Posts Tagged ‘earthquakes’

And the Earth Moved

Thursday, February 28th, 2008


Yesterday morn, I awoke to the news that England had an earthquake overnight. A little bit of panic stirred in me. I got on all the UK news sites to get the scoop. As I waded through the shocking headlines and read the stories, I found that it had lasted about 20 seconds, one person had been injured and it had left ‘a trail of destruction’ (read: a few tiles fell off a roof somewhere).

 

Bitch, please! Talk about an overreaction.

 

I went on Facebook and nearly all my friends in the UK had a status along the lines of ‘So and so felt the earth move last night!’ or ‘So and so was woken up by the shaking!’ Some had even made a crafty joke about how their significant other hadn’t rocked their world, but the earthquake had. Oh, how they slay me.

 

Now, having lived in Japan, where earthquakes are commonplace, I consider myself well versed in the art of the tremor. So, maybe for me, earthquakes are just passé at this point. Don’t get me wrong, the one in England Tuesday night was a 5.2, which is no baby quake, but it ain’t the mother of all quakes either. And obviously, if you’ve never experienced one before, it is quite a strange sensation, so I can understand the hysteria, up to a point. But the more I read, the more I laughed.

 

On The Guardian website, Jon Jenken from Bourne in Lincolnshire was quoted as saying: ‘I was woken up. It was hell.’

 

Really Jon? It was hell? Everyone has different versions of hell I guess. Mine is a big American Apparel store filled with people in leggings, Crocs and Uggs and Jimmy Saville is there, playing bagpipes and an army of Chavs in fake burberry terrorize the ‘posh twats’ and there’s no internet access and all my ex boyfriends are there and there’s all that fire and stuff. But being woken up from my slumber? Annoying – yes. Hellish – not quite.

 

But, let us not forget, there was one person injured in this mega quake that shook the nation. The poor guy broke his pelvis. I say to him; stick a pack of frozen peas on it. You’ll be fine in a couple of days.

 

Hopefully everything will get back to normal now. Maybe they could put Jimmy Saville to work clearing up the ‘trail of destruction’ on his way back to hell.

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Sumimasen! Part Ichi

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008


Going to Japan had been a dream of mine since my early teens, so when I was offered a job over there, I was beside myself with excitement. The build up had been huge with intense interviews and endless form filling.

 

The night before I left, friends dropped by the house as I finished my packing. Packing was a never ending process. The luggage allowance on Japan Airlines was miniscule, so we kept removing things and weighing the bag until all I was left with was, basically, underwear and my toothbrush.

 

The morning of my flight, my parents drove me to Heathrow. After check-in, it finally hit me just what I was doing. I knew saying goodbye to my parents would be hideous. I’d lived alone in other countries before, but never this far away, never this big a time difference, never not known the language. I decided not to prolong it. If I sat with my parents any longer, I’d never want to leave. I hugged my Mama and wiped her tears. As I went to hug Papa and saw his eyes well up, my heart just about broke.

 

I had a bad cold and having read up on Japanese culture, was aware that it was considered very rude to blow your nose in public. That made for a pretty uncomfortable 12 hour flight. Every couple of sneezes, I’d have to run to the bathroom to blow my nose. After 5 hours of that, I thought ‘screw this – I ain’t in Japan yet’ and decided to stay put whenever I had to clear mucous.

 

I was told that someone from the company I’d be working for would come meet me at the airport and take me to the apartment. I got off the plane and no one was there to meet me. I tried to ask someone but couldn’t find anyone who spoke English. I found this odd – shouldn’t the ability to speak a second language be a requirement to work in an airport?

 

Eventually, I found the person sent to meet me. She bundled me on a train into central Tokyo, where I’d be met by someone else, who’d take me on the subway to my apartment. It took over an hour to get into Tokyo and my jaw was on the floor the entire time. It was such a visual assault, the epitome of ‘bright lights, big city’.

 

I got to the subway station and was concerned for a second about how my guide would find me, until I realized I was the only white person on the platform and was about a foot taller than everyone else.

 

October in Tokyo was considerably warmer than October in London, so my multiple layers had me on the verge of passing out as we crammed into the rush hour subway train. There’s no better initiation to Tokyo life than to dive right into the sardine-tin-train-thing, but right after a 12 hour flight, it’s a little brutal.

 

We finally made it to my apartment and rang the doorbell. A 5’11” gorgeous blonde answered the door. This was Nads, my new roommate. We sat at the dining table and both pulled out our MacBooks. The bond was instant. We chatted as I emailed people back home to let them know I’d arrived safely. Nads had just arrived two weeks earlier, so was still high off the newness herself.

 

And then, after I’d been in the apartment not even half an hour, everything started to shake. Yep, my very first earthquake.

 

Welcome to Japan!

To be continued…

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