It had been an hour since the last aftershock, a reminder to Atlanta native Ashley Hayes that life in Japan wouldn't be returning to normal anytime soon.
Two days earlier, the 27-year-old translator was working in her sixth-floor office in downtown Tokyo when the 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck.
"It felt like the building was jumping," said Hayes, reached by phone Sunday around noon Tokyo time.
One day before the historic jolt, Hayes, an expat since 2006, was shaken by a 7.2-magnitude quake that hit Japan.
"I was used to gentle shakes every now and then, but that one seemed to last longer," the Grady High School graduate told the AJC. Hayes shared her jitters with a co-worker from Christchurch, New Zealand (which was devastated by a 7.1-magnitude quake in February) over lunch Friday.
"We were laughing because we didn't want to look like wusses," Hayes said.
Soon after they returned to work, the great quake hit.
"An alarm went off in my head -- this is for real, get out," she recalled. "I swear as I went down the staircase I heard something snap, like something was breaking in the building."
It was a surreal scene on the streets of Tokyo, where an estimated 90,000 people were stranded, unable to get out of the city except by foot.
"It was like an exodus you'd see in the Bible," said Hayes, who was spared a long walk when her boyfriend picked her up on his motorcycle.
Her good fortune has persisted. Hayes' apartment, barely affected by the quake, has electricity and, less than 24 hours after the quake, her cell phone service was restored, allowing her to connect with family members still living in Atlanta.
"They want me to come home, but that just wouldn't feel right," said Hayes, who settled in Japan in 2006. "This is home. "
The scene on the ground in Tokyo is one of orderly chaos, Hayes said. Commuter trains were back up and running Saturday morning -- "only in Japan," she said.
The devastation to her adopted homeland's northern coastal region has yet to fully register, though there's no escaping the tragedy. "Everyone knows someone who was personally affected," she said.
"I've been on edge since 2:45 [p.m.] Friday," Hayes said. "I'm not sure when that's going to go away."
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