encouraging messages from my friends on Facebook, which I accessed through my Blackberry. Once again, thank you all again for that. I really appreciate it!

We stocked up on food and water before entering Fukushima prefecture, at a supermarket in Tochigi prefecture. Rice, noodles, chicken and bottled water were all sold out. But the store was well stocked otherwise. Perhaps it just goes to show how much of the merchandise in a typical supermarket is superfluous.

By the time we got to Sendai, it was already past 1am. Probably closer to 2am, but I was too tired to remember clearly. With most hotels apparently closed, our only option was to stay at the Sendai City Office, which was converted into a relief centre after the quake. Many military trucks were parked in front of the building.

Inside we met a group of Hong Kong journalists, who had arrived a day before. They said access to the disaster zones was severely limited, and they were heading home the next day. We got some directions and tips from them about where to go, and headed upstairs to find our spot for the night.

Next part here.

The Tokyo Sky Tree in the distant, seen as we headed out of Chiba prefecture, where Narita Airport is located. It is a symbol of Japan’s future, but that is now made even more uncertain by the disaster. The tip of the old symbol – Tokyo Tower – was bent by the quake.

About an hour or so into the journey, we stopped at a beef bowl chain Sukiya for lunch. I expected it to be the only decent meal we were going to have for days. Once we were in the disaster zone, it was going to be just biscuits, bread and water.

It was a long ride, and we could not help slipping in a quick interview with Guo, one of the two drivers, in the front seat. On the right is photojournalist Chen Hui, from Nanfang Daily.

I tried to keep track of our journey by turning on the GPS on my Blackberry. My Bold 9700 truly proved its worth during this trip. The Blackberry Internet Service connection, via local provider Softbank, was very good for most areas we visited. It was extremely fast as well, unlike in Singapore!

Our photojournalist WL gets some shuteye in between taking pictures.

Our photojournalist XB taking a picture of the empty shelves in the bread section of a supermarket in Tochigi prefecture, south of Fukushima prefecture.