Nishioka Signed to the Twins!

Yea! The Twins signed Nishioka! First Japanese player on the Twins ever!

I hear his original trip to Minneapolis was delayed by snow. Also he mentioned he was excited about the new field but it was hard to imagine playing on it since theres, you know, 2 feet of snow on it.

Welcome to Minnesota Nishioka!! :D

Rumble rumble

Last night I woke up around 3:30 in the morning to my entire room shaking. I figured it was an earthquake, but this one felt different from what I remember before (although my dazed and confused mind at 3:30 am probably shouldn't be trusted). Rather than swaying like I've experienced before, it was more of a big, and short jolt. I almost thought there was an explosion near by or something!

Anyways, I just woke up, checked it out and sure enough. There was an earthquake at 3:24 am, with the epicenter in Chiba, but the strongest recorded point on land in Yokohama (30 min east of here). Ebina only registered as level 1 for the seismic activity, but thats a pretty strong "1" to wake me up. Actually Kana lives in Kawasaki (10 min from Yokohama), on the 7th floor to boot. I bet it was really strong up there.

I believe it's rather common earthquakes happen in the early morning (although don't quote me on that), but this is the first time I've ever been woken up from one. Everything is fine though. I probably wouldn't have realized there was any earthquake if I hadn't been woken up. Still, my TV falling over worries me the most! hah

Ebina Flooding!

I woke up this morning to what I thought was some pretty heavy rain. But when I finally rolled out of... my futon, and looked out the window it wasn't really raining at all. I got ready to go, put on my wind breaker/rain coat, and headed to work on my bike. I quickly noticed that it had indeed been raining, and my entire bike was actually drenched, despite being under a little awning. Making my way to the road, I noticed there was a lot more traffic than usual, and thought to myself, "Self, I'm probably commuting faster on my bike than these people there cars, hah!" I continued on my way to the intersection at the shell station and Ebina interchange, where I commonly cross to the other side of the road.

Well apparently it had not only been raining, there had been a torrential downpour.

PS: These pictures and videos and more at those links.

Also, I took a few of videos:









Whew!