The main focus that's been in Japan lately have been the earthquakes. Lots and lots of earthquakes. The first earthquake hit October 23rd around 5:30pm that registered a 6.1 on Japan's scale of 7 in the location it originated from and was said to be about a 5.x in the area me and yumiko were in. That has to have been the biggest earthquake of all of them cause there was stuff falling all over the place in the shop and it's not like we could run outside because just over head is cheaply glassed windows and powerlines a plenty so we just stayed in the shop and waited it out while the shop assistant hugged her Mac to make sure it didn't fall from its purch. After about a good 35-40 seconds when the shaking stopped the lady brushed her front and snapped into her sales pitch again like it was nothing, but me and Yumiko were like, "You crazy! Let's get oudda heea!" Surprisingly enough we lost our mood to shop.
While walking back to my car parked a few blocks away it was eereyly quiet in the downtown area. Really still and unsettling.
We talked about it walking back and once we got back to where we had parked was when the second one hit just as strong as the first, only this time were we outside surround by buildings, concrete power poles and lines and buildings patched up with rippled sheets of tin trying to shake free from the ground. Since it's uncommon for the after shock to be as strong as the initial quake we got pretty nervous and got out of the city and headed towards home. Naturally most other people had the same idea and we found ourselves stuck in traffic listening to radio reports of structural damage in other parts of Japan. (namely Nigata since it's directly above the source of the quakes 10 km below its surface)
At that time the ground started shaking again and we saw powerlines and street signs shaking heavily again and we realized that the second earthquake wasn't a fluke but a part of a pattern of quakes.
From that point on the entire night had an hourly quake that was no where near the strength of the first three but still made people sit up and take notice. It was said that from the time of the first quake to 12 am that morning there was a reported 360 separate seismic happenings and 5 of them had been in the lower 6's (again in a 7 point scale).
Sunday was the same story again with earthquakes throughout the day some strong some unnoticable and monday had maybe one. Later that week there was another big earthquake that registered about a 6 again, after "scientists" predicted that the chance of another quake of the same strength of the first was less than 10%. Guess they were wrong. After that there hadn't been any we could notice and everyone thought the quakes had passed and started to relax a bit, but just this morning at 4:40am another (weak) earthquake woke me up again. It measured a 3 in Nigata and a 1 in Saitama. It's scary cause they always start small and build so even when there's a little one you always think it will keep building.
Later I saw in the news that the small quake I felt in the morning that was reported as a 3 was instead reported as two quakes at 3 and 5. The stronger one being about an hour later. But since then we haven't felt anything which is good. People are still a bit jumpy but things are getting back to normal. I think everyone is tired of nature for the moment seeing as just before the earthquakes, Japan experienced the biggest typhoon its seen in the past decade.
The area I live in is pretty sheltered compared to the rest of the country but it was still something to see. Lots of wind and water which seems to make sense since it was a typhoon. And before the typhoon was a sequence of other typhoons. Rain for about 3 solid weeks. Because of all the wind and rain the vegetable crops have taken a beating and have driven the veggy prices sky high, some people reporting to have seen lettuce going for about $12 in Tokyo.
Around these parts you'll be getting lettuce for about $5 and big radishes for $4 and everything else for 2-3x what your used to paying. But, I'd rather pay through the nose then eat a filthy foreign vegetable. Could you imagine if the government actually imported vegetables to satisfy the demand? There would be illness and disease everywhere. It would be crippling to the national health system. Panic and bad taste all in one! But thank Budda they have not done anything of the least in terms of importing. We must stick together through such tough times. Resist temptation to question anything, and most of all protect Japan's economy and supermarkets!
Look at its big round eyes watching and waiting. You
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