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.