japan has done a remarkable job to avert what might have been a tragedy on the scale of haiti or worse. im very concerned about kathmandu’s disaster preparedness and the lack of attention this issue has been getting both here and elsewhere.
ive done a post here about it here..
http://chrishaughton.com/kathmandu-earthquake-worlds-no-1-danger-zone

Thank you so much for the PT UK card. It was really encouraging!!
We printed it out, put on a wall in a backyard of a shop.

Its been 10 days since the massive quake erupt.

I was in a shop when the quake erupt. There were a young mother and a baby in a buggy.
We all tried to protect our customers, shouting “Keep your heads down Ms! We all protect you! Everything gonna be alright!”… cannot recall what we said exactly though…
I ran to a door to keep it wide open for escaping, but had to grabbed a hem of it when a tremor was hardest.

Fortunately, nothing fell out in a shop except a few packages of tea and coffee (!), but I saw all six, big, globe-shaped glass hanging lights circling so hard on a ceiling. This was a horrible scene.

A mother and a baby were with us for a while as we asked to stay till we figured out what exactly happened. Some more customers came in, just for taking a rest because they were so upset.

The head office told us to close a shop earlier, and we found our way back home are totally out of service, than walked back home. Then, backed home, what we saw on TV was….. just speechless.

This is what happened in a shop in Tokyo at that day.

Though Tokyo had little damage from the quake, people here seem exhausted from constant tremor, planned blackout, fear of radiation and buyout (mainly food) in many shops .

PT shops were closed for a few days right after the quake, but now all three Tokyo PT shops are open and customers are dropping by and shopping !! Viva PT fans! So so appreciated…

To save power and prepare for emergency, we only light up necessary spots in a shop, dont turn on a heater, open for shorter hours. Unusual ever, but we all shop staffs are so happy to get back to work.

This weekend, many of our long-term, supportive customers came by, telling us that their fear and worry disappeared once they were in a shop and saw us. We talked about the quake, asked each other if there were any of family, relatives and friends in epicentre region, discussed what we should do, what we could do, etc.,…

Personally, my family and I experienced the Kobe quake 16 years ago. My hometown collapsed, and I had to bear a life without water and gas more than a month. I remember I only managed to live at that time, could do nor think nothing else. Or, refused to think for the future because things were so dreadful.

Now, I really want to do something to rebuild this county. I must witness this county will survive and stand up again, with full of hope.

So far, we all are trying hard everything back to normal as soon as possible here in Tokyo.

In a shop, customers tell us that they are encouraged by PT, appreciated that they are having a life enjoying shopping. We all should tell them back that we are also encouraged so much by our customers…

Viva PT fans! And Us! go for it!