メリークリスマロスMerry KrisMarose

Typhoon #15

2011-09-21T18:33:00.002+09:00

Its typhoon'ing like crazy over here right now. I can hear rain noise coming from the wall, as in horizontal rain. Yeesh.

Pow.

This has really been a weird typhoon though. First it was heading north at a slow speed, like the one a few weeks ago that plowed through central Japan at a bicycles pace. Then it did a loop-d-loop over Okinawa, and messed up everyone's day I'm sure. Now it's making a b-line for Tokyo and up through NE Japan, picking up speed along the way.

Some of my coworkers tell me they haven't experienced a typhoon quite this strong in awhile either. Quite the year 2011 has turned out to be for Japan... whew.

Update: By the way, the typhoon ended very suddenly, right before I went home. It went from torrential downpour to just a little wind (absolutely no rain) in 30 min or so. Crazy.

Fuji Sunset

2011-09-14T23:11:00.001+09:00

Last week I left work a little bit after 6, and apparently it was perfect timing...

I gotta say, its a pretty cool thing to be able to see Mt. Fuji on your way to/from work on a clear day.

Update: I forgot one...

Disposable Diplomats

2011-09-14T00:50:00.003+09:00

Have you heard the news? Japan has a new Prime Minister!

Yoshihiko Noda

You know who he replaced right? Koizumi? No no, he resigned 5 years ago, waaay back in 2006, and was replaced by Shinzo Abe-san. Then Noda-san? No, a year later Abe-san resigned suddenly, and was replaced by Fukuda Yasuo... who also suddenly resigned a year later.


Koizumi	Abe	Fukuda

At this point I thought the next guy was going to be bald...

but it turns out Aso Taro had a full head of hair after all.

Noticed how new guy Noda-san's name hasn't come up yet?

This brings us to 2009, when there was a rather historic general election that put the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) in the majority over the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) which had been in the majority practically uncontested since the 50s (I'm probably exaggerating here, but that gives you an idea as to how big of a deal this was). So with a change of party, also comes a change in the Prime Minster. Enter Hatoyama Yukio... who promptly resigned a year later after his approval ratings plummeted after a controversial decision to keep an American base open in Okinawa.

And finally... no, not Noda yet, Naoto Kan, the Prime Minister who was in office throughout the earthquake. However, because of disapproval in his handling the post-quake recovery, his popularity fell and many called for his resignation. At one point he actually proposed his own resignation, before the Diet put forward a vote of no-confidence, but the motion was defeated and he stayed in office... for a little while, until he resigned, and we finally get... Noda-san!

Couldn't quite keep track of that? Well don't worry, neither could Germany, when they accidentally put Aso Taro in the newspaper for the G8 Summit earlier this year in France (the one Kan-san attended).

So as you can see, Japan really likes to go through prime ministers. Going back to Koizumi, that makes the 7th prime minister in 6 years. No wonder nothing can ever get done. I suppose if Kan-san was really doing a horrible job handling post-quake Japan, then I guess we should have a new leader to run things, but I can't help but think at this point in the game it's only going to hurt the situation. I have to imagine people in Fukushima don't really care who sits in the big chair. They just want stuff to get done so we can move towards recovery.

But that's just the the revolving door of the prime ministers. Imagine how many other politicians throw in the towel on what almost seems like a regular basis. In fact, Noda's minister of trade, Yoshio Hachiro, resigned not even a week after being appointed into the cabinet. Seems he made comments on a town in Fukushima being a 'town of death' and joking about 'giving radiation' to a journalist. However, a bit of good news out of all this is that Edano is back as his replacement! Edano was the primary spokesperson of the government during the earthquake.

I like this guy.

Anyways, I'm far from an expert on all this, and only really absorb the main topics and events from English resources (newsonjapan.com is pretty amazing). I generally watch more variety shows than the news, but it just bothers you a little when you hear about resignations all over the place. As a result, my (naive) understanding of Japanese politics is, "If it doesn't work, quit." Often politicians resign under the guise of 'taking responsibility' for scandal/failure/accident. Perhaps this is rooted in the concept of 'saving face' and Japanese culture.

Here's a good, and unfortunate example of what I'm talking about. I was watching SMAPxSMAP awhile back when Higashikokubaru was on as the guest. Higashikokubaru was a former comedian (particularly known for Takeshi's Castle, otherwise known in English as MXC - he was Kenny Blankenship!!) who became a politician. Kind of like Schwarzenegger, but you can take him more seriously. Anyways, after he became the governor of Miyazaki prefecture, he really turned the place around. Then there was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2010, to which an emergency was actually declared, and most of the cattle, swine, sheep, etc had to be slaughtered. After all was said and done, Higashikokubaru decided not to run for re-election, as a way of taking responsibility for the outbreak, even though nobody wanted him to resign.

Sigh...

What ever happened to sticking it through the hard times to do whats right. Isn't that what being a leader is? They're not there to be everyone's friend. They're where they are to make the right decisions in the best interest of the country.

Alright, that's enough politics out of me. This is probably one of the reasons I watch more variety shows than the news. Actually, looking up information about Higashikokubaru-san, my mind has been completely blown away to find out he was Kenny Blankenship from MXC. Also, "Beat" Takeshi was the main host (durr, that's probably why it's called "Takeshi's Castle), or otherwise known as Vic Romano in MXC. This, changes, everything.

Man, I love this show.

Japan vs Nature

2011-09-07T00:18:00.001+09:00

So apparently nature has declared war on Japan or something. As if recovering from the earthquake wasn't enough, we just got hammered with the worst typhoon in 28 years. Apparently its name was Typhoon Talas, which I just found out cause they don't use names over here, just numbers. So it was Typhoon #12 as far as I'm concerned. Plus this one decided to slow waaay down when it hit land or something (I heard mention of it being as fast as a bicycle?), and pretty much do all sorts of screwy things with the weather.

I remember last week Thursday and Friday there was supposed to be heavy rain in the morning, so Thursday I planned ahead, left my bike at work and arranged so a co-worker would pick me up. Unfortunately, I didn't even need my umbrella. So much for 8mm/hr of rain. Same weather prediction for Friday morning, but when I woke up and looked outside that morning... it was sunny - and not just a break in the clouds or anything, it was a bright and sunny morning. I understand how typhoons can be somewhat unpredictable, but yeesh.

Anyways, originally the typhoon was supposed to rear its ugly face right through Kangawa, Tokyo, and up through NE Japan, but it decided to slow down and plow over Shikoku and western Japan instead. Perhaps that was for the better though, cause those guys up in NE Japan don't need anything more on their plate.

Pow

Fortunately I seemed to have gotten through this typhoon mostly unscathed, as I didn't get caught in any downpours to/from work. Then again, as I was coming home Sunday night, after I got to Ebina station, got on my bike for 2 minutes or so down the road, suddenly the floodgates opened and a torrential downpour dumped on me out of nowhere (the ground was dry before then). I did have my umbrella, although it only kept my upper body dry. Still, I was just heading home, so I simply showered and changed right away.

The Rain... It's Magnificent

2011-08-22T09:25:00.000+09:00

Oh man, the weather is beautiful out today. It's in the 70s, cloudy overcast, and rainy. It's magnificent. What a cool and refreshing, misty bike ride to work.

In other news, my coworker Kevin is a big wimp, and called in a ride to work. Boo hoo, it's raining, I don't want to get wet out there. Bah :P

Actually it's been rainy and cool all weekend, and I've been loving every minute of it. Sure enough, right after I write a post about it being hot out, the weather starts to cool... wait a minute, why didn't I post about that earlier?! Gah. Oh well, lookin forward to the 70s we're supposed to get this week.

Come on Fall, here we come... (please)

A Little Update in This Heat

2011-08-19T19:30:00.002+09:00

You know its hot out when you turn the shower on, and the water goes from warm, to cold, and then back to warm water again. It doesn't feel as hot out as last year, but maybe thats cause I'm not walking outside as much as I bike to work now. Then again, all this energy saving by raising the temp on the A/C isn't helping either... but hey, thats reality. I just try not to think about the heat as much, and generally have a fan or A/C pointed my way at all times of the day.

