Rain

You know, I never really had much of a problem with rain until I came to Japan... I had no idea what Forrest Gump was talking about with his "sideways rain", and "rain that seemed to come up from underneath." Now I say that unless you've lived in some kind of coastal, island or tropical climate that you know not the evil that rain can bring with it.

Take today for example: it's been raining since mid-afternoon yesterday, and the wind today was blowing people's umbrellas apart all over the place and delaying trains. This isn't even the "rainy season" yet, which is of course separate from typhoon season in the fall. I've never liked umbrellas personally as it's a pain to carry them around and find somewhere to put them and stuff, but there are seriously days here where you cannot avoid it.

The worst though is that there are times when an umbrella just simply does not help whatsoever. With normal wind and rain you can tell which direction it's coming from and adjust accordingly, marking a swath of dryness big enough for you to traverse. Around here though, there have been times where no matter which direction I point the umbrella in I still get totally soaked with the wind blowing directly in my face... almost like it's coming up from underneath. Oh my God, Forrest Gump was right!!!

I still hate umbrellas with a passion and will resist them whenever possible, but if you've ever been in a suit that was totally and utterly dripping wet from head to toe then you'd think about it too.

It's snow!!

Yey, yesterday I got my book about pirates and the Terps won!!

Then today I wake up this morning greeted by the wonderful wetness of... snow!! To the left is a pic of the snow adorning the entrance of the new subway line out front of my apartment, set to open next month. I probably won't use it that much since although it's convenient having a 30-second walk to the station, it'd cost me probably 2-300yen more a day roundtrip since it's a different line... hopefully others won't feel the same though and will flee en masse to the newest, coolest train evar and leave my train alone, thus substantially reducing my ever-growing urge to kill babies upon the mere sight of trains in the morning. If any of my neighbors are reading this, forget the weird station name and take the Green Line!! Think of the helpless babies!!!

So anyway, at first I was all excited at the prospect of rolling around and sliding in the snow, but upon closer inspection it's one big wet mess, just a step away from rain. Still, this is the most snow I've ever witnessed locally (without traveling specifically to see it, that is) in my short time in the 'pan. It's even the 2nd time this year there's been snow in Tokyo!

I must say, something strange is afoot in the world this year. It's a year which saw snow in Baghdad (insert "cold day in hell" comment here), a year in which southern China is being downright pummeled with snow, and now a year in which snow actually comes to Tokyo?? And sticks?!?

I mean sure, the 1st snow in a Middle Eastern city in 70 or so years and the worst snow in 50 years in other parts of the world is shocking news (especially after last year), but that's waaaay the hell over there - out of sight, out of mind right? And now I hear that back home in a land that I've personally seen up to 2' of snow (60+ cm), it was a balmy 50-something?? Crazy, but still has very little to do with me at the moment.

If it snows in southern California or Florida then I will take it as a sign of impending catastrophe and run around outside flailing my arms above my head in disarray and panic. Meh, I might do it anyways right now and make a snowman while I'm out there. ;P

Earthquake!

There was just a rather large earthquake out here this morning - the 6.7 magnitude epicenter was on the other side of Honshu in Niigata about 150 miles or so away, but I still felt it! As you can see from the map so did at least half the country, but anything below the light green isn't even really worth getting up for and the white areas aren't even noticeable. They're still broadcasting about it on tv an hour and a half later, and there have been at least 8 aftershocks closer to the center. Videos they're showing are with broken water manes flowing through the streets and at least one or 2 older buildings totally collapsed... also, a few random cracks in the earth, and there are currently 200ish injured. These things still freak me out, so I'm really glad it wasn't out here!

So how strong is a high 6 you ask? Well Japan has their own scale to measure things separate from the Richter scale called shindo - basically, the difference is that Richter is based on the energy released and shindo is based on the amount felt in any particular area. Here's the breakdown on what each level feels like and my interpretation:

0: Imperceptible to people (did somebody fart?)

1: Felt by some people indoors (something's not right here....)

2: Felt by many people indoors. Slight shaking of hanging lamps (hold everything, feels like a shaker! this is what I felt this time)

3: Felt by most people indoors. Can cause plates to rattle (this would be the point at which I start to freak, as it's about the strongest I've ever really felt. These wake me up)

4: Most sleeping people awake. Unstable items indoors may fall. Felt by most walking people and some in cars. (this would be the point that most reasonable people would stand in a doorway or something - I'm still frozen in fear clenching my butt cheeks)

weak 5: Furniture may move. Books and dishes may fall. Glass may shatter. Could cause some structural damage in older buildings and softer earth. (Feels like Ryu and Ken are simultaneously dragon-punching the building, shaking it to it's core)

strong 5: Large vending machines and shelves may topple over. Driving becomes difficult. Some gas/water manes may break. (Vending machines may what??? I think I just saw Mothra fly by the window...)

weak 6: Difficult to stay standing. Window glass and tiles break. Doors won't open. Sometimes weaker houses collapse, and stronger ones may take damage as well.(Oh my God, we're all gonna die! Godzilla is battling Mothra and Godzilla just got tossed into the building next door.)

strong 6: People can only crawl to move, because standing becomes impossible. Most heavy furniture falls, and doors fly off their hinges. (Son Goku has just gone Super Saiya-jin level 2 - he and Vegita are in a battle of truly epic proportions that is shaking the world to its core. I think I'm dying!!)

