Earthquake Magnitude: Wow

So the other day a magnitude 8.5 earthquake hit off the coast of Tokyo.  By off the coast, I mean a bloody long way away.

Take a look at this map:

It shows what I would consider to be a 'normal,' earthquake, whatever normal means in the context of the earth trying to undress itself.  You can see the key on the bottom, the epicentre was miles and miles away from land, but the effect were still somewhat apparent.  I don't remember this one, which means it was probably too small for humans to notice.  (I'm incredibly sensitive to earthquakes.  For whatever reason I'm always the first person to notice them in a room.)

Now compare the above with the earthquake that happened the other day:

 

Something of a difference.  The epicentre was once again bloody miles away, but it shook the whole country an awful lot.  I was in one of the yellow zones, making it about a 5.2 where I was.  Let me tell you, a 5.2 is pretty big (these scales are logarithmic) and quite interesting on the fourth floor.  I can only imagine what one of those is like when you're a hundred storeys up.  Then again, any building that size will have a counterweight or massive shock absorbers, so I doubt they'd rock and roll as much as I might imagine.  A lot more than when a big lorry goes past your house though.

 

 

The thing this image doesn't convey is how long they last.  I've found that the bigger shakes last longer, and this one was upwards of a minute and a half.  It started relatively small but conitnued for a while, building to a crescendo before shaking a small amount for a while.  I've found that if a small shake lasts for a while, it usually means there's a lot more coming your way.  I've not come across any that start abruptly, they always seem to lead into it.

 

If you're wondering, the worst part is when the ground goes up and down.  There's no stomach turning feeling like that you might experience in a plane, it just kind of jostles a bit.  The reason that's the worst though, is because I can't imagine many materials being designed to withstand variable forces both laterally and vertically, it's not a typical building requirement.  If you get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, the ground can move vertically by metres, hence the formation of waves that cause tsunamis.  I don't think this particular episode caused any tsunamis, but I'm not exactly Mr. Ear To The Ground in that regard.  Now that I think about it, I'm not that in any regard.

 

If you're wondering where I got this information from, it's this website:

 

 

http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/

 

 

You can get information about quakes in Japan, as they happen, from this site.  They keep records too, so if you hear about an earthquake in Japan you can check it out and see where was affected and how big it was.

On Earthquakes and Crapping of Pants

So I was previously asked whether the Japanese care about earthquakes; and if they do, what happens?  Well today we had a medium sized quake, while I was in the school gym playing table tennis.

I didn't feel most of it, if I'm honest.  Being the insensitive person I am, I wondered why on earth everyone was diving under the tables.  It ramped up towards the end, and being on the second floor balcony of the gym, it really started rattling and rolling.

Everyone was screaming initially, it seemed to be more of a warning call (like meerkats sensing a lion) than through fear though, as the boys were joining in while shouting something.  The girls reached pitches previously unbeknownst to man.  One girl was crying by the end of it, the rest were playing table tennis within five seconds of the quake ending.  A general chorus of 'are you okay?' went around, which was answered in two seconds, and everyone carried on.

What amazed me was the speed of their collective reflexes.  The kids were under those tables before I even realised the place was shaking.  All the teachers were standing around looking annoyed, they didn't dive.  There seemed to be an air of annoyance at being stopped from working, and that's about it.  The kids are perfectly trained, as are the adults in their own way.  I think anyone over the age of sixteen realises that if a ten tonne girder is falling, a table won't stop it.

So I cycled to the gym after that excitement, and quickly got a puncture.  The return journey was a dog, if I'm honest.  It took an hour and twenty minutes (a fast ride takes 20) and I had to pick up dinner on the way back.  I also found out that I've lost five kilogrammes.  Five.  I didn't have five to lose in the first place.  Where did I lose five kilos?  I was pretty annoyed at that.  And at getting a puncture.  And my boss sending me a message to see if I was okay, only to not bother replying when I told her that I had a puncture.  Separate personal and private lives, I suppose.

