Earthquake

Last week I was in my room doing something ( I don't remember what) when Chi's mom came in and told me that we had just had an earthquake. I didn't even notice it. Chi was with her friend Natsumi in Chiba at a setsumeikai. Apparently everyone noticed this earthquake because they were talking about it quite a bit. I was rather sad because I had been wanting to experience an earthquake, but didn't even notice it. It was a powerful one too; 7.1. Maybe it was too far away.

Two days later Chi and I were sitting on the floor in her room (2nd floor). I was talking to a friend on my computer and Chi was reading a magazine when suddenly everything began to shake. It was mild. I had been wanting to experience an earthquake so I was happy. But... the shaking quickly started getting stronger and stronger. When the furniture in the house started bouncing around and things started falling over, I got scared. I grabbed my computer and tried to run outside. But Chi was hesitant to leave. After about fifteen seconds or so she finally picked up Shokora (her dog) and we headed for the door together.

Being in an earthquake is kind of like being on a ship out at sea during a storm with the sea put in fast forward. It feels like the ship is being tossed about two feet one way, then two feet the other way, back and forth very quickly. You become nauseous and slightly disoriented. It's somewhat difficult to keep your balance. It's like being sea-sick. or should I say earthquake-sick?

Trying to go down the stairs to the front door is the memory that sticks out in my mind the most. I was trying to hurry down the stairs as quickly as I could, but it was surprisingly difficult. Remember in P.E. in elementary school where they would have you spin around a baseball bat until you become dizzy, then have you run a certain distance? Remember how difficult it was to run? Try spinning around the bat and then descending down a flight of stairs instead. That's kind of what it felt like. Except the staircase was moving. Actually, don't try that. You might fall and hurt yourself :p.

Chi and I ran outside to a small parking lot across the street. While waiting for the earthquake to subside, I made a post on my Facebook that we we're in the midst of an earthquake. It stopped soon after that. Chi went back inside and turned on the TV. I didn't want to go back inside because I figured a strong aftershock would be hitting us within a few minutes.

After about five minutes or so I went back inside. Maybe the aftershock wasn't coming. On the TV the news was saying that a 7.9 magnitude Earthquake had struck Miyagi, north of us. While watching the TV I continued posting on my Facebook. Two aftershocks struck. They weren't too bad though, so we stayed inside. About 20 minutes after the initial quake, a big aftershock hit. Again furniture was bouncing and things were falling. We ran outside again. The TV said that this one was a 7.4

The aftershocks continued hitting us about every two minutes or so, for about three hours. Almost nonstop shaking for about three hours. There was one more time that it got bad and we had to run outside again. So we had to run outside a total of three times. After the initial three hours, the frequency of the aftershocks dropped down to about one every 15 minutes.

The aftershocks are still coming about every fifteen minutes, but they are weaker now. I can only feel about one every hour or two. I think it depends a lot on how far away the epicenter is. It changes. About once a day a big aftershock comes that shakes things up quite a bit. But not bad enough to make me run outside. In fact, about an hour ago we had a good sized one. It was strong enough to make the house rattle and make me feel like I'm out at sea, but not bad. It lasted a long time though. Maybe 8 minutes. It seems to have been a 6.1.Most people here are so used to the shaking now that we mostly just ignore it. Like it's just a regular part of everyday life now.

Some interesting facts:
-The earthquake was upgraded to a 9.0. One of the strongest five earthquakes in recorded history.
-This earthquake moved Japan about 8 feet.
-The length of a day has been shortened by about 2ms.
-The tsunami was moving at about 500mph over the ocean.
-Some of the aftershocks are stronger than the actual earthquakes that hit New Zealand and Haiti this year.
-About 150 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or higher occur anually globally. Over these past few days we've had maybe 50 or so aftershocks of magnitude 6.0 or higher (guessing). A few above 7. Today we've had three above 6.0.
-There's been close to 500 confirmed aftershocks. A majority of which are above 5.0.
-Japan's scientists have developed an earthquake early warning system. Everyone was apparently warned via TV about one minute before the earthquake hit. They also had an eight minute warning about the subsequent Tsunami.
-Many people here have installed earthquake warning applications on their phones. As soon as an earthquake/aftershock hits, their phone sounds an alarm. If the epicenter is far away, you have a few seconds warning. But sometimes the phones buzz after the earthquake/aftershock has already arrived. Anyway, it's fun to watch :).

I wanted to experience one minor earthquake, but ended up experiencing a few big ones and maybe 300 minor ones.

I'll explain the current situation here in my next post

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'll be updating it again soon. Thanks everyone for your concern. We are fine here

Last night Chi and I worked at a local bar from 9pm - 3:30am. The owner of the bar is Chi's mom's friend. Our job was to entertain the patrons. It was full of fun and not so fun moments. One drunk guy kissed my cheek several times and kept trying to kiss me on the lips! :( Also, slurred Japanese is very difficult for me to understand. I had a lot of fun though.