7+: People can't move at will. The ground cracks open, landslides occur. Strong buildings take severe damage. (God hates us all - as Lucifer reaches up from the depths of hell opening large rifts in the earth, God's hand has just come down from heaven to squish Goku and quell the maelstrom, taking us all with him. After crapping my pants, I die... or maybe it's the other way around)

I seriously hope a truly major one never hits around me, but one is definitely overdue. Or at least so everyone keeps telling me. Then again, everyone was all worried about a typhoon that killed 4 and was supposed to come through here this weekend too. We got some rain, but if you didn't tell me it was the after-effects of a typhoon I wouldn't have known. Oh, and did I mention there were also smaller tidal waves due to the quake? Well, I'm around to live another day for now, but God still hates Japan. And with that, back to your regularly scheduled life.

EDIT: Just to update people, there have been aftershocks throughout the day of varying strengths, but nothing to be concerned about in my immediate area. The final count that I heard was 7 dead out in Niigata though. There was just a quake of the exact same strength off the coast north of Kyoto that somehow shook us here just as strong as the one this morning, but again no immediate danger here.

Here's an article on it from CNN as well as Japan Probe coverage. In addition to the quake, CNN also reports that the world's highest output nuclear power plant, which happens to be in Kashiwazaki, Niigata very close to the epicenter, took 2 hours to put out fires resulting from the quake.

Rain

So today's weather forecast? Rain. Yesterday? Rain! Tomorrow? Actually warm and sunny, but the day after that it'll undoubtedly rain. Welcome to what the Japanese no-so-affectionately refer to as tsuyu - the rainy season.

Now I don't really get this, but I hear a lot of Japanese people like to make a big deal out of how Japan has 4 seasons and the seasons are so unique and yada yada. Well that's retarded, and I'll tell you why - Japan doesn't have 4 seasons!! It has all the normal faves with spring, summer, autumn, and winter, but then there's this 1-2 month period right about this time of year where if it doesn't rain then you wonder what's wrong sometimes. It totally qualifies as its own climactic phenomenon. It really is separate from spring, and leads you right into a hot, sticky summer. Anyway, yesterday everything was all honkey dorey until about the time I got off work, then sure enough it started up when I was grabbing some grub en route to my Japanese tutor. I'm glad the big 'ol fat rain hasn't come yet... if you think it rains back home and you haven't been in a hurricane, then you probably really haven't seen rain.

So while I'm seriously waiting for someone to try to bust out the whole "unique 4 seasons" shtick on me so I can crush them with my superior 5 season plan, I have not-so-unrecently experienced a place that doesn't have the normal 4 seasons of the temperate zone in which I have resided my entire life. Thailand. See Thailand's a bit closer to the equator, so it has a pretty tropical climate, especially in the south. Accordingly, the north has 3 seasons, and the south has but 2. In the south the temperature doesn't really change that much year round, so the 2 seasons you get are dry and wet (monsoons - woo). In the north, you get a colder (such a relative term) season, then the dry and wet seasons the south does. So no, all countries don't have 4 seasons... including Japan because they have 5.

Man, I really wanna get back to the tropics... Okinawa anyone?

My body must hate me by now (Pt. I)

Before I get started here, one tidbit of WTF?!??!!!??? news: the days of Doug sleeping in the buff (or anything close to it) are over, or at least out of season. There is no way to sleep out here without anything less than 2 layers of clothing top and bottom, one being something with full sleeves and legs. The other day I went out in the kitchen to whip up some sweet grilled cheeses with the authentic Kraft cheedar cheese slices I found (quite happy about that), and I could see my breath!!!

Oh, and if you look to your left you'll see a little gem I ran across - "non-alcohole"! Reminds of the story I heard of that guy that died of alcohol poisoning when he found out that the large intestine absorbs liquor faster than most any part of the anatomy through direct contact....... ok, you get it? Because I'm soooo not explaining it any further.

Yeah... so this past week or so I've been pretty harsh to my body, but not without good reason of course. The other day, my neighbor Joe made a rather astute observation in that despite the fact that I say that I normally only drink a bunch when there's a special reason, lately there's been an inordinate amount of special reasons. ;P After thinking about it, I think it's because I'm still not totally satisfied with where I am socially around here and am really just trying to drown my dissatisfactions and frustrations. I think this part of the equation is slowly getting better though, as I've met some cool people along the course of the week and am having more of a social life. Another piece of advice I heard from a few people actually was to go out and do stuff as much as possible over the winter so you don't wind up holed up in your room glued to the kotatsu... mmm.... warm, toasty kotatsu...