Anyways, a few weeks back the stars aligned and it just so happened that a bunch of people from the Japanee Student Association (JSA) from back at the U were in/around the Tokyo area, so we got together for a... reunion of sorts. I suggested maybe we could do a picnic in a park, and subsequently got nominated as the organizer... oh well. It was loads of fun, and most of all, so nice to see familiar faces again, people I have some history with, especially the common ground of good ol Minnesota.

In other news, my company is going public! Thats pretty cool, especially since I get to be around since the beginning. In fact, on that note, I'm closing in on my 3rd year at Proto Labs. I can't believe I've been working for 2 years now. Boy time flies (when you're having fun, right?). Actually, I gotta say I've been quite enjoying my job. With time spent on both softare development and IT administration, the variety keeps things interesting. I'm learing a lot that way too, whew. Anyways, I wonder if I'll get any stock options. I'd certainly not mind that, especially since we're at over 400 employees worldwide now, and looking to raise $100 million in IPO. I think we were at 300 employees when I started, and we don't plan on slowing down anytime soon either. :D

M.U.L.E.

2011-08-16T23:01:00.000+09:00

Just found this. Must share.

Behold... M.U.L.E.

Best game (and soundtrack) on NES, yes!

Wait... I need to get to bed... crap.

Still Still Shaking

2011-08-02T08:14:00.001+09:00

Got another aftershock last night a little before midnight. It was an M6.1 about 20km underground off the coast of Shizuoka, 90 miles or so from where I live. We only felt a intensity 3, but it shook pretty well. Shortly after the quake I got a text message from a co-worker of mine who's visiting to help for a few months from HQ.

"What the hell was that?!"

Congrats Kevin, you just experienced a descent sized quake, as well as the freaky early alert system that makes it sound like the apocalypse is coming. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) my phone doesn't make that whoop whoop noise since it's a smart phone, but I do have an app for that. I just disabled that too, as there were so many false positives those few months after the quake. I should tweak the settings, but then again I don't need yet another app to drain the battery even faster.

Anyways, I was watching TV at the time, and it went a little something like this...

I wasn't watching NHK, but basically the same thing. The crazy part though - I didn't even budge. I just sat on my couch the whole time, and rode it out like a boss.

Nadeshiko Fever Continues...

2011-07-25T22:37:00.004+09:00

This morning I woke up to continuing news of Nadeshiko Japan, and the World Cup aftermath. It seems they're exhausting every story related to the team, all the way down to the hair bands, nail art and earrings they're wearing...

nail art 投稿者 peakfloods

If my memory serves me right, I think they even mentioned you could purchase the earrings Kawasumi Nahomi wears, and apparently still is, cause I just saw her on SMAP x SMAP with them on. One is a globe and the other is a plane, supposedly to represent international something or other.

Also, here's a little bit of random. I stop by Kana's neighborhood in Hirama this weekend, and there's a summer festival going on. Cool, what timing!

The butter/soy sauce corn and sausages were delicious.

So we're walking though the neighborhood, seeing what food and such they're selling, when we start to hear drums off in the distance. We keep going, and the drums get louder. There must be some performance of some sort going on. Seems to be a parade of some sort. As it gets closer, we start to make out exactly what it is...

SAMBA!!!!

I like the old man with the cell phone came following the parade taking pictures. Come on dude, haha.

So random! What is a samba doing in Hirama?!?

Nadeshiko Japan

2011-07-20T11:07:00.030+09:00

As I'm sure everyone knows already, they did it! The Japan Women's soccer team - Nadeshiko Japan - took the women's world cup!!

I had heard they were doing pretty good in the tourney, and was bummed I missed some of their matches, especially the huge upset with Germany. So I was pretty psyched when I found out I could catch it late Sunday (Monday morning 3 am really). I was pretty exhausted, but stuck it out, and stayed up till 3 am to catch the game... then I fell asleep.

Doh.

I woke up a couple times during the match, and remember it being 1-1 at one point, but... that's about it. Then I woke up in the morning, turned on the news and saw they won. Hooray!

Sure wish I could have celebrated a bit more in the moment, but oh well. As expected, that's been THE news topic all week, and will probably continue to be like that for some time. How can you blame them though? It's a pretty amazing feat, and an awesome underdog story especially considering the state of the country after the earthquake and such.

And sure enough, Nadeshiko Japan's return home was a total circus. All the news stations were standing by, ready to go live to the airport for the arrival. They even mentioned the crowd was supposedly as large or larger than when Lady Gaga came not too long ago.

Actually from this video it almost seems like the news announcers are going more crazy than the fans who came to the airport, hah.

Man, that's a lot of luggage.

Oh and right, they played the US, so this kinda brought up an interesting conflict of interest for my allegiances. Although with the US vs Japan, that's pretty much a win-win, right? Cause one team I like will win... although the other will lose, so I guess it's more of a win-lose... almost like a competition of some sort... Anyways, as much as I'm all for GO USA! I think I would have rooted for Japan. Its a cool story, especially with the underdog aspect, but also there's the whole thing where, if they lose everyone around me is sad, but if they win, I get to participate in the celebration (if I stayed awake for it). So...

Nippon! Nippon! Nippon! :D

If only Samurai Blue (Men's Soccer) could stop choking when it counts. What are they, from Minnesota? >.>

Still Aftershocking

2011-07-10T10:24:00.000+09:00

Just had an M7 quake off the coast of NE Japan, which shook alot of the NE area at around intensity 4. They also issued a tsunami warning of 50 cm for the coastline of 3 prefectures up there. Didn't shake very much over here though, only around intensity 2, but it did shake for a good minute. Started with a little vertical shaking, then with some horizontal swaying. I thought I had been seeing a few more quakes in popping up in the area lately...

Visitors!

2011-07-05T21:42:00.003+09:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I've had visitors! Finally I get to show people around and use the knowledge and other goings on of Tokyo and Japan I've been learning for the past several years, two of which spent living here.

Well two weeks ago I had some friends visiting Tokyo, the last leg of their tour of SE Asia before returning to Minnesota. I took them out for Okonomiyaki in Shibuya, showing them the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world and other craziness that is Shibuya after work on a Wednesday. Then I took them out to Yakiniku near Shinjuku on Friday before they flew back on Sunday. I finally fulfilled my dream of me (pasty white) showing around some (non-Japanese Asian) friends in Japan. For some reason all the waiters and cashiers tried talking to the wrong person...

Then last week my cousin (Brian) and uncle (Bruce) visited! Hooray for more faces I've known for more than a year! My uncle was here on business related items, but my cousin decided to tag along. They also decided to bring an extra suitcase for souvenirs, which means... free suitcase full of American goodies!!

3 boxes of cereal
4 bottles of barbeque sauce
1 bottle of ranch dressing
1 giant Twins blanket
1 U of M mug
2 pairs of sunglasses
1 trumpet mouthpiece
1 bag of Twix

...and TEN POUNDS OF CHEESE

Oh, glorious cheese. That's even better than the 6 lbs of cheese I got last time this happened when I studied abroad. I love cheese. So major Kudos to you guys for lugging that beast over here. It was all worth it for my brick of bacon cheese. :D

Anyways, the first day they spent touring a high school (jealous!) where they'll be having some sort of student exchange relation with. Then Brian came out this way on Tuesday, and I showed him around Enoshima island, one of my favorite spots in Japan. There's just so much to do in this place. Not only do you have the cultural standard temples and shrines, but the geography of this island is gorgeous, with a long narrow bridge jutting out from the coast leading up to the island itself. Then its up up up hundreds of steps to get to the top of the island, where sits a large lighthouse, complete with indoor/outdoor observation deck. And if that isn't enough, find your way down to the other side of the island and you can explore the rocky shore and caves. What a cool place.

After Enoshima we ran over to see Daibutsu (Big Buddha) and then Kamakura, where there are supposedly 250 temples (and one 72 year old taxi driver dude - you rock). Then we hopped on a train into Tokyo for some classic Karaoke. I emailed my friend about Karaoke the night before, and he manged to get together a dozen or so people. Sufficed to say, much fun was had at the Karaoke booth.

