Arrrrrrrrrrrrrh

So yesterday was a bad day I was in an earthquake, yeah the one in
Sendai, Northern Japan. Thanks to all those of you who contacted me or
asked indirectly whether i was involved. I've spent nearly one whole
year in Japan, barely a nibble of an earthquake, a slight rumble
through a few times that you could have mistaken for farting. I've also
spent that you going nowhere near Sendai. And Bam! (as Liz 
cigamerisedi

would say. An earthquake hits, and I'm right next to the epicentre. Here's how the story goes.



I went up over the weekend and over the obon holiday period to spend
some time with my family and friends that i've known so i was 1.

Obon is a holiday/ festival in Japan celebrating and morning family
ancestors. It is tradition that everyone returns to the family home,

honours family members who have passed away and at the same time have a family get together and eat and drink plenty. 



I enjoyed a great few days, as short as it was making a break-neck tour
around my mum's hometown, which really hasn't changed at all

since i first saw it. It was really nice to catch up with people, and
find that I could say more and more of what i wanted to say than ever

before, well at least since i was about 4 anyway. On the day I arrived
I had a long chat with my eldest cousing Hiroyuki about life, stuff

and everything. We both came to the conclusion that Japan's got a scary
future, and life's a bitch. Out of 365 days of the year he will be

lucky to get 6 days off, he worked throughout the holiday season. He
left in the morning at 4 and didn't get back in until 9 O'clock at
night,

with a reasonable half an hour
break at lunchtime. I also had a good opportunity to speak with my grandma
who turned 90 this year, she

was very alert and talking all about current affairs and still ticking
along well, she's rather frail but that's only to be expected, she
still always

sits in the seiza kneeling position!
I can barely sit on the floor now. :[



On the way back i wanted to get the earlish train from Sendai station
so I get back to do the mammoth packing/ rubbish disposal task.

So my other cousin Yumi drove me to the station to get me on the
11O'clock train to try and beat the hordes coming home to Tokyo.

Everything was going smoothly, boarded the train easy enough and sat
down to relax thinking that I'd soon be back in Nagoya. We left the

station and got to the next station Fukushima and just got out the
station, in Shinkansen terms that means about 5miles out when the

earthquake hit us. The train came to an abrupt stop the electricity went
out and the train rocked from side to side, the electricity pole outside
was shaking violently and then as soon as it started it finsihed. The man
next to me took one look outside, looked at me and said calmly, "Ah Jishin"
"Oh it's an earthquake" and then we all lent forward and braced our heads.
A few pieces of luggage fell onto the floor but apart from that events
unfolded without drama. A few children were like, "Was that an earthquake?
Wow, that's my first one, yay!"

Then ensued the 5 hour wait. The electric cables had been snapped and needed
to be repaired before we could go anywhere, a train further up the track had
become slightly derailed and we were just told to wait. EVERY DAMN BLOODY 5/10
MINUTES FUCKERS! It became clear that the driver was going to keep repeating
the same apology again, again, again and again. He eventually cooled off the
long winded apologies and told us the quake had been 7 on the richter scale
and we'd had one around 6 where we were. So there it was my first biggish
earthquake.

Liz I hope that this has satisfied your need for NUPACE livejournal entries.
Sorry for those who had to sieve through this entry.