1. The document describes a teacher's experience during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, including evacuating students to the school grounds as the earthquake hit and supervising them overnight as they waited for the tsunami. 2. They rationed food and water and kept warm using kerosene stoves as the city lost power and water. More evacuees arrived at the school gym each day as conditions deteriorated elsewhere. 3. After a few days, the teacher helped access the school's water reserves and scoured the neighborhood for additional food and supplies as the city became a "ghost town." They counted themselves lucky to have survived as news came of the damage elsewhere.

1. Shake Rattle and Roll an account

2. Thu, March 10 th about 22:00 I took this picture as a “before” shot to post online. I was going to shave my head and beard for www.stbaldricks.org the following Friday.

3. Fri, March 11 th about 08:00 I arrive at school. The next day would have been the graduation ceremony for the third graders.

4. Fri, March 11 th about 14:46 A magnitude 8.9 earthquake hits Sendai city, Miyagi Prefecture, the nearest city to the epicentre of the quake in Iwate Prefecture.

5. We evacuate the students to the sport ground, but a blizzard soon follows. It becomes unbearably cold outside, so we send them home.

6. Chaos. Animals escape from broken homes and as we assess the damage to the school building, I find this dog running flat-out into a wall.

7. It was completely blind. It wouldn’t let me get near it. There was nothing I could do. I took a picture in case someone came looking for it.

8. Fri, March 11 th about 15:30

11. After tremors. Note the perfect waves in the pool.

13. Fri, March 11 th about 16:00 I am instructed to go home and make sure that all electrical appliances are disconnected, and that all gas and water faucets are closed. Fire is now the greatest concern.

18. Fri, March 11 th about 18:00 Back at the school, we prepare dinner. Each school is equipped with Alpha Mai , a fortified rice and seaweed mix. Just add boiling water. There was some emergency water with the Alpha Mai , but not nearly enough.

19. We watch the ocean in shifts for signs of the tsunami. There is no way to know when or where it will hit, as we have no contact with anyone.

23. Kerosene stoves keep us warm and boil the water for the Alpha Mai .

24. Every teacher watches over a stove. After tremors shake the ground constantly, and if one of these fall over, it could start a fire.

25. Alpha Mai

27. Sat, March 12 th Morning Water is a problem. I am asked to help find a way to open the reserve tank on the roof of the Southern Building.

30. We push all the buttons, to no avail. In the end, I grab a wrench and open the flood valve manually.

35. Water is bucketed in from the pool to wash things with and to flush the toilets.

36. Kerosene tanks.

37. Sat, March 12 th 11:00 We carry about 60 Judo mats from the Kendo gym into the main gym. There is still no way to contact anyone. The whole city is without electricity. Dinner and breakfast finished off half of the Alpha Mai. People come to ask for food, but we have nothing to give; only enough for the evacuees in the gym.

38. Evacuees start pouring into the gym.

39. There were 16 people on the first day, 170 on the second.

40. Sat, March 12 th About 14:00 We make sure the fire doors work and take all fire hoses from their cases.

41. Sat, March 12 th About 15:00 I slip away and scour the neighborhood for food.

42. From city to ghost town in 24 hours.

45. Sat, March 12 th Evening We listen to a battery powered radio for any news. We hear about the tsunami in Kesenuma and the reactor explosions in Fukushima, our neighboring prefecture, and we count ourselves lucky, very very lucky.

46. Sun, March 13 th Morning I spent the night at a fellow teacher’s apartment. We woke early to queue at open shopping malls. You can only buy five items at a time. If this were South Africa, these places would have been looted and pillaged by now, but all the staff were there, on duty, smiling.

47. Mon, March 14 th Morning We start cleaning the school.

48. And fixing what we can.

49. We open the latter of the two water reserves.

50. Teachers gather herbs for lunch.