Brian then toured Tokyo on Wednesday, and he and his dad found their way back to my place where they stayed for the remainder of the trip. On Thursday they toured Hakone, and Friday I took them around Tokyo, on a rather busy schedule. We started out at the Tsukiji fish market in the morning, but unfortunately missed most of the hustle and bustle. There were still some shops open though, so it was worth it. After that we headed to Ginza, cause you gotta see Ginza, and were introduced to this really cool and very traditional Japanese restaurant - Ganko.

After Ginza we hopped over to the Imperial Palace, but the gardens were closed on Fridays. Since they came all that way though, I wanted to at least show them the park on the north side of the imperial palace. Unfortunately it was quite the long hike from the south portion (sorry guys!). After that we headed into Asakusa for some more sightseeing, and also stopped by a rice cracker store I frequent, before chowing on Okonomiyaki, which that area is famous for.

Finally we ended the day with Akihabara and the giant Yodobashi Camera (like Best Buy) there. I also bought some cool plastic Gundam models (theres another post coming), which I've been thoroughly enjoying.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun finally having visitors! Who's coming next?

Also Brian, when are you coming back!!? :D

Hot! Too Hot!

2011-06-30T12:51:00.003+09:00

Oh yay, it got into the 90's, touching 100 early this year. On the news they said it reached 96F in Nagoya yesterday, the hottest its been at this time of year in 20 years. There are also 5 times as many cases of heat stroke compared to last year as well. The good news however, is that we got through an incredibly hot day yesterday w/out cutting power. That said, they did reach 93.3% capacity, which is the highest energy usage post-quake. Let's hope we can keep it that way...

Der Twains Ist Back?

2011-06-21T07:48:00.000+09:00

A paragraph at the end of this article really does a good job of summing up exactly why the twins have struggled so much his season...

Gardenhire put out his 64th different batting order Friday due to all of the Twins' injuries. He has not used any one batting order more than twice this season, and the Opening Day lineup has not taken the field at home yet this season. But getting Mauer and Nishioka back should begin to make things easier on his filling out the lineup card.

"It's not easy, but you just have to kind of ad lib a little bit," Gardenhire said. "Kind of break the lineup up a bit and see what happens."

Yes, a different batting order ever game. In other words, the Twins haven't been the Twins since opening day. Just a tad bit of 'ad libbing' going on when you practically replace the team with the minor roster. Every year is the same story of battling injuries but this year has just seemed ridiculous.

But things are finally turning around! The Twins are 14 of their last 16! Finally nice to see Gardy pull some good ol Minnesota magic out of his hat again. It's also been really fun to see Nishioka back too.

Go Twins!

International Pentecost

2011-06-18T09:04:00.000+09:00

Once again, far too long between posts, bleh.

Anyways, last week was pentecost, and my church decided to do an international theme for the service. We had readings and prayers in a wide variety of languages including Spanish, French, Malgasay, Korean, Chinese, etc, representing alot of the different nationalities we have at the church. Oh there was English and Japanese too, particularly for the English/Japanese bilingual sermon (that was way cool Takashi!). I contributed by singing Lobe den Herron (Praise to the Lord) in German! :D

Unfortunately the position of the camera and piano kind of drown out my voice a bit, but you get the idea. I've sung German in college before, and taken german in high school, so I think it worked out ok. I still don't get why 'den' is prnounced deen and 'der' is pronounced dehr, but whatever. It was fun, I look forward to my next chance to sing there again.

I hear its been quite hot over there, but we're still lucky to be in the 60s and 70s, more than likely thanks to the clouds and rain from the rainy season. Which means we're able to avoid planned outtages for now, so I'm counting my blessings. Also, I've only felt one significant earthquake since I returned from the US a month or so ago, so nice to feel a bit more stable. There's still talk of a huge after shock still on the way, but we'll deal with that when it comes I suppose. For now at least I'm well prepared with some of my furniture anchored down.

Super Typhoon

2011-05-28T11:23:00.002+09:00

They've been saying on the news that the rainy season in Japan came a couple weeks sooner than usual this year. Well apparently it came with a major bang in the form of a super typhoon that's supposed to plow over okinawa today. But with the rainy season here, you know what that means...

Shogun! Bring out the umbrella brigade!!

I've determined that Japanese are, contrary to popular belief, descendants of the wicked witch of the west. Whenever it even so much as mists, every person in this country whips out umbrellas sometimes out of nowhere!

Ok actually theres an old wives tale in Japan that if you get caught in the rain you'll catch a cold. Apparently this is super effective (50 dmg!), because you can generally spot the foreigner as the only person in a crowd without an umbrella.

Here's an example - one evening on my way home from the supermarket, I was was waiting at a stoplight while it was a tad bit sprinkling out. In front of me stood a mother and her two young children, both huddled under their (slightly overweight) mom. When the boy got tired of trying to fit underneath the umbrella (which didn't seem that effective anyways), he stepped out for a moment, only to have his mom quite literally yell,

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET BACK HERE! YOU'LL CATCH A COLD!!"

Now don't get me wrong, I commend her for being a good mother, it's just that from my position and given that it was barely raining it seemed somewhat silly. By the way, I had no umbrella at the time, hah.

You should see the scramble crossing in Shibuya when it's rainy out though. It really looks like two umbrella armies clashing against each other. I'll have to find and post a video later.

Edit: Delivered!

Anyways, although theres been a ton of talk on the news about generators and solar panels selling like hotcakes, so far no updates on whether or not we're going to be doing planned outages in the summer or not. The whole country is pretty much in full blown energy saving mode, with trains and stores cutting the lights still. I have a feeling we might just barely get by since the culture is incredibly cooperative, but we'll see. Fortunately it's still cool outside, so I'm trying to enjoy our current cool weather + electricity situation while I can.

Two Good Weeks

2011-05-19T08:27:00.000+09:00

Well I kind of disappeared for a couple weeks there, but for good reason. It's been a rough year for my family. We lost my mom's best friend less than a year ago, my grandpa 6 months ago, and my grandma just recently. It's been really strange being on the sidelines on the other side of the world. I can email, IM, and Skype till I'm blue, but that's still not quite the same as actually being there.

But I was able to be there for these past couple weeks, and it was really great. I haven't spent that much time in the US in over a year, and not that much time at home for a couple years. The last couple times I've gone home as well I was usually busy the entire time with family and/or holiday events, giving little free time. Combine that with the jet lag that I would usually get used to just before I went home again too.

This time was a little different though. And while in town, I was able to do all those American things I've been missing - like ribs, pizza, beer, ranch dressing, bbq sauce, buffet, tex mex, cereal, etc... I was also get some much needed shopping in, you know, at stores where the clothes and shoes fit me. I also stopped at the supermarket and bought a few things... like... 20 lbs or so groceries I brought home... What?! You can't get this stuff over here!

Also, all you can eat ribs!

And a good ole American barbecue. Drool...

And finally, we had a ton of brush and fallen branches from some recent storms, so we had a huge bonfire in our backyard.

Complete with marshmallows.

Yea, it was good to be home.

What a Week

2011-05-05T16:21:00.003+09:00

This past week has been Golden Week in Japan, but for some reason or another I couldn't/didn't quite put together any plans to go anywhere and do something. I decided to not take any vacation days, and come in on the Monday sandwiched between this year's golden week, saving what vacation days I may want for a return trip to the US in Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Well, perhaps it was a good thing after all that I was without plans for this golden week. On Tuesday afternoon I learned of the sad news that my grandma, after a long 4 or 5 year battle with cancer, passed away at home, surrounded by my family. I'm told they sang Amazing Grace, my grandma said she loved them all, and within half an hour she had gone.

While I'm Indeed sad she's gone, and sad I couldn't be there with my family, at the same time I'm happy that she is at peace without pain, singing and dancing in heaven. I also had the means, and the time to get on a flight home the very next day, to be with my family. Within hours of hearing the news, I booked a ticket, packed up my things, cleaned up my apartment so it could sit for a week or two, and was out the door to a hotel near Narita Airport. Surprisingly the prices for tickets weren't too bad even though its Golden Week, but I bet that's because I left in the *middle* of GW. It's amazing how things seem to work themselves out like that.

