About Disaster Prevention in Tokyo -About Earthquakes- From a French, Mongolian and Vietnamese Perspective

We don't have any earthquakes in France. How about in your countries?

We don't have them in Vietnam either.

Not in Mongolia either.

I felt an earthquake stronger than intensity of 3 for the first time when I came to Japan in 2018. It was very scary. But I gradually got used to it, and I think I'm fine if the intensity is 3 or 4. If these happen at night, I can sleep through them now.

When I first came to Japan as a tourist in 2005, I experienced an earthquake. My brother was living in Japan, and one day I said, "My head feels a little shaky," and he said, "It was just an earthquake". I was surprised because my image of earthquakes was that everything falls over. I couldn't even tell if there really was an earthquake or not. That was the first time.

For me it was the earthquake in 2011 (the Great East Japan Earthquake), which was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. It shook Tokyo quite a bit as well. My older daughter had a cold and was absent from kindergarten that day, so I went to the kindergarten with my younger daughter to pick up her belongings when the earthquake hit. My daughter was alone at home, so we rushed home and found the TV had fallen. The elevator had stopped.
I had not told her anything about earthquakes, so I think I made her feel very scared.

If a (big) earthquake hits, I think there will be many things in my mind, but I don't think I would actually do anything. I think I would be too shocked and wait for the shaking to stop. I don't think my body will be able to move.

When there's an earthquake, I always wonder whether I should run outside or stay in my room. Like R?my, I decide once the shaking stops. I immediately turn on the TV and check for tsunami or aftershocks. If I hear everyone around me opening doors and running away, I will run away immediately. I think I wouldn't do anything and wait to see what is going on around me.

When an earthquake hits, my daughters hide under the table. The thing that worries me the most about earthquakes is not being able to talk with my family, because on March 11 (the Great East Japan Earthquake), I was only able to contact my husband at night. We had no way of making calls. We were at the park the whole time and he was waiting at home.
There are earthquake apps. Do you use them?

I don't use the apps. When there is an earthquake, my phone makes a loud sound. It's scary because it makes loud noises while the earthquake is happening.

I have phones for work and for personal use, three in total, so when an earthquake hits, all my phones start beeping. The sound from the phones is more frightening than the earthquake.

I want to put (earthquake) apps on my phone, but I don't understand them because they are all in kanji.

I used to have an earthquake app because it was a Yahoo app, and it was free.

When an earthquake occurs, I turn on the TV. I can usually understand the news about the earthquake.

I understand about 20% (of earthquake news). I don't understand kanji characters and I don't know how to read a map of where I am.
I find it (earthquake news) on Facebook, where Mongolians are connected with each other in Mongolian.

There is also a French community. When they see news and other things on TV, they translate everything we need and upload it to Facebook.

There is a community group for Vietnamese in Japan as well. They sometimes translate Japanese news into Vietnamese.

With so much information available, it's hard for foreigners living in Japan to read it all. I find it very useful because I want to know only what I need to know.

I have never wanted to go back to Vietnam (even after the earthquake). It is difficult to get plane tickets and other things to travel, so I will try to survive in Japan.

I have never thought about going back to France. I thought about it a little after Fukushima, but I was in Kumamoto at the time. If I were in Tokyo, I might have thought about it.

I returned to Mongolia at the time of the March 11 (Great East Japan Earthquake) earthquake. On Mongolian TV, all they showed were houses that had been washed away. My relatives and friends kept asking me, "Are you okay? Come back home", so I took my daughters home. When I did, my father got angry with me. My father lives in the countryside and doesn't watch much TV. He said, "Why did you come back? You live in Japan now, and you should be with your husband when you die". So, next time I don't think I can go home.

It's like using a joker card.

Yeah, that's right.
Have you all decided how to contact your families (after an earthquake)? My husband says "We should meet at home".

I have talked to my best friend about where to meet, but I'm moving soon so we will talk and decide again on a new location.

My family is overseas, so I want to tell them that I am fine so they don't worry. The news (of the earthquake) will be on TV in France. To French people, Japan looks small on the map. Even though I was in Kumamoto at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, people would ask me if I'm okay, because my family doesn't realize how far it is and they worry. If there is no Internet connection, I might call the French Embassy and they can help me let them know that I am okay.

I was told by a Japanese friend that the phones would work in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. I would call my family in Vietnam and let them know I'm okay. After that, I might not be able to get a connection, which may cause them to worry, but I would call them again when the phone lines are working.