Status update

I'm posting this on my iPhone so forgive me for any weird spelling mistakes.

After three days in mito with no water, no food other than brown rice, and rotating power, I decided to ask the Amity to put me up at the Honbu (or headquarters) in Okayama where I trained. They accepted an Erica decided to come with. I had to take a bus to get out of town, since mito train station was closed and ibaraki airport demolished, but after a few stops we found a working train station and took the Shinkansen the rest of the way. The first few towns we saw the old familiar earthquake damage, including 30-40 car lines outside the gas stations and paper signs in the window of all the convince stores. Grocery stores that were open had lines of people wrapped around them, and I'm assuming by now their food has long run out other than the government sanctioned rice and water bags.

As we travelled further west, we saw less and less stores closed. After passing through Tokyo everthing seemed like normal life in japan, an after getting off the train in Okayama station I felt like the whole thing never happened. It is still filled with giggling schoolgirls who buy heart shaped waffles and late businessmen literally running back to work in their suits. The annex is like a skeleton apartment, but a hot shower and a full size bed felt great after all the travelling.

Where do I go from here, I wonder. Nobody has any idea when the school is open, and it seems like Japanese business etiquette is to run all decicions by the head head boss. The only reason I'm here in Okayama is because I asked to be, a
nd some great trainers helped push the word on to the higher ups. But the same beurocracy exists about reopening the school. Is there an official date? Will I still be getting paid? The biggest pain is that I'll probably get a call one day saying, "head back! School opens tomorrow." I would be happy to be home and working, if the city was, of course.

Earthquake 2011

I was walking back from lunch at this restaurant down the street from work yesterday when the earthquake hit. I didn't even notice it at first, but when Erica stopped me from walking under the overhang of a building nearby, I noticed this big locked freezer thing next to me shaking uncontrollably. It wasn't til a few seconds later when the ground started shaking pretty violently. We ran out into the street with a couple of pedestrians nearby and held on to each other, which didn't really help much. We were falling all over each other like you would if you stood up on a moving boat, but even worse was that I couldn't tell which direction the waves were coming from to try and keep myself from falling.

Eventually we had to squat down and just watch people flee from outside the buildings. The building I was originally under started to collapse, and a man ran out from underneath the overhang just as it came crashing down. Other people ran out of their apartments and offices screaming and crying; most of the people I talked to said it was the biggest earthquake they had ever felt. Afterwards, the damage to the sidewalks and the buildings was pretty severe, and sewage pipes burst and flooded water at almost every corner. Tons of people took refuge in the park until the news said it was clear to find shelter. For about 24 hours Jonan, my neighborhood of Mito, didn't have any power or water. I wish I would have taken more pictures.

We ended up sleeping at Amagai-Sensei's parents house in the country. They took great care of us! They gave us warm towels and cooked us curry and rice on their gas-powered stove. The house was gorgeous and since the power was out for miles and miles it was the first time I've seen that many stars since I was in Wyoming about 10 years ago. Overall it was a blessing, considering everyone else went to the high school and took shelter in the gym with hundreds of other displaced people. The tremors happened all night, but it was still much more comfortable than being at home. It's about 11:23 p.m. here now, about 33 hours after the big earthquake and we're still getting tremors every half an hour or so. Supposedly there have been about 125 small earthquakes since the huge one, over a dozen of which have been 6.0 or greater (a 6.0 earthquake on land could kill a ton of people, luckily for Japan all these earthquakes are taking place off-shore). 

Hopefully it goes without saying that I am safe from the Japan Earthquakes for now. The earthquake yesterday was a huge disaster here, and although the people of Mito are more inconvenienced than in danger, it was still one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me. The actual shaking of the earth was more exhilarating than scary, and because I didn't get any tsunami's in Mito my life wasn't a living hell for the last two days, but I still catch myself wonder, "what if the tsunami was off the coast here, and not Sendai?" So far the news is saying about 1700 confirmed deaths in the regions to the north, but only 1 in my prefecture of Ibaraki... It's kinda useless to, but it leaves me asking, "why not here?" Luckily, I live to fight another day.

Uchihara Mall

This last Monday was pretty rainy, so Erica and I decided to take the train to the big mall in Uchihara. The train ride was only two stops away so it only cost us a couple bucks each way. The mall was bigger than any of the ones in St. Louis, and surprisingly had a ton of stores for both guys and girls. Until now, I've noticed far more girls' stores than boys' stores in Japanese "departo"s.

    In every big Japanese shopping area, there is always a hyper-pink arcade area that is only for girls full of Purikura, or roughly, photo booths. After taking a photo with your group of 5 or more girlfriends (or one super reluctant boyfriend), you get to use a touch-screen with a bunch of sticker and color options to make yourselves look glamorous. Most of them even have options to make your eyes bigger or your hair brighter. Afterwards, the device spits out a few tiny stickers that you can cut up and stick on your stuff. With how good digital cameras are these days, the whole thing seems really silly. I of course, did it anyway.... the secret to looking cute is to put cat ears on everything.

The food court was very asian, save for the McDonalds, Mr. Donut, and KFC that were there. I ate at a place called Pepper Lunch which serves you a steaming hot skillet of steak and vegetables that are cooked right there at the table.

Japan is into the "collect 'em all" mentality more than I ever could imagine. Each one of these machines costs $1-2 and drops out a little trinket for you to play with, and each machine has 5-10 different guys you have to collect from it, meaning that if you really like a show or a character, you have to keep dropping in money until you have all the little key-chains or trinkets that you want. Anyone who learned about Japan by playing Shenmue remembers the two machines from the arcade that you bought useless items from.... well in Japan there are way, way more than 2 machines.

I ended up buying a over-the-shoulder bag for when I go walking or biking around town. In the US this would be considered a purse, and I would be gay. For now I usually have big coat pockets, but in the Summer I will probably need more storage space for beer or something. 

The mall was fun but dangerous. I kept seeing useless stuff I wanted to buy, and everything in the mall seemed so much more expensive than what I've seen back home. The belt-buckle below cost around 25 bucks!