So here I am, at home in Milwaukee, within 48 hours upon hearing of my grandma's passing. How grateful I am to be here. And of course I'm getting my fair share of reverse culture shock again (geeze, what's up with some restaurant staff being so rude???). Although I was very happy to be able to just jump in a car for the first time in half a year, and start driving it as if I had been every day. I didn't even have trouble driving on the right side of the road.

Oh, and what was my first meal in the US? Golden Corral baby. Nothing like all you can eat unhealthy American buffet. Oh the ranch dressing, the toppings, the cheese, the pizza, buffalo wings, bbq wings, fried chicken wings, chips and dip, fish fry, potato salad, pasta salad, cheesy potatoes, cheese cake and ice cream!! Sure glad I was able to destroy my stomach on the very first day..... nah, it was worth it.

Anyways, I'm not here for all of that (but am still enjoying what I can). I'm here because it's important for me to be here, for my grandma, and for my family, who were also very happy to see me. Actually, my house in Milwaukee is a rather unique situation where my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins all live in the same house. When I was in high school, that made 9 of us total (including me). But this was nothing new to my grandma who raised 7 children on the farm. So as my grandparents lived with us for... wow 10 years or more, we as a family were very very close to them. Having her gone is very difficult for us all. The distance, with being on the other side of the world and all, is also strange. I'm just so glad the world can be a small place after all if you make the effort.

More information on my grandma on her caring bridge site for anyone interested.

Gonna miss you grandma.

Jim "Paul Bunyan" Thome

2011-04-27T02:08:00.001+09:00

I ran across this the other day. It must be shared.

Once again, Minnesota Twins commercials at their best. I suppose they're funny because it's mostly inside jokes and puns on different player characteristics, but they're always really good, every single year.

For those not as familiar with the Twins and who Jim Thome is, well, he is a beast. Currently Thome is in 8th overall for most career home runs with 591, which means he's in line to hit 600 this year. Now 40 years old, his long career in the majors, mostly in the AL Central, also has him holding the record for most home runs against a number of teams, including the Twins and the Royals I believe.

Basically, this guy is quite the power hitter, fitting for a comparison between Paul Bunyan (which is also part of the Minnesota joke). Also note at the end of the commercial he points his bat toward the clubhouse saying, "Right down there." This is the exact pose he takes every time he gets to the plate. Yea, once again a Twins commercial managed to have me rolling.

By the way, here's two of my favorite Thome moments since he joined the Twins last year.

Thome hitting triples.

Unfortunately they won't let me embed these (I'm working on it). But look at him go! Whooosh!

Also, hooray for baseball season!!! :D

A Whole Year Already?!

2011-04-19T23:58:00.000+09:00

On April 12th, after several months of training, familiarizing myself with my company's systems and inner workings, I boarded a plane bound for Japan. Half a day later, I arrived on the 13th, and practically hit the ground running. Upon calling my coworker to let them know I arrived, I was told we had some issues with our firewall, and they asked if I could come take a look at it. Well I guess there was good reason for me to be here after all.

Now one year later, we've got almost twice as much machinery and computers, I have a new boss, and we have 10 more employees than when I started, making me far from the new guy (although I'm still the youngest). Work is really turning into a lively place.

One of my coworkers also closed the restaurant he was running down the street to work full time for us. Certainly necessary (when was he finding time to sleep???), but it was sad to see that place close. I did grab a few plates and glasses as memoirs though, and I got a cabinet out of the deal too. Still, I'm going to miss Kyu-Style!

Originally when I got here too, my girlfriend lived 3+ hours away in Tochigi, but her department was miraculously moved from out there in the boonies to HQ in Tokyo. Which means she also moved closer, to the same prefecture in fact. Now we're only an hour or so away. Boy does that make a big difference (much cheaper too!). This is also much much much much nicer than the 15 hour time difference. No more conversations limited to only good morning and good night.

I've also moved out from one horror story of an apartment into a much newer, larger and awesome place (which I've still been meaning to take pictures of). I'm closer to work now, within biking distance, and really settled in. I've still got a few more things on my todo list, like get a bed, couch, bike, and finally build a new computer, but I'll get there.

This officially makes it my longest stay in Japan. Previously when I studied abroad I was only here for 11 months, so I've now exceeded that with a full year now. And what happens from here on? I don't know. I don't have any plans to go home any time soon, yet the idea of living here for good feels strange. I'm not against it, but I guess it's still kinda weird to call a foreign country home, as in permanent home. Then again, throughout college I was moving at the pace of about once a year, so I guess the idea of just settling down period is strange. How do you plan that far ahead...?

Well, so far things are going well, and I like it here. It's certainly more exciting, and my existence here as a foreigner is more special than in the US, so that makes the whole experience fun. So for now, until I figure out what to do next, I'm just going to keep going with that.

Sneak peak! On the 10th, the weekend before last, I did some hanami with some friends. I'll post more of it later, but man the sakura (cherry trees) were gorgeous!

Also, this picture of my girlfriend and I is apparently becoming somewhat famous on facebook. :D

Level Up! But Just a Revision

2011-04-13T23:56:00.000+09:00

If you haven't heard, Japan as recently raised the level of this nuclear disaster to level 7. However, this does not mean that the situation is escalating out of control, it's more like they've revised the ranking of this disaster based on further data. Still, that technically puts it on the same scale as Chernobyl, which I'm sure sensationalist news stations will have a heyday with if they haven't already.

For those who haven't been paying to close of attention though, Fukushima is definitely not Chernobyl. Tremendous amounts of radiation emerged from Chernobyl over a short period, directly from the exposed reactor, whereas Fukushima's 4 reactors have been slowly leaking over the last month. Furthermore, there are no reported health dangers from the current levels of radiation, much less deaths, but given the total overall amount released over the 1 month period, this supposedly qualifies for a level 7.

How does this affect me? I'm approximately 300 km (186 mi) from Fukushima, and although I'm sure limited amounts of radiation have reached this way, it's still well beneath anything that would even become potentially dangerous. There have been scares over the water and food, as well as radioactivity beyond the legal limit (which is probably extremely low anyways) found in some fish off the coast of Ibaragi, just south of Fukushima. None of this poses a threat to my immediate health, and I don't have any plans for leaving any time soon either.

That said, I'd be lying if I said I didn't check the packaging to find out where things I'm buying are coming from. That still hasn't really prevented me from buying anything though, as I'm assuming a certain level of testing is being performed on to ensure the safety of products. They did put at least a temporary ban on I believe it was spinach and milk and a few other products from Ibaragi and Fukushima awhile back. I feel so bad for the people in Fukushima and the surrounding area, as this has practically enacted an economic freeze on the area where no one wants to go there or wants anything from the area either. At the same time I understand consumers' concerns, as I'm one of them, so I have a strange conflicting opinion on the whole thing.

For instance water is an interesting story. Awhile ago there was a scare after it had rained and they found radiation in the tap water for Tokyo. The government announced it was safe to drink, but recommended that infants not drink the water, as they are much more susceptible to radiation effects. Naturally this lead to all stores completely selling out on water, and just recently they've started to regain most of their stock. I believe what they're saying about the tap water, and that its completely safe, but for some reason I can't quite bring myself to drink from it. It's kind of embarrassing, but it reminds me of the time a huge gnarly looking centipede crawled across the ceiling in front of me when I used to sleep on a top bunk. For the next week I couldn't even set foot in my room, and I never slept on the top bunk again. So even at a time like this, Psychology is working at its best (or worst I guess). Also there's the fact that purchasing 2 liter bottles of water/tea/sports drink for $1-2 dollars isn't exactly going to throw me into any financial troubles (at least nothing compared to my student loans!), so I'm not really forced to drink the tap if I don't want to, even if there wasn't an ongoing nuclear crisis 300 km away.

