REPLAY LIVE BLOG: Disaster in Japan

For 10 days, this live blog followed the events on the ground in Japan in the wake of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the country on March 11.

A team of CBC journalists, including Amber Hildebrandt, Curt Petrovich and Chris Brown, used the blog to relay eyewitness accounts, personal stories and photos.

You can revisit their coverage in the blog widget. Some highlights include:

March 13 (Page 10): Curt Petrovich describes the intense aftershocks felt in Narita.

"Remember the scene in Jurassic Park in which the water in the cup has ripples from the approach of a dinosaur? The water on my hotel night stand shakes the same way," Petrovich wrote.

Meanwhile, Amber Hildebrandt witnesses residents' mounting the anxiety in Tokyo and surrounding areas. "Convenience store shelves are stripped bare of water and food," she wrote. "I've never seen one of the [city's] always abundantly stocked convenience stores with a bare section of shelf, never mind entire rows of bare shelves."

March 15 (Page 14): As problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant worsen, the CBC crew abandons its plan to travel to the hard-hit coastal regions in the northeast part of the country.

"For the first time since arriving, frustrations about travel and difficult reporting conditions are giving way to sombre but surreal feelings about the danger of even being here," wrote Curt Petrovich.

March 17 (Page 27): Curt Petrovich shows us what life is like at an evacuation centre in Niigata City through a series of photos. Evacuees pass the time by watching news updates about the recovery situation and playing cards.

Meanwhile, Amber Hildebrandt visits a Meiji shrine where people have written wishes on wooden plaques. One plaque bears the message: "I pray that everyone can live their lives with a smile! Pray for Japan!"

March 18 (Page 29): Amber Hildebrandt interviews several people in Japan about their thoughts on the situation. She meets Christian Skott, a Vancouver man who tells her that he, his wife and two-month-old daughter were walking across a parking lot in Sendai when the quake hit.

March 20 (Page 31): The CBC's Chris Brown travels up to the coastal town of Noda in the Chiba prefecture. He sends pictures of the massive devastation back via Yfrog. 

March 21 (Page 32): As her assignment in Japan draws to an end, Amber Hildebrandt takes a trip to Tokyo's Ueno Park to partake in hanami, or cherry-blossom viewing, a seasonal Japanese tradition. This year's hanami will undoubtedly be tinged with sadness because of the recent disaster. You can see Hildebrandt's photos on the live blog and in this photo gallery.

Related: Street-level stories from Japan