Earthquake Aftermath

The day after the earthquake was strange. We spent it wandering around the neighborhood stocking up on supplies as they predicted power outages in the coming days. BBC showed a picture of a severely cracked road one metro stop away from our place so we wanted to check it out, but the neighborhood looked completely normal and we couldn't find the damage. The only difference was the freakishly long line outside the Wal-Mart.

My local grocery store also had some bare shelves, but we had no problem getting what we needed from a variety of local stores.

After following the stressful news about the crisis at the nuclear plant, we were glad to hear that the meltdown was contained.

Today, (Sunday and day 2 after the earthquake), the trains were back to normal and the weather was beautiful, so we decided to wander into Tokyo and try to enjoy ourselves a little. Ironically, we decided to go to Tokyo Tower to check out the earthquake damage there: a slightly bent tip. The tower was closed so we couldn't go up.

Near the Tokyo Tower is the neighborhood Roppongi, with its Mori building. The observation deck is on the 54th floor - the tallest in Tokyo. It's not impressive by American standards, but since it's the tallest building here the view is quite impressive. It was also eerily empty which made for a good day of sight seeing. It was a nice day, but still surreal, knowing what devastation just happened a few hundred kilometers away.

View from the Mori building roof top observation deck...

Which is also a helicopter landing pad.

Earthquake!

I was teaching a private lesson today, when the ceiling started to shake. I thought it was someone jumping around upstairs, but it didn't stop. A few seconds later my student said "earthquake"; if she hadn't, I wonder how long it would have taken me to realize it.

We watched it from the window which overlooks the major Ginza intersection. It was interesting because we could see the street lights swaying. Traffic stopped in the middle of the intersection and people gathered on corners.

I wanted to experience an earthquake while in Japan; I've never been in one before. This one was a bit too long and strong though. Every time I thought it was about to stop, it would shake more, and harder. At first I was calm, but when I saw how scared my student was, I got scared too. Many students said it was the strongest they ever felt. The buildings are designed to deal with the stress, and shock absorbers do a good job. They also make a lot of creaking noises, which make it seem like the building will fall apart.

No major damage in Tokyo occurred, except for a few cracks in buildings here and there. My office closed early, but unfortunately all trains were (and still are) cancelled. Luckily I caught a cab with some friendly strangers and got home in about an hour. Watching the news now, I see many people are stranded in the city or walking home, and the city is completely jammed.

The tsunami triggered by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake did a lot of damage in Sendai, a city 200km north of here. Fortunately it's far away from Tokyo and won't reach us. Unfortunately, it wreaked havoc on all those people there.

Ghibli Museum

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio, famous in Japan and well known around the world. Their films have won many awards; Spirited Away won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002 (the only non-English film to win to date).

This giant robot is from Castle in the Sky.

Totoro, the forest spirit from My Neighbor Totoro, is also the company mascot. Not only that, he's my favorite character/movie.

The films are definitely strange, but also very whimsical. The older films focus more on Japanese folklore, with many spirits and gods (kind of hokey if you ask me). The newer ones are more random but also more enjoyable. The latest short which we could see exclusively at the museum featured a dough monster with a wormy apple for a nose.

And yes, we bought a ton of crap at the gift shop. It was awesome.

Train Track Market

What better way to spend a rainy day than in a 7-story toy store? Exactly. That's why we went to Yamashiroya.

The store was next to train tracks, along which is Ameyayokocho, one of Tokyo's last popular markets. Many of the stores were directly under the tracks (left).

We finished the day at a small conveyor belt sushi place under the tracks. It was kind of a local hole in the wall but the food was really good. One of my students is a sushi chef at a really fancy restaurant. He told me that cheap sushi is the same as expensive sushi. At the end of the day it is just raw fish...

Running and Robots

Unfortunately I had to work on Sunday. The upside (on top of the over-time pay) was that I got to watch the Tokyo Marathon from the best spot in the city - our office. Even the police took one of the corner rooms and made it their stakeout.

People were running through Ginza for at least 4 hours, possibly longer. At the beginning of the day there were many eager, athletic individuals jogging along briskly. Towards the end of the day you saw the sluggish and sad ones. My initial urge to mock them was quickly subdued when I remembered that they had covered more than 40km - I would be dead by then.

There were also some costumed highlights. Aside from the old people in inappropriately short shorts, Darth Vader - red lightsaber in hand, was the best.

In the evening we went back to Akihabara, the electronics district, to visit the Gundam Cafe. A Gundam is a giant war machine suit made popular in an anime series. I went as a mere escort but it was still entertaining. The washroom was the highlight because it was inside a Gundam. Actually, it just had a big red button and when you pressed it, Gundam start-up sounds were heard and lights flashed. It was still cool though.

Akihabara has historically been the techy neighborhood. After the war, the military sold the surplus of electronics at a market under the train station. Engineering students would buy the items and use them as parts to build radios - hot but limited commodities back in the day. To this date Akihabara is the neighborhood for fancy electronics and the latest gadgets.