Anyways, we've still been facing more and more aftershocks. We had a lot yesterday, and a few this morning, but none yet this evening (knocks on wood). Thanks to the recent slight increase in quakes, or at least quakes nearer by, my Jishin Yoi (earthquake sickness) is back, and I'm starting to second guess if it's actually shaking or just my imagination. At the same time, these quakes have become a sort of strange part of everyday life. Although they naturally worry me a bit, they're certainly not impeding on my everyday routine anymore. I'm also getting better at predicting the level of intensity too, hah.

And finally, a little bit of good news! Supposedly they're making progress, albeit little, but progress none the same! Also, Sendai Airport has partially resumed domestic flights to the area! Little by little things are getting back on track.

One Month Later, One More Quake

2011-04-11T17:51:00.002+09:00

Today marks exactly one month since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocked the eastern coast of Japan, literally shifting the geography of Japan and the ocean floor. In fact, the earthquake a month ago was so massive, it wielded such a tremendous energy yield which actually caused the axis of the earth to tilt by 6.5 inches, shortening our days by 1.26 microseconds. And what better way to celebrate with another M7 aftershock! (sarcasm)

We just experienced an M7.1 earthquake that hit on land right between Ibaragi and Fukushima around 5:20 pm (3:20 am CST). Naturally, Ibaragi and Fukushima appear to have gotten the worst of it, with weak intensity 6. Out here in Kanagawa we only felt around an intensity 3 or 4, which is still a pretty good rocking though. This also appears to be producing tsunami in the Ibaragi area up to 1 meter.

Including the M7.4 that hit us last week Thursday, this makes the 5th M7 aftershock to hit since the main quake, totaling to well over 400 quakes in a one month period.

Update: One interesting thing about the quake yesterday, is that we at work pretty much just carried on with business as usual, straight through the quake. Even though it was shaking for a good 30 seconds, everyone continued to type away on their computers, and make phone calls to customers. I guess after almost 500 aftershocks you tend to adjust to the situation.

Hey it's shaking. Are we in danger? Nope. Ok, back to work.

Unbelievable Scale

2011-04-09T10:00:00.034+09:00

Apparently the seabed off the cost of northeast Japan rose 5 meters and shifted 24 meters by the massive earthquake. This would certainly explain tsunami of epic proportions that ensued, which supposedly reached up to 38 meters in height. That's 125 feet, or more than 10 stories tall! Here's another article on how they estimated the height.

This would also explain how this happened:

Actually while looking for these pictures I ran across this article. It includes quite a collection of unbelievable sights from this disaster, as well as a couple videos at the end of some footage of the tsunami itself I hadn't seen yet.

By the way, the other day on the news they were talking about how many aftershocks we've had over the last week. We've exceeded 400 in total over M5, in the period of a month. Including last Thursday's huge aftershock, there are now 4 M7's, almost 60 M6s', and over 480 M5's. Supposedly the previous record for frequent earthquakes following a huge disaster is about 100. Yes, we've exceeded the worst record of earthquakes by four times.

The good news is that we've not had an M8 aftershock yet, but the bad news is we could still experience M7's and even an M8, and not just sometime in the next month but for a couple years. I think I'll spend the next month earthquake proofing my apartment as much as possible

Tohoku Quake - Day 27

2011-04-07T23:47:00.005+09:00

Big Aftershock. M7.4. Everything's fine in my area which only felt intensity 3.

1:00 am JST (11:00 am CST)

They just lifted all the tsunami alerts. It's been over an hour since that huge M7.4 aftershock, and there haven't been any large quakes since. So I think it's about time I get some sleep. So much for finally getting over my earthquake sickness.

12:10 am JST (10:10 am CST)

They've been showing a graphic on TV about what tsunami are incoming. A couple cities may anticipate a 1m tsunami any minute now, and some others could see 50cm tsunami in 10 or 20 min.

12:00 am JST (10:00 am CST)

The scariest part about this aftershock, it was exactly like the main M9 almost a month ago. It started out slowly, and grew stronger and stronger. Then half way through it suddenly jumped in intensity, and kept shaking and shaking. Fortunately this one was only 2 min long, not 4 like the one last month. Still a little on edge here though. Yeesh.

Oh and the strongest part of this earthquake hit the Miyagi and Fukushima area, yes where the nuclear plant is too. So far they're saying it shook pretty hard, but they've confirmed that nothing seems to be out of the ordinary there for the moment. Aside from the nuclear crisis they've been working hard to control for the past month of course.

11:40 pm JST (9:40 am CST)

Big Aftershock.

M7.4, as strong as intensity 6 on land. It was about an intensity 3 here and lasted a good 2 minutes. Definitely the strongest aftershock we've had in a couple weeks. There are tsunami warnings on the east coast again, but they've only mentioned as high as 2 meters. I've heard mention they may only be 0.5 m and may not reach land after all. Still, this was a huge aftershock, as large as the few we had right after the M9 on the 11th.

I finally got through to my gf, and it seems like everything's ok at her place as well. Being on the 7th floor though, she mentioned her TV was close to tipping over. That must have been scary. :(

...whew. Guess I won't be going to bed any time soon.

Tohoku Quake - Day 25

2011-04-05T08:44:00.051+09:00

Ok, it's been awhile since my last update here. I guess that's a sign things are getting back to normal? Haha... hah...

Anyways, not really a whole lot of change over the last week. The situation in Fukushima hasn't appeared to necessarily get better or worse, and since there hasn't been an catastrophe of epic proportions yet, I'm assuming the situation will be under control, although they're saying it may take a long time for the crisis to be completely under control.

The latest I've heard is that they've (unsuccessfully) been trying to plug a crack in a maintenance pit that's spilling radioactive water into the ocean. I believe they're also purposely dumping some other radioactive water into the ocean to make room for more dangerous radioactive water in holding tanks as part of the process to get the situation under control. Despite the levels at the source being above the legal limit, given the scale of the water they're dumping to the amount of ocean water, it becomes dispersed very quickly and will (supposedly) not become a health issue to the area or fish taken from the area. Still, I can't imagine that will help the price of fish at all in the area even if it is safe.

Also, perhaps you've heard about a dog that was rescued at sea from a rooftop 3 weeks after the quake. Someone even made an interesting comic out of titled Three Weeks at Sea. This story also had a happy ending as the dog was reunited with it's owner.

Some more good news - we didn't have any outages last week, and aren't likely to have any this week either, more than likely because of the warmer weather we've been having. It's in the 50s and 60s, yea!! We'll have to enjoy it while we can though, because when summer rolls around everyone's AC units are going to make the power demand skyrocket. For now, while we have consistent power, we're doing what we can to prepare for future outages.

Other than that, we're still having aftershocks daily, more often in the evenings (I wonder if that's related to the tides). Fortunately, I can hardly feel them in Kanagawa anymore, and my Jishin Yoi (or Earthquake Sickness) seems to have finally warn off. It doesn't feel like it's randomly shaking as much anymore.

Oh! Also the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) are finally blooming! I'll have to do some Hanami this weekend. These pictures I snapped this morning from behind my apartment next to my bike.

Tohoku Quake - Day 18

2011-03-28T08:07:00.003+09:00

Update: Word of mouth says a tsunami didn't actually come after all, and the advisory has been called off. That's good.

At 7:30 this morning, Miyagi was hit with another large M6.5 aftershock, with the epicenter appearing to be pretty close to the original quake more than a couple weeks ago. Most of the prefecture seems to have been hit with intensity 4 shaking, nothing particularly strange from whats been going on over the last couple weeks, but one city in particular was hit with a weak intensity 5.

This is the largest we've had in awhile, and apparently it has generated up to estimated 50cm tsunami for the immediate area. I've not seen the tsunami warning graphic on TV since the days following the original quake. Fortunately it appears to be just a tsunami watch rather than a warning, and actually the graphic just disappeared right now. So I probably would have missed it if I hadn't turned on the TV, especially since it didn't really even make it out this way.

Anyways, we're still getting aftershocks.

Edit: Graphic came back. I guess the tsunami watch for the Sendai area is still on for awhile.

Tohoku Quake - Day 17

2011-03-27T23:53:00.001+09:00

This whole thing is really turning into a roller coaster ride of fear and worry fueled by rumors and truth.

