Earthquakes

Before I came to Japan, I thought about what it would be like to be in an earthquake. This isn't to say that I wanted to experience a bad one, but I was a bit curious. About 2 months ago, we had a small tremor here in Tombara. I was sitting on my bed typing an email on a Saturday afternoon. The shock was brief. So brief, that it hadn't seemed like an earthquake at all. It sounded more like an explosion than a rumble, like as if there was a bad car crash outside my apartment. It started with a small rumble, then it felt like giant kicked the side of my house. There was one good jolt and then it was over. After a few minutes of thinking about it, I realized I had experienced my first quake. Yatta! That wasn't so bad.

Then, about one month ago, when my mom was visiting, we had another similar quake. She was standing and I was sitting on the floor at my kotatsu. Same sound, feel, everything. She looked at me and said "What was that?" I flatly proclaimed that she had experienced an earthquake. At first, she was in disbelief. It didn't seem like earthquakes in the movies. But, I assured her that it was a nice little one. :-)

This morning, I realized that I hadn't really experienced an earthquake at all. Sure, the first two were real, but they weren't accompanied by the sheer terror that one feels during a more substantial earth shaking. Today, around 8:15, I was standing naked in my bathroom, drying off from my shower and putting lotion in my hair. (Yes, I use Burt's Bees Hand and Body Lotion in my hair.) I heard the rumble, but this time, instead of a nice little kick to my apartment walls, the house started to shake - violently. This earthquake was different than the others. It was sustained. It lasted just long enough for me to freak out and jump into the doorway of the bathroom in expectation of a collapsing roof. I looked into my kitchen sink, where there is a growing pile of dirty dishes. One of the pots was filled to the top with warm water. The water was splashing all over and making a mess in concert with the vibrations coarsing through the structure of my building. I think, if I can remember through my adrenaline-induced partial blackout, that I shouted a brief explative as I reached out and grabbed the door jams of the bathroom entry to steady my stance. This was an earthquake.

But, looking back, it was still rather small. Nothing in my apartment was damaged, aside from my sense of safety. I feel as though now I am part of a semi-exclusive club of people who knows what a earthquake "feels" like. Now, I have less than 3 months remaining here in Japan. Let's hope that I don't have to find out what it's like to be "affected" by an earthquake.

Shakily yours,
Maikeru
^_^

Today's quake struck at LAT:35.15, LON:132.72, Magnitude:4.7. The epicenter was about 6 miles from my house.

Link: Earthquakes in Japan

Link: Today's Earthquake in Shimane

Link: Today's Earthquake on USGS.gov

Mom's Visit

Mom came to Japan for nearly 2 weeks. What a great time we had!!! I actually wish we had a little more time so that we could have visited some other places. I hear parts of more Western Japan are really nice and a little more dramatic. Or, if we had several more days, we could have visited Shina up in Akita Prefecture. Well, perhaps we'll get another chance. In the meantime, if you want to read about Mom's adventures here, just visit the web site I set up for her. It's hosted on my www.mikemangos.com site.



Here's are some direct links...

My Web Site

Mom's Web Site

Mom's Pictures

In the meantime, kyotsukete!
Sayonnara,
Michael
:-)

The Road to Hana

Hana, as many of you will think as you read this, is not in Japan. As I type this, I'm in an Internet cafe on the island of Maui! Yes, I'm on vacation here with my father and Roberta. Hawaii is nothing like I expected it to be. Perhaps I was imagining some place with big green fields or Polynesian outriggers everywhere - I don't know. For edification, there aren't really outriggers everywhere, but I have seen a few. As far as fields go, I've only seen a couple and they were each pastures for horses or cows (something else I didn't expect to find here either.) For some reason, I just can't seem to put my finger on it, but it's different. Perhaps I expected there to be snakes and dangerous animals everywhere. Turns out (as a marine biology student here told me) there are no snakes, bats, raccoons, squirrels, or really any other indigenous mammals to speak of. Although, mongoose run around in the jungle areas much like squirrels do in Rittenhouse park.

So, the other day (Sunday to be precise) I woke up at the hostel I stayed in Saturday night. Because of the time difference, I woke up early and made my morning routine as slow as possible. It's nice to wake up and watch the rain fall through the rays of sun! After acquiring some breakfast and packing my bag, I was about to head to the airport to pick up a rental car. While waiting for the shuttle to get going, I struck up a conversation with two lovely ladies. They were also waiting for the shuttle. We chatted for a little while and continued in the van. Turns out, they planned to drive the Road to Hana, a route famous for its waterfalls and scenic vistas. I had been thinking about doing the same thing. I asked why they were going to the airport. They replied that they were picking up a rental car. (me too, I thought!) So, I suggested that instead of following each other all the way to Hana, we should just ride together! They thought it over and told me to call them after they had a chance to think about it. Perhaps I looked too sketchy for them!!! So, after picking up my car, I realized that there was no way for me to call them with a Japanese cell phone. I just drove over to Thrifty where they were going to attempt renting something. When I got there, they were declined to rent because BOTH of them were under 21. Wow. I feel old. I though, "hop in kids, we're going for a ride." But, they were each mature and older than their physical years.