So anyway, here's the last week or so in a nutshell. Friday, Matt was in town, so I go in town with my friend Kevin to show him a good time, which I definitely believe we were sucessful in doing. We first went to a gyutan restaurant, which is the most famous specialty of Sendai. So we get to this place and sit down, check out the menu and order. I yelled out our order as the waitress was walking towards us with plate in hand, which she promptly placed on the table almost before I could finish speaking! Apparently from what she said, since that's what the place is known for they knew what we were going to order as soon as we walked in the door. I found out later that there's another place that's known for the softer style (which is my preference) so I'll check that one out next time. Anyway, from there we head out to a great bar on the other side of the station, where a middle-aged guy was hitting on Matt (ie: he was highly and overly interested in the tall foreigner guy, who he insisted looks like Legolas from LOTR) and we met 3 girls with the same name that met each other online, which was rather surreal but very entertaining. After some time, we allegedly went to another bar and talked to more people, but I'm just taking Matt's word for all that.

Skip forward to the next morning, when I wake up in Matt's hotel with both of us still spinning from the night before after a couple hours sleep. He was there for work, so we go check out his exhibit thingy (experimental alternative fuel cells - hydrogen powered cars) and then I scuttle off to work attempting to drag myself through the day. Oh, and did I mention it was snowing? Here's the view from my balcony when I got back to change before work.

So after work I was beat, but I had already arranged for this Japanese guy Senyu to meet us so I dragged myself out for another night of festivities. I'm glad I did though as we had a blast - I saved my liver some trouble by driving to Sendai and playing designated driver. More craziness ensued. The next day was all about recuperation, and I needed it. All in all, a crazy weekend.

Oh, and the following message is for anyone named Matt, aka Legolas:
NEED PICTURES!!!

To be continued...

Ode to the kotatsu

Ah yes, the kotatsu - what a wonderful invention! I'd say that I'll kiss the guy who came up with the idea, but apparently he's some ancient nameless Chinese guy, so besides the fact that he's dust by now and that'd be disgusting I have the feeling that searching for his remains in the first place would be an exercise in futility.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah! The kotatsu and how it makes my otherwise freezing Durgicile nice and toasty! My toes are piping hot right now, like some Bearded Papa's Cream Puffs, and it's all thanks to the wonderous kotatsu. I broke this bad boy out today for the first time, and I honestly don't know what I was waiting for! It's the best thing since cheese, and that's saying a lot.

Elsewhere in the current winterfication project that is my apartment, I went out and got some bubble wrap to cover my windows. Why you ask? Because they haven't caught onto the whole concept of double-paned windows and proper sealing practices, let alone centralized heating. So if I turn on the heater with the windows wrapped, at least it stays warm for a little bit and I don't lose it all in the draft. The sad thing is that there's a whole section of bubble wrap and window sealing kits in stores - they realize it's a problem, so why don't they fix it? Ah well.

Some other nice little things I've heard to look forward to:

• water pipes freezing: apparently it's a good idea to leave your faucet dripping overnight on really cold nights, and to turn off your water if you leave for extended periods of time.
• frozen toothpaste(!!): and get this - someone's solution to this was to put it in the fridge overnight!!
• in extreme cases... frozen toilets: I shit you not, someone's solution to this was to pour vodka or some other potent form of liquor in the toilet water overnight as it has a lower freezing temperature than water. Most toilets have heated seats around here, but mine's old so I just had to go get a cover as to not freeze my pasty-white tuckus (I don't care if I spelled that wrong, sorry).
  
• unsalted, unplowed roads: for whatever reason, they don't believe in doing this, so if it snows heavily I can expect to find snow on the roads for up to a good 2 weeks. As a consequence, if you have not put snow tires on your car by the 1st of December, any accident you get in will automatically be deemed solely your fault.

In stark contrast to this, if you go further north to the island of Hokkaido they normally have it right when it comes to heating. Good insulation, good windows with modern seals and such, snow plows, and... are you ready for it? Heated sidewalks!!! That's right, no matter how high the snow may pile up in Sapporo (and it gets pretty high), the sidewalks are clear and ice-free thanks to heated sidewalks. They also apparently have a huge underground mall from what I hear too, but I've never seen it. And I shall leave you with a quote from a certain Canuckistanian, who shall remain nameless, regarding Hokkaido:

"Hokkaido is like Canada, just with a bunch of Japanese people running around."

Ok, it was Matt. I lied.

And finally, here's your Engrish fix of the day, courtesy of the local Rifu Jasco (the kids call it "Rifujasu" for short... the one in Tagajo is "Tagajasu"), where incidentally I happened to find a restaurant with real Quesadillas!!! Here you go:

It's the variety store of amusement... but only for 3 short minutes. Talk about a quickie.