The radioactive spinach and milk scare from the other day has shut down shipments of a number of products, mostly vegetables from the affected area. I feel so bad for those farmers. On the news they were showing how they had to keep milking the cows to keep them conditioned, but they're forced to literally pour all the milk down the drain since it's worthless. I also saw a report on how a box of some vegetables used to sell for 2500 yen (approx $30), but were being offered for 1 yen (1 cent) instead. Then there was the radioactive water scare for which the government suggested infants not drink the tap water, which has since been released as the levels have lowered again.

I've also heard reports about a couple workers hospitalized from radiation exposure at the Fukushima plant, and that TEPCO hadn't informed the workers of the radiation levels found in the water in time about it. On top of that, there were readings of radiation levels in the seawater next to the plant at 1,850 times the normal level. Radiation from Fukushima has also been found around the world in California as well as in Sweden and Germany. Perhaps the most startling of all has been a report of radiation levels inside one of the reactors found to be at 10 million times above normal. Subsequently, the International and Nuclear Radiological Even Scale for this disaster has been raised to a level 6 serious accident, surpassing Three Mile Island. Fortunately, even at a level 6 though, we're still not talking anything close to what happened in Chernobyl.

But then when I woke up this morning I read a BBC article about how the response to all these radiation readings are somewhat over reactions and a mistake. It suggests this partially because the 'acceptable' limits are set a bit too low. Basically these limits are sort of 'as low as possible' rather than 'as high as reasonably safe'. Furthermore, while I was looking up all these articles to support the stuff I've been hearing on the news over the weekend, I've learned now that the report about radiation levels inside a reactor being 10 million times above normal was actually a mistake. The radiation levels found in the sea and other areas are also supposedly not much of a health risk at all.

So you really don't know what to believe. One day the reports pile on of radiation being found here and there, and the next day you hear about how it's not dangerous at all, with experts on news programs left and right explaining what different levels of radiation mean as far as their affects on the environment and people.

And at the same time this is all happening, we're continuing with the rolling planned outages (now split into 25 groups), which are rumored to continue through winter or even until next summer. As a result the trains are running with the lights and heat off, and many businesses and stores are operating similarly with lights and heat cut. Plus, we're still getting strong aftershocks every day. In fact we had several today, including an emergency alert on TV for an earthquake in Ibaragi, but nothing major came out of it, with only a 4 or so land, and an M5 in the sea.

Who knows what will happen next. I'll just have to be as prepared as I can for it, and get on with life as normal the best I can. One nice bit of good news though, is that my company has been awesome supporting us through this whole endeavor. After putting our safety as a priority, advising and helping us to temporarily separate from the area a couple weekends ago as a precaution, we have subsequently managed to setup and move our data to servers in the other US (HQ) and UK locations in the period of a week. This takes a huge load off my shoulders, as I now don't have to freak out when the power goes out anymore. Proto Labs, you guys rock. Thank you.

Tohoku Quake - Day 15

2011-03-25T22:20:00.001+09:00

Yesterday evening right after the power came back on I got hit with a nasty stomach bug that, well I'll leave the finer details out, but it was not fun. Apparently it's a bug that's spreading around Japan, and is contagious for up to 5 days? My girlfriend had the same thing last weekend, so I probably got it from her. Fortunately it calmed down by this afternoon, but yeesh, not fun. At least I didn't have to deal with a power outage during the whole endeavor.

Anyways, last night's outage was only 1 1/2 hours rather than the full 3, so that was nice. Today's outage was also canceled, as are the outages planned for the weekend. They've been blasting commercials on TV with the same several AC commercials (aka: public service announcements) about saving energy and such, so maybe that's working? They're also going to be breaking the 5 groups down further into 5 groups each, making for 25 groups total.

Also, there was a radiation scare in the public water found the other day, which not surprisingly caused most stores to sell out on water. From what I saw on the news today though, the levels have already gone down again so it's supposedly safe (not that it was necessarily dangerous in the first place though). If I recall correctly, this happened shortly after it rained, so I wonder if we'll be getting scares like this from time to time when it rains...

We're still having strong aftershocks too, at about one M6+ a day. I'm really looking forward to the day when we don't have a major earthquake/aftershock for a whole 24 hours... At least I'm fortunate to not get anything too strong this way, but you also think it may just be a matter of time. Well, no sense worrying sick about it though. I'll be earthquake-proofing my apartment where I can, but other than that I'm just going to carry on with life as usual.

Tohoku Quake - Day 13

2011-03-23T15:35:00.000+09:00

First and foremost, power has been restored to all 6 reactors in Fukushima. It still goes to see if the pumps aren't damaged and still function, but this is a big step in getting through this disaster.

Well, I'm back in Kanagawa now. I took the Shinkansen home last night after hanging out in Osaka for another day. I made sure to stop by the Umeda Sky Building before I came home too. This building northeast of Osaka station is a unique twin tower where the top is connected and the top 2 floors are an observation deck, with the roof being an open air observation deck. At night there are florescent pebbles and such in the floor on the roof, so they create this really cool space field atmosphere at night. In fact, the inner wall on the observation floor has these panels with brief explanations on tall buildings through the ages, eventually expanding into space. It's a very cool place I visited 3 years ago and couldn't resist going back.

Anyways, Osaka and central Japan really aren't feeling much effect from the disaster. When I got back to Japan, I found convenience stores still low on stock, although I hear supply isn't the issue, but rather demand from people stock piling. Worse than that though, was the trains still being delayed and running at a reduced, limited schedule. The line for the Nanbu line backed up all the way from the platform to the ticket gate. Plus, the Odakyu line cut all the lights and heat inside the train, so it really sets this eerie and chilly mood. I hear more power plants were affected by the earthquake than they thought, so rumor has it this might even continue till winter. I really hope they can do something quickly, otherwise I might have to purchase a UPS to keep my internet running at home least.

There have been a lot of opinions I've heard about what to do with the current energy problem, but coincidentally I just saw a huge presentation on the difficulties with meeting current energy demands. I'll try and sum it up here as best I remember.

First the different types of power used in Japan (and throughout the world)...

Coal: Dirty, cheap
Nuclear: Clean, cheap, radiation risk, recyclable fuel
Hydro: Clean, expensive
Wind: Clean, expensive

The reason Nuclear power is used so much despite the risk of radiation is because it is clean (less emissions than hydro I believe), efficient and cheap (good for high population density), and to top it off, the fuel can be recycled. Modern nuclear plants are extremely safe, and in fact the reactor in Fukushima isn't using a newer method of cooling using convection which doesn't rely on pumps. If it did, we probably wouldn't be facing many of the issues we are now.

So that's the reason Nuclear power is widely used. Now how can we quickly resolve the current power shortage? One idea is to channel power in from Tohoku (NE Japan), but they're devastated from the earthquake and tsunami already. We could go even farther and get some from Hokkaido, but there's a physical limit the power can reach, allowing only 60KW to make it our way. Nearby central Japan has been barely effected by this disaster, but their power alternates at 50Hz, whereas Eastern Japan's power is 60Hz. This is because electricity in Eastern Japan had its origins from Germany, whereas Western Japanese electricity came from American. This is a problem left over from the 1800's, and rather frustrating. Power can be converted, but the cost of building a conversion station is about the same as a new power plant. There are actually 3 in existence already, but they max out at 100KW since they're not exactly efficient either.

To long, didn't read? We can't channel power from the surrounding area because of physical limits, and it would be too expensive to increase our ability to do so. Which means we have to repair/build more power stations as quickly as possible (with repair probably being the fastest solution). I sure hope they can do something about it soon.

The strong earthquakes and aftershocks are still continuing at the rate of one a day. I was told a few hit while I was out of the area, and sure enough I've already felt a couple since coming back yesterday. I know I've mentioned it before, but my body really is out of whack from this whole experience. I can 'feel' it shaking by just thinking about it. It kind of reminds me of the sensation you get from riding a boat, except all the time, and I'm imagining it. Crazy.