We drove to Hana and had a great day. Time is running out on my Internet Cafe 'puter, so I post the rest tomorrow!!! Check again in 24 hours.......

Michael
:-)

Fuujin: Kaze-no-Kami

Fuujin. Japanese god of the wind. His origins are from the Hellenistic influences and trade routes of ancient Asia. He was Boreas in Greece, god of the north wind. In Greco-Bhuddist art, he was Wardo. Later in China, he became Tarim. Finally, he ended up in Japanese Shinto tradition as one of the oldest gods. He's considered demonic, but faithfully serves Buddha because of his defeat by Buddha's army of heaven.

I can honestly attest to his demonic nature. The word in Japanese for wind is 風 (kaze);. This just also happens to be the word for an illness or a cold. In English, we catch colds. In Japanese, they say (kaze o hiku), meaning to catch a wind.

To allay your fears (in case you had any), I am not sick. Although, I expect to be in a matter of days. Why, you ask? Well, today I taught 7th grade. I was supposed to teach 8th grade, but classes have been cancelled for the rest of the day. There were a whopping 8 out of 30 students in class today. But, by now, another three 7th graders have gone home sick. It's mandatory hospital procedure that any student diagnosed with the flu must stay home for 5 days. Since they all have the flu, we're unlikely to have classes for the rest of the week. They've already been cancelled for tomorrow. I would normally be excited about this, but teachers still have to come to school. In fact, I believe that teachers come to school even if they have the flu. It's a mystery to me why they do it, but they are very dedicated.

The reason I'm so worried about this flu epidemic is that I leave for Hawaii in 5 days. It'll make for a very different trip if I have the flu. And, after paying over $1000 for my flight, I'm not about to miss it. Well, here's to good health and happy vacationing! Please wish me luck...

Maikeru (Raijin: God of Thunder)
^_^

P.S. Credit for the image comes from Wikipedia. The link to the article is Fujin)

Steamy Nights / The New York Times Cleans Up

Two thoughts in this one blog. I know! It's crazy!!

It's cold here in Japan. You never see people freezing their butts off in old WWII movies. All of those movies are set in the South Pacific - not at the same lattitude as Washinton DC or New York. Most of my life I thought that Japan was this temperate and snow-free environment. Of course, as I got older, I heard about "snow monkeys" in Japan, but I didn't think there was actually a lot of snow. Well, I've been proven wrong. The past several days have been especially chilly, and there is evidence of this. If you are easily grossed out, then I recommend skipping to the next paragraph... now. How do I know that this place is cold? Remember, we don't have central heating or even general heating in houses and buildings here. The proof is when, day or night, I can see lovely plumes of steam rising from the toilet as I take a leak. Come on. Can't we at least keep it above 40 degrees F inside the school?

Today we had an extra long cleaning time. For those not in the know, all of the students and teachers participate in this activity. It's not only fun, but productive. Since graduation is tomorrow, we gave the school an extra bit of Japanese elbow grease. Now, I ask you, what do you think we use to clean the windows? You say squeegees? Rags? Paper Towels? HA! I Wish. Turns out the best thing they have for cleaning VERY dirty windows are dry newspapers. Yes. Dry. Newspapers. Now, I wouldn't have thought that this would work if you had told me to clean a window with newspaper. After I tried it, I realized that you really CAN'T clean windows with newspaper!!! The whole idea is just preposterous! I stood there, with no water, no nothing, except a scrap of paper. The kids said "do like this...". I watched as they pushed dirt around. Now, the windows did get a little cleaner. There was so much dirt that just knocking the big chunks loose did have some effect. But, would I say that they became clean? No. All that I observed was that I scratched the surface of the window with a chunk of bird doo-doo. I will say, however, that if you send 80 well disciplined students to tackle a problem, you'll at least see some results. The windows were markedly cleaner after 1 hour of rubbing. Not clean. But cleaner than they were.

In the meantime, enjoy your fancy American Windex™, your cloth rags, your hot running water, your hand soap in every bathroom, your appropriately tall sinks, your 6'8" door frames, your credit cards, your flavorful food, and your central heating. We'll be here enjoying our high tech cell phones, our healthy food, our courteousness, and... well... um... that's about it.

Sayonara,

Maikeru

^_^

P.S. I'm not nearly as cynical as I sound. It's just funnier this way!