Then I came home to all my stuff being on the floor.  Luckily no more glasses broke (primarily because I have no more to break).

If you want to get an idea of just how frequent our tremors are (I'm going to establish a new form of differentiation between a tremor and a quake - tremors are sub richter 5, quakes anything above that.  Sam has spoken, let it be known to the OED.) check this out.  It's a world map/log of the tremors/earthquakes that occur.  They're all in Japan, and the first page is filled with tremors just from today.

The Junior High School

I met the Junior High School head teacher today at one of the schools I'll be teaching at.  It's a middle-sized school with four or five hundred students - all of whom attend after school clubs of some kind.  It turns out that these clubs are primarily sporting, but run the gamut through to traditional Japanese particulars, such as the tea ceremony.

Tomorrow I'm picking up my immigration card thing, i.e a visa (hopefully).  I've a decision to make: should it be a multiple entry (6,000 yen) a single re-entry (3,000 yen) or no leaving permitted.  I'm probably going to choose the single re-entry, in case there's a chance to go somewhere.

It's pretty damned cold here right now.  The Japanese don't believe in insulation, so you have to heat the room constantly.  If you turn the heater off, it becomes cold immediately.  This will (I assume) lead to enormous heating bills.  I am, therefore, wearing a dozen layers instead of turning the heating on.  I'm one stop short of a woolly hat.

There's no gym here (that I've found yet) so I'm extremely worried about what I'm going to do for fitness.  There's a gym half an hour by train (the trains are worryingly intermittent at the moment, due to the earthquakes) but it ends up being an all-day affair just to get there if I use the trains.  Instead, I'll use the new bike they furnished me with (an old granny bike, with a basket on the front and everything) and cycle.  I think it will end up being about 45 minutes each way, but the benefit is that I won't have to spend half an hour on the treadmill each time I visit, which will cut the gym-time down significantly.

All my boxes arrived from Korea in one piece - except the computer.  The CPU cooler fell off, twice.  Don't use stock Intel coolers on I7 2600k cpu's, they're rubbish.  I'm not convinced it actually on properly now, but short of putting a hole through the motherboard, it's as fastened as it will ever be.

The shortages of fruit juices and milks is mostly alleviated.  There are still a few bare patches in the aisles, but I expect those to be filled within the next week or so.  We're still having earthquakes every day, usually a few.  There's been one day without any.  Most are tame, with a couple of shakers thrown in for good measure.

Someone requested more pictures, so here's the first hit when you type 'iwafune,' (the tiny town where I live) into google.

This isn't actually where I live, it's a different iwafune (in Kyoto.)  It looks nice though.

My iwafune looks nothing like this.

An Interesting Couple of Days...

I'm now up to date with all pictures, all entries are complete.

So basically yesterday I spent all day helping a college student out with a survey he was doing, eating, and generally dossing.  It looked like it was gooing to rain so I thought nuts to going out anywhere.  I then went to a small bar in the evening, WHERE I BUMPED INTO LOST AUSTRALIAN WOMAN.  So I got her name, Naree, and she is now able to obtain any photograph from me.  She was a little drunk though, so maybe she won't remember to add me to facebook...

Today I had the longest breakfast, European style, sitting and chatting to the people who worked behind the bar.  Tonight is FREE FOOD NIGHT THERE.  Guess where I'm going tonight.

I've not done anything interesting in the last couple of days primarily because of the weather, which is unfortunate but, coming from England, not the end of the world.  Should the weather not improve I'll just go to the other sites(see: sights) anyway.

Next week is 'silver week,' where the country takes a few days off, so travelling is a no no then.  This is unfortunate because I'd like to move on, but I guess I'll just stay here a couple more days, and go after the holidays.

We're having a few tiny tremors, barely noticeable.  Someone I talked to compared them to a truck going past, but this person is an idiot.  The room moves sideways in one plane of motion, whereas when a truck goes past it just rumbles and shakes a lot.  The earthquake in Hull is still the biggest I've experienced!