Regardless, Japan is really stepping up to the occasion, determined to push through this horrible disaster. The national high school baseball tournament (I think) was not canceled after all, but rather they're playing exactly because we're facing this disaster. People are doing everything they can to get back to normal. It will take time, but I'm sure we'll get through it. I'm crossing my fingers we don't have an excruciatingly hot summer this year again though, cause I was suffering enough even with the AC.

Well I'll continue to update this blog as events unfold, but at less frequent rate. So far the situation seems to have calmed more and hopefully will be under control soon. I should really focus on getting my life and my job back to normal as well.

Tohoku Quake - Day 11

2011-03-21T15:49:00.002+09:00

As I haven't been watching too much news while hanging out with friends in Osaka, I haven't been updating this as much either. For the most part though, it seems tensions have finally started to calm down. Despite the fact that there appear to be some radiation showing up in food and water, they have fortunately restored power to reactors 1, 2, 5, & 6; and they should be able to restore power to 3 and 4 (the reactors emitting the most radiation at this point) perhaps on Tuesday. Assuming the pumps and other systems are still functional, this should be a major step in getting the situation under control. Then it's clean up time to figure out how much radiation has contaminated the surrounding area. From a number of reports I've heard so far though, seems the radiation levels are low enough that there should be little to no affect on people, even if 'contaminated' water or w/e is ingested. I feel like I might end up buying water and tea for awhile though, but we'll see.

Also, I heard an elderly woman and her grandchild were rescued yesterday... 9 days after the earthquake and tsunami. Unbelievable. Thank goodness they made it out ok. I believe the story as I heard it on TV was that they were trapped in the kitchen, and therefore had access to food in the fridge.

Anyways, meeting with friends again today, and I may head back to Kanagawa a day early tomorrow. The situation seems to be calming down (other than still having strong aftershocks), and it would be nice to have an extra day to relax at home.

Tohoku Quake - Day 10

2011-03-20T09:05:00.002+09:00

12:00 pm JST (10:00 pm CST)
Shinkansen!! Man the bullet train is fast. This is my first time riding shinkansen btw, and it's pretty awesome. Takes me only 50 min to get from Nagoya to Osaka, which I believe took almost 3 hours when I went via normal train 3 years ago. I'm not even on the fastest one either.

Alright, some good news, I heard radiation levels in fukushima have gone back to normal levels, but haven't read an article on it yet though. Sounds promising though. :D

Ok, gotta search for a hotel while I have some free time,here.

10:00 am JST (8:00 pm CST)
Time to check out and head off to Osaka.

8:50 am JST (6:50 pm CST)
Morning. The news is saying they've been remotely pumping water all night, pumping some 2400 tons of water over 12 or 14 hours onto reactor 3. Also, reactors 1 and 2 have power restored. This is good to hear.

Also, here's a little bit of perspective on radiation levels for reference.

Ok, time for breakfast.

Tohoku Quake - Day 9

2011-03-19T10:37:00.008+09:00

On Friday, my company requested that the staff leave the Kanto area, not because we are worried of imminent nuclear fallout, but rather as a precaution for any situation that may perhaps grow out of control and be too late to leave. Also, Monday is a holiday, so we already had a 3 day weekend. We don't have work anyways, so why not send people to a 'safer' distance to watch as the situation evolves in Fukushima. Anyways, as a result, I am currently visiting friends as I do a little tour of central Japan.

11:00 pm JST (9:00 am CST)
First off, an update on what I know so far. Aside from another earthquake in Ibaragi this evening, they've been spraying more water onto reactor 3, and I hear they have managed to get the dousing to run completely automatic for 7 hours. Furthermore, I believe they have also restored/soon will restore power to reactors 1 and 2, so cooling from the pumps within can get their situation under control. We're still not out of the woods, but this sounds like good progress.

I have also heard rumor though, that milk and spinach (why not other veggies...?) may have been contaminated (cows eating radiated grassing) and are therefore out of stock. We went to the supermarket in Nagoya today though, and... there was plenty of milk there. Not sure what the deal is with that, but I guess I'll hold off on milk and spinach when I get home until I can find out more information? That's about the only thing you really can do. It's so hard to tell what rumors are fact and other just sensationalist exaggeration, but you have no choice but to believe the worst of the stories to be true unless proven otherwise, and act accordingly till then.

Actually I have no idea what news stories are running in the US or other countries, since I'm watching all my news in Japanese, but remember that speech given by the emperor a few days ago? Apparently in Indonesia the news reported this as the Emperor saying goodbye to the doomed country. Talk about exaggeration. There are plenty of different stories out there about whether it's really dangerous or not. If you want some comfort, this is a really good one. I want to, and for the most part believe it to be true, but I'd still continue to take precaution where I can. And frankly we would all be more than happy to return from this 5 day extended weekend trip, laughing at the silly idea of "fleeing the Kanto area."

But for now, since I'm out here and have 2 more additional vacation days... I'm going to enjoy it! This afternoon I went to the Toyota Automobile Museum, or TAM, which coincidentally is Khing's first name. Plus he also used to be a mechanic, so it was almost like I went to his museum, haha.

I took a ton of pictures I'll upload at a later time, but my favorite was this guy:

That is so the car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!!!

Ok, not exactly the same. But the lights in the front and on the side? The general long body and shape of the fenders. The large wheels, with a spare tire on the drivers side? So far I can't find any info on what specific vehicle the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car was created from/modeled after, and actually it seems to have been designed for the movie, but man it sure looks similar to that Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost at the museum. This article seems to agree with me.

Now if only I had a cap, some navigator goggles and leather gloves I would've hopped right in and flown out the building.

Well tomorrow I'm heading to Osaka to (FINALLY) hang out with my friend Alex. More updates as they come in!

12:00 pm JST (10:00 pm CST)
Internet!

...Pictures!

A gas station we stopped at, waiting 20 minutes for gas, rationed at 20 liters per person.

Made it! The Crown Hotel in Nagoya... at 2:30 in the morning.

Oh yea, Japanese hotel's got an onsen, so I get my own kimono garb.

Men. I was extra careful to make sure I went to the right one.

This was a nicer breakfast than I was expecting, all you can eat to boot.

Thomas' car that got us here. Thank you so much Thomas for waiting and driving me here.

Khing's place in Nagoya.

The name plate at Khing's house. Says 'Tam' and 'Asamura'.

11:45 am JST (9:45 pm CST)
Hey Khing, you've got a nice place here in Nagoya. Just a liiitle bit more urban than little ol Shake. Well I'm at my coworker's place in Nagoya today. I'll do a little sightseeing while I'm here, and continue westward to Osaka tonight or tomorrow probably.

10:30 am JST (8:30 pm CST)
What a week it has been. Who would've guessed I would be on the subway in Nagoya after leaving the Tokyo area as a precaution to an involving nuclear situation in Fukushima.

Anyways, woke up at 9 and got some unexpectedly good breakfast. I took a picture I'll post later when I get an internet connection. Now I'm on the subway, heading toward Fujigaoka to meet up with my coworker, Khing-san. He offered to show me around Nagoya, so I took him up on the offer. I guess I get to go into tourist mode now? Might as well take advantage of and enjoy the situation as I can.

Sendai Quake - Day 8

2011-03-18T07:38:00.011+09:00

4:45 am JST (2:45 pm CST)

I <3 Onsen.

Caught up on some emails and other things from my phone (takes longer but can be done), and took a dip in the onsen here. Man that rejuvenates you. I took pictures too (no, not of me naked in a hot spring) but I'll post those later. For now, good night.

2:45 am JST (12:45 pm CST)
We're here! Just checked in to the hotel. Sounds like they have an onsen. I could use a little relaxation, I think I'll check it out before going to bed.

Turned on the news, seems they've been using fire trucks to spray water on the reactors in fukushima. I hear they sprayed 42 tons of water over 7 rotations. That's a lot of water.

Oh also no internet here, so I'm blogging from my phone. :D

12:00 am JST (10:00 am CST)
Stopped at another service area. Their convenience store was fully stocked, and they had a full rack of snack breads. I think thats the first I've seen of those guys in a week!

10:30 pm JST (8:30 am CST)
We stopped at a service area to get some dinner. There was a line of cars waiting for gas, but we also needed some, so we lined up too. Fortunately we didn't wait long, maybe 20 min, but we were limited to 20 liters. That was enough for what we needed though.

