Saturday, October 14, 2006
My First Earthquake Experience
It was early Saturday morning, and I was lying in bed, annoyed because I didn't want to be awake yet (it was 6:40 a.m.). All of a sudden I noticed shaking. I sat up right away, and sure enough, the bed was shaking, the curtains were swaying....everything was moving. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely happening, and it was scary! I've never been in an earthquake before, and I was trying to remember what they'd told us about earthquakes....don't go outside and get under a piece of furniture for protection. The only thing I could do is to get under the desk. So, I'm sitting there, swaying with the room, thinking that's what I'll do if it gets worse.

After about a minute of this, I realized that it wasn't getting worse, but it was still happening. I began to wonder if it was going to gradually slow down when it just stopped. And that was it. No one seemed to be overly worried...I didn't hear any sirens or annoucements or anything. It scared me A LOT. For me, it was the fear of the unknown, not knowing what it was like to be in an earthquake. Not knowing how bad it was going get. Not knowing what to do if the building started to crumble.

At breakfast, everyone else had felt the earthquake, too, so I knew I wasn't crazy. My host family tells me that it wasn't really a big one, but it sure did feel big to me!

Update -- I have since learned that the quake was a 5.3 magnitude, which is considered to be a moderate earthquake. I've put a link to a news story about it on the front page of the blog under the links for the photoblogs.

The Rest of the Day...
Today I spent the day with a Japanese family. I had been a little bit nervous about this, but as it turns out, I didn't have anything to worry about. They were so nice to me, as well as gracious and generous. There were three people in my host family. The dad was Nobuo, the mom was Miyuki, and they have an 11-year-old son, Yudai.

They picked me up at the hotel in the morning and took me back to their house. They had a beautiful home. It was two stories and it seemed very modern to me. Miyuki is a piano teacher, and she has two pianos -- a baby grand and an upright. She gave me a short demonstration. Wow, she was very good. She played Mozart's Fur Elise. Nobuo is a businessman selling pharmaceuticals, but he didn't have to work since it was the weekend. Yudai is in the sixth grade, and his school was right around the corner from their house.

We started the day by going over to Yudai's school for English day. Yes, English day. The kids played all kinds of games to help them learn and practice English. How fortunate that I was there, and I kind of ended up being the honored guest. I was a little put on the spot at first, but it ended up being fine. It was fun and the kids had a good time interacting with me. All the adults were very nice and did everything they could to make me feel comfortable. Several of the adults spoke English, so that was very helpful, especially since no one in my host family does. Talk about crazy! I'm glad that I had my Japanese phrase book.

After that we went back to their house for lunch. We conversed as best we could using dictionaries and phrase books. All of this was soon alieviated when Miyuki's cousin Magara arrived. She was a fluent English speaker having lived in Canada for three years. This made things so much easier. We could really communicate using her as a translator. In the afternoon I got to meet Miyuki's sister, brother-in-law, and 6 month old daughter. They were so nice and I had fun playing with the baby. At first she wouldn't have anything to do with me. I think I looked strange to her. She finally warmed up, though, and then she let me hold her and play with her.

In the late afternoon, Miyuki and Magara took me shopping for a yukata. This is like a summer-time kimono. Real full-blown kimonos are very expensive, but this will be a nice alternative. I got one for myself and for Anna. We then went to the grocery store and the 100 yen store. The 100 yen store is like the "Everything's $1.00" stores back home. After that we went to pick up Yudai. He was at sports club at school. We got to watch for awhile, and it was fun for me to see the kids in action playing sports.

Dinner was tempura. Yum! While we were eating, Miyuki's parents stopped by, so I got to meet them. What a busy day. By the end I was exhausted. I needed the sleep because the next day we were going to Kamakura.