Today we didn't do anything too special. Just stayed home and talked and studied. Chi's mom made us some yakishouga for dinner. It was really really good!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to be debuting in an internet TV show. I think it will be around 11pm or 12am Saturday night state-time. Please watch if you're free. Or don't watch; I'll be really nervous and am sure to blunder big time.

Link

The day before yesterday Chi and I went to her college to meet up with Natsumi. Natsumi and Chi went to career services for job hunting advice. I went to a local museum.

At the museum one of the staff personally showed me around. I can't read the Japanese well enough to understand what it says, so he explained everything to me. At one point he showed me how the Japanese of 1000 years ago decorated their pots. He took some reed, twisted it into a rope-like shape, and rolled it on the clay to create a cool pattern. The pattern changes depending on how you roll up the reed. He gave me a piece of rope as a souvenir.

After that I met back up with Chi and Natsumi and we went to an italian restaurant to eat. Then Natsumi went to Shinjuku to buy some clothes for her interview the next day. Chi went to Ebisu for a setsumeikai. I went to a starbucks in Ebisu to read a children's picture book. Chi met back up with me after about two hours. I had only read about half the book by that time.

Then we went to Shinbashi to meet up with my friend Jiro. He took us out to a cow-tongue restaurant. We ate salad, cow-tongue, raw horse, and rice. When we asked how much it costed, he told us just to give him $18 each, but I think the actual price was much higher. I think the whole meal costed about $85. If so, then he payed for more than half of it.

We talked a lot. He is very nice. Jiro's son is about my age and his daughter is about Chi's age.

Yesterday Chi went to her job tutoring Ami. I went to a cafe to finish reading the picture book. It took me about four more hours to finish reading it. It was only 75 pages, but I had to stop and look up a lot of words in the dictionary.

Today Chi went to another setsumeikai. I went to the supermarket to eat breakfast. Outside the supermarket I sat on a bench and shared some of my food with the birds. The birds there are very aggresive; they'll snatch the food right out of your mouth.

Later today Chi and I are going to meet up with Toshi in Shinagawa for dinner. Then Toshi and I are going to buy a cake for his dad's birthday. Tonight I'm going to stay Toshi's house and celebrate his dad's birthday.

For lunch Chi and I ate gyuudon from Matsuya. Then we went to hang out with Sawa and U-. First we went to a Starbucks to talk and joke around. Then we went to a love hotel. Then we ate dinner at a steakhouse. It was a fun, albeit expensive day.

Japan has a lot of specialized hotels here called love hotels. They are luxury hotels designed for couples to have 1-3 hours of private 'intimate' time together. It's a big industry here (about twice as big as anime, believe it or not), so there are all different kinds of love hotels sporting all different kinds of rooms, themes, games, gadgets, and toys. Apparently it's sometimes hard to find a vacant room, despite there being lots of hotels and people only using them for a few hours.

When we first walked into the hotel, there was a touch-screen computer on the wall at the end of the lobby. Using that, we chose what kind of room we wanted. We chose the cheapest ones available. About $85 for three hours. Expensive, but normal for a love hotel. Going to a love hotel is one thing I wanted to experience this time around in Japan, so it can't be helped. Last Sunday when I hung out with Sawa and U-, they suggested going to a love hotel together today.

Mine and Chi's room had a gorgeous bathtub. There was a TV on one end, lights all over (inside and outside of the tub) that changed color, and water jets. It was like a small pool. The room was pretty impressive too. It had a large lcd TV on the wall near the king size bed. The TV was attached to a machine that you could use to move it around. There was also a nice massage chair.

As far as amenities go, it had pretty much everything you would have in your own house; shampoo, soap, towels, makeup, razers, toothbrush and toothpaste, face wash, mouthwash, hair dryer, a bunch of other stuff I didn't recognize, etc, etc. Even various kinds of condoms. There was drinks too (even beer), but they were in a vending machine.

There was three remote controls. With them you could control the TV, the surround sound system, karaoke, and all the lights. You can control which lights you want on or off and how bright you want them.

Sorry I completely forgot to take pictures :(.

I don't know what Sawa and U-'s room was like, but it might've been similar to ours.

In order to leave the room, you have to pay a machine near the door. The door is locked and can't be opened until the machine is payed. Throughout the whole experience, you won't see any other people. Not even staff. Except occasionally maybe seeing another couple in the lobby coming or going.

After two hours, Chi and I met back up with Sawa and U- in the lobby and went to a steakhouse to eat. I ate a salad, Japanese steak, a green-bean like vegetable, onion rings, Sawa's breadsticks, U-'s french fries, and a sundae for dessert.

Chi went to a setsumeikai and then went to hang out with her friends Natsumi and Kiyomi today.

I went to play Go again in Kawagoe.

今日　kyou - today
友達　tomodachi - friend / friends

Yesterday Chi and I hung out with Natsumi. We went to the Denny's that Chi and I first met at at about this time last year.

At first I tried to go to a Go salon near there (Ikebukuro), but they said that if my Japanese is not fluent, I can't play. :(

I had a good time with Chi and Natsumi nonetheless. :)

日本語 nihongo - Japanese
ぺらぺら perapera - Fluent
しゃべれる　shabereru - Able to speak