Great Scots!

 

We’re suppose to avoid milk and leafy vegetables!  However, I haven’t been eating those things for ages! I finally got my Fender JB62 Bass! It set me back a good $770!  Combining that with the earlier guitar I’ve spent well over $1000 on instruments in Japan!  It has paid off because I can play an entire song by heart now!  Not at the original pace, but pretty close and with fewer mistakes than ever.  My next jorb is to learn a K-on song.  Most likely it will be “Don’t Say Lazy.”  My last two days of work comprised of 22 classes.  Some of my bad weeks are 22 classes, so I’m super exhausted.  However the benefit is that this work I’ve just done pays for 2/3 of my guitar.  The work I will be doing in the next two days will pay for the other 1/3!  These 4 days are for the best days of my life!

Another Week in Post Earthquake-Tsunami Japan

AKB48 donates big to the relief efforts, video games are cancelled, radiations fears have calmed with the power cables being hooked up, and people are trying to survive North East with what little they have.  People keep the donations coming, but radiation in water and food creates panic buying around the nation, even though the most effected are those North East and East of Mt. Fuji.  Water has recently been declared safe for young children to drink in Tokyo.  There are traces of radiation, but they’ve recently been declared its not enough to harm anyone unless they drink a litre a day from the tap for a year.

My life hasn’t changed a lot, but its hard to readjust to the life I had before I returned and before the Earthquake.  I spend more time on news sites reading about the Civil War in Tripoli and the radiation fears out East to do anything meaningful.  I will however buy my guitar this week, I will start a language exchange next month with another teacher, and I will cut back on sugary drinks and rice to get in shape.  I just need to work out my muscles and practice more music day in and day out.  My room needs to be as clean as it was before I left for Vancouver.  The weather isn’t getting any warmer, and the heavy winds we get from the South are keeping things cool and mosquitoes away, but I did see my first one this week.   It will be a while before I put my Kotatsu away and hopefully in this time I won’t see any insects.

Another day

 

My friend from Ibaraki came by with his two friends.  I met up with him in Osu and we went to grab a bite to eat at the local Ramen place.  Afterwards, we walked around Osu towards Sakae, where we stopped by a few clothing stores.  The girls thought that Nagoya looked very modern and less like other parts of Japan.  They complemented how much English they saw, and the lack of Kanji around.  We then walked back towards Nagoya station. Where they received a call, in which they decided they couldn’t sleep over, and headed to Osaka.  I then went home to read up on more Nuclear news.  I then met up with Blitz and went to have ramen at a different restaurant.  It was quite good and the side dishes were self serve.  Finally, we went to the arcade, and I won a Lucky Star cup on my first try!  It was my first time winning something by myself and on my first try.

Surreal reality – Earthquake update

 

In Nagoya life goes on as normal.  It’s almost surreal that 2 hours by Shinkansen away are signs of ground zero.  The area East of us are deprived of the basic necessities of water, food, warmth, shelter, and electricity.

Watching the news and looking outside makes North-Eastern, and East Japan look like a different country.  It is almost surprising that we can function as normal in the wake of one of the worlds most expensive disasters.  I’ve felt really weird today hearing about further aftershocks, and Tsunami’s.  I’ve been watching as the Nagano and Gifu areas received warnings of possible Earthquakes.  Eastern Japan is still getting shocks as high as 6.0 despite the fragility of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

We’ve filled out new forms at work and emergency cards in case an Earthquake hits Nagoya.  According to the locals here, the Nagoya area is due for a big one.  However, all countries on the ring of fire are living on a tight rope, including my home town.

5th Biggest

 

First the Earth shook

The 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake was the 5th biggest in recorded history.

Then came the waves

Tsunami over 10 meters high came and sweapt away towns.

The fires spread among them

Chemical plants, dams, and nuclear power plants are in critical condition.

luckily we were spared here

There were 300 bodies found in one city, and 1000 are dead so far.

the typhoon.

Japan is lucky it didn’t occur during Typhoon season or things would have been severely worse.

 

Welcome back to Japan

After a relatively peaceful day off, my return back to work was with an 8:30 In Toyota and an Earthquake during my break in the afternoon back at my apartment.  Things shook, buildings swayed, but nothing fell in my apartment floor.  In Tokyo and many other parts of Japan the story was different.  The 2 P.M. quake devastated many areas and the tsunami’s killed a lot more leaving Eastern Japan in a state of emergency.  74 people are confirmed dead as of now mainly in the East coast, but there are still many missing.  For my first Earthquake in Japan, it certainly was one that matched the scale of the other disasters that have been occurring around the world recently.

The quake and aftershocks could be felt for hours after it occurred.  I would hear about it a minute earlier from a friend in Tokyo then feel it back here.  With the Tokyo Tower needle bent, many cities washed away, and cellphone service provider Softbank on the fritz, many wonder if their loved ones are safe and what the leaders of Japan will do for those in need.