Future Plans

I've gotten out of this experience what I wanted and have made some large, if not mundane, realizations about my life. Firstly, I've discovered that I really like kids. Not all the time, mind you, but enough that there should be children of my own in my life (adopted or otherwise).

Secondly, Philly is my home. No matter how far I travel or where I go, I'm still an American. It's not more apparent than here in Japan. The sense of "otherness" here is profound. Basically, the only opportunities for foreigners here are English teacher or undesirable jobs. It's not too unlike America, where you must speak English fluently to get a decent job. English teaching is a good job in Japan, but there is nowhere for it to grow. On JET, the longest we can stay is 5 years. So, that leaves one with a quandary when the term is over. What now? I don't think I'll wait any longer to figure that out. For me, it's going home. In Philadelphia, I know who to talk to, where to go, where to live, and what social circles to break into. My family and friends are there and I have a network of people who care about me and who I care about in return. In Philly, I can grow and make something of myself. In Philly, I can become politically active and be taken seriously. In Philly, I can find other people that I understand. (are you hearing tunes from West Side Story yet?) This isn't to say that I wouldn't find people somewhere else, but living here in Tombara, I don't even know where to meet such people. At least in Philadelphia I know how to seek out like-minded individuals. I don't think there are many here in Japan, or at least not anywhere that I might live and make a difference.

I know that the above points are not Earth shattering or novel or even interesting. It's just that they have never been so clearly formulated in my head before. Perhaps I thought "sure, I want kids someday." But it never turned into something that I wanted to take action on. Same thing with Philly. I was enamored with the idea that there was some other place that I belonged, because it really didn't feel like Philly. After traveling many places in the world, it's become quite apparent where I belong. My best chances for happiness are making my mark in Philadelphia.

As far as teaching back in the states goes, I don't think I will pursue it. I kicked around the idea for several months, but in the end thought better of it. I LOVE my Japanese kids, but I don't know if I would like American kids as much. Working with young minds is tough and takes a certain disposition. I'm a little spoiled with really good students and an easy work atmosphere. Not everyone here has such a sweet deal as me. But then again, not everyone here is forced to live HOURS from anything. I suppose it's a bit of a trade-off. I have to live in the middle of nowhere, but my students will be really wonderful and innocent and polite. In the end, I've decided to start a business with my friend Jeff. He's a great guy who does the same kind of work that I do. We're going to start a corporation for IT consulting and hire some really good talent. The business model is slowly taking shape and the excitement is definitely building.

So, there you have it. I'll keep putting up interesting stories as they happen to me. In the meantime, stay safe, stay warm, stay healthy and happy. But, above all, stay true.

Michael
:-)

Accuracy vs. Practicality

So, I've signed up for a "food service" thinking this would open my culinary opportunities here in Tombara. The local super-market is far less super than one might imagine - more like a just-barely-market. It has about 5 aisles with almost exclusively Japanese food. They even try to pass off this sugary peanut-flavored reconstituted cardboard spread as Peanut Butter. I was able to acquire some Skippy up in the city, but I have yet to find something that's just peanuts.

Anyway, the food service seemed like a good idea. I thought since they have a weekly catalog of specials that's almost as big as the New York Times, that they would have lots of foreign food, or at the very least, things one just can't find in the boonies. After I signed up and started getting my newspaper of a catalog, I quickly began to realize that they don't have anything that I really want to buy. Feeling bad about this, however, I order things for time to time. Two weeks ago I ordered Pizza Bites and other sundry goods. The total came to 1,519 yen. I gave him 1,520 yen and told him not to worry about the 1 yen since he didn't have any change. He was uncommonly apologetic about the whole thing and I tried to explain the 1 yen wasn't important to me. To put this in perspective, 1 yen is about 0.85 cents. Yes, less than a penny! Why was he so apologetic? I didn't want 1 yen in my pocket anyway!

Well, guess what showed up at the school yesterday. Yes, the 1 yen. It cost them FAR more in the envelope, the salary of the person to write out the envelope, and the postage to mail it. Now, honor and appearance are everything here, so I can understand the logic of why they wanted to send it. But, what actually compelled them to carry it through? I have no idea. Considering how expensive Japan is, I think even if they had to refund my entire order it would have cost more to actually do it than the lost revenue from the sale. Some things will always remain a mystery!

Michael
:-)

Tons of stories, but so little energy...

Hi everyone. I haven't had the energy to post new stories in a while. But, I promise that I will work on it come Monday. In the meantime, I've started to upload videos to YouTube™ (1 so far) and a bunch more photographs to Flickr™. Most don't have descriptions yet, but to Thom's satisfaction I have started NAMING all of my photos. So, at least you can get a sense of what they are when were they are from. To view photos/videos, use the links to the right of this blog entry. In the meantime, stay happy and healthy. Love you all,

Michael
:-)