I'm at the start of a strong "it could have been me" panic because I was there that day.
Thankfully, I was nowhere near the mayhem at the time it happened. I arrived at around 2pm and spent an hour or so at the new Burger King and Yodobashi Camera, on the complete other side of the station and train tracks from where it all went down. News reports will only say it happened at "lunchtime", so I have no way of knowing if I was actually in the vicinity at the time. Glad I decided to shop for English books before looking for a DS hack cartridge. There was no indication there or at the station that there was anything unusual.
I decided to head to Chuodori via the railway underpass on Myojin Street and saw that part of the street was blocked off. People were swarmed around, dead silent, taking cell phone pictures of seemingly nothing.
I saw the truck.
Thought it was just a traffic accident, nothing to see here.
As I made my way closer to Chuodori, I saw more and more emergency personnel, more of the street blocked off, clusters of people being interviewed, CSI evidence tags on the ground in the alley by Asobit City.
Was able to squeeze my way through the looky-loos on the sidewalk of Chuodori. The street was blocked like any other Sunday, only no pedestrians were being allowed on it, only cops. Some stores were open and conducting business as usual, others with their night shutters down.
Checked the Internet on my cell phone for any info on what happened. Nothing. And no one I asked seemed to know much either. In the distance, a small lumpy shape covered in a white sheet. I tried not to think what it might be.
I remember thinking that the usual sewerey aroma that wafts up from the gutters in Akiba seemed stronger than usual. Decided I'd find out what happened when I got home and to get the hell out of Dodge.
A friend and I have plans to go back and pay our respects next weekend, leave some flowers.