9:30 pm JST (7:30 am CST) -
Well, earlier today in response to announcements from the us embassy, and because of the upcoming 3 day weekend, my company requested that we leave the kanto area, and head to central or western Japan. We will also be closed on Tues and Wed, planning to return on Thursday. This is merely a precaution, and doesn't mean we expect there to be nuclear fallout, but for the time being we'll assess the situation as it evolves from a greater distance.
I'm heading to the Osaka and Nagoya area, where I have some friends living. I guess I get to have a little vacation for the next several days. Leaving shortly with my boss to drive to Nagoya for tonight. Tomorrow I may hang out with a coworker who is from Nagoya.

3:15 pm JST (1:15 am CST) -
Seems the confirmed death toll has reached 6500, exceeding the previous worst post-war disaster, the Kobe earthquake back in 1995.

2:46 pm JST (12:46 am CST) -
Exactly one week since the earthquake hit...

11:10 am JST (9:10 pm CST) -
By the way, we've had a few small aftershocks this morning, not sure where though since I was offline at home. I should look into getting a UPS for my modem and router or something. I should be able to use my phone as a router though.

Right now Edano is giving a presentation on the state of things in Fukushima. The atmosphere appears to be more clam that it has been, but I haven't been listening closely. I've got this crazy thing called work that I need to focus on before we lose power again at 2 pm. Also quickly charging everything I can until then.

10:40 am JST (8:45 pm CST) -
Also, from what I can tell radiation levels are lowering in Fukushima (slowly for the time being), and they have/are soon to be restoring power to reactor 2 via a 1 km long extension cord. Finally some comforting news.

10:35 am JST (8:40 pm CST) -
Everything's back online. I hear we're going to be having another 3 hour outage between 1:50 pm and 5:30 pm (11:50 pm and 3:30 am CST). Two outages a day two days in a row??? Ugghhh... Is this gonna continue into the weekend? I've gotta set up some more automation to our 'low power' mode.

9:40 am
Power's back! Our servers should be coming online shortly. I need to run over and turn the AC on in the server room though.

8:00 am
Yup, there goes the battery for my servers. Sorry guys, I'll boot you back up soon. :(

In other news, I haven't been watching the news cause I have no power. I'm trying to get information on my phone now. Last night it was nice to unwind at ishikawa's place though. Just a little stress involved in this whole situation.

7:10 am
Shoot, the power went out 20 min before I woke up, which means I don't have internet, and can't remotely shut our servers down. Ugh.

Sendai Quake - Day 7

2011-03-17T08:30:00.012+09:00

Google has set up a crisis response page where you can gather lots of information on the earthquake, as well as make donations to Red Cross, Unicef, Save the Children and others. I was about 300 miles away from the main quake, and am 200 miles away from the nuclear plant in Fukushima. It shook hard here (M5), but we are safe and sound, and fortunate to be practically free from damage. The people in up north need all the help they can get though. I'm reporting information as I hear it, for friends and family to keep tabs on my situation.

9:00 pm JST (7:00 am CST) -
Alright, everything is back online and running. I noticed I've just passed 4000 hits on my blog (2800 since Friday). Thanks everyone, really. It's kinda nice to know people are following my story, especially when I'm home alone at night. Your interest/support is felt and greatly appreciated.

Sounds like Ishikawa-san went to open his restaurant, and Khing-san is gonna head that way. I think I'll join them.

8:15 pm JST (6:15 am CST) -
POWER! Also tested the wakeup on lan on our servers, worked like a charm. Now to just ensure everything is back online and I'm outta here.

7:55 pm JST (5:55 am CST) -
They just announced on the news they've started spraying water onto reactor 3 in Fukushima via firetruck on the ground. Crossing my fingers that it has effect.

Still waiting for the power to return, listening to NHK. I tried to see if I could keep a couple more systems online for longer, but it seems that drained too much battery and I might not be able to keep the servers up through the whole blackout. Dang. Also I hear we're going to have another blackout tomorrow morning from 6:30. At least it will be lighter out then.

7:00 pm JST (5:00 am CST) -
Waiting for the power to come back on, watching/listening to NHK.

5:40 pm JST (3:40 am CST) -
Second blackout of the day. This time it'll be getting darker, lasting until 8:40 pm. Can't say I'm looking forward to it. I am able to reboot the servers remotely though, so I could go home except that the hard drive array (which uses the most power) requires a physical switch to be pushed. Maybe I'll hang around for an hour, turn it on, and go home.

Oy vey.

1:45 pm JST (11:45 pm CST) -
Quick update. We got power back almost exactly 3 hours later. It's nice to at least have that constant so we can appropriately prepare for these. During the blackout we sat in the lunch room watching a feed from NHK. The situation with the reactors is sounding kind of... do-or-die so to say. If they don't manage to get water on the reactors soon (like today), the situation could get out of control. They dumped some 75 tons of sea water via helicopter earlier this morning, but said there are no plans to attempt that again today. Instead they are attempting to spray water on them from the ground via firetruck, which should be happening right about now.

I hear the prime minister also had a phone conference with Obama about what to do with this situation. I believe some nuclear experts from the US will be joining us to help assess the situation. Please come help soon.

They confirmed death and destruction has also been rising. We're at over 5000 dead, and 11,000 missing. An estimated 7,500 buildings have been completely annihilated as well. Over 450,000 are still in shelter, and food and supplies are running out at the shelters. It's not that we don't have food and supplies, but rather we cannot get it to these shelters because of inaccessible roads and collapsed bridges.

The outage we just had supposedly affected approximately 6 million homes in the area. Furthermore we're scheduled to have another one between 4:50 and 8:30 pm tonight. Not looking forward to an outage at night. Sounds like we're going to be the first area that has an outage twice a day.

Anyways, all the news about this disaster, especially the situation with the nuclear plants in Fukushima really gets to you after awhile. But I have to at least keep an eye on whats going on since the situation up there has a change of escalating out of control.

Ok, I need to get some work done while we still have power. I'll update more later when I'm able.

9:54 am JST (7:50 pm CST) -

BLACKOUT

Lost power at 9:50, so we should get it back at 12:50. Third time must be the charm, cause I got got our servers into 'power saving mode' in 4 minutes flat, and all our service unavailable pages are working like a charm righ tnow.

The news on TV is continuing to show live footage from Fukushima of the helicopters dumping water on reactor 3. I hope it has affect.

9:47 am JST (7:47 pm CST) -
Waiting for the blackout. They just started dumping water on top of reactor 3 from helicopters. Not sure how effective it will be, but it's somewhat comforting to see they're working hard on the issue.

9:25 am JST (7:25 am CST) -
Preparing for a possible blackout. I just heard Mizuho Ginko's ATMs are not unable to withdraw money. Glad I took a bunch out in advance. I hope the fix it before 2 weeks though, cause I may need to send money to the US to pay off my loans.

8:30 am JST (6:30 pm CST) -
Oh boy, they were talking about it on the news, and I just found an article in English. They have raised the nuclear accident level to level 6, whereas last I heard it was at 4. This scale is a maximum of 7 (Chernobyl being 7). I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the news today to keep on top of the situation.

8:00 am JST (6:00 pm CST) -
They're still frantically working on controlling the situation in Fukushima. Even though the evacuation radius is 20-30km, it seems the US is urging US citizens to evacuate beyond 80km. I live 300km away (approx 190 mi), so I'm well outside the evacuation zone. Last night I also read an amazing story about the 50 plant workers who volunteered to remain at the plant to get the situation under control. Apparently the country has raised the legal limit of radiation exposure so they can work longer getting the situation under control. My thoughts and prayers go with those 50 brave men as they battle to protect their country from a major nuclear disaster.

Turning on the news, I hear they're working on setting up a new power source to provide electricity for the pumps, but in the mean time they may be using basically firetrucks to help inject water into/onto the reactors.

Also, I was shocked to see the USD/JPY rate at a low of 78. I thought the yen would begin to plummet (i.e. that number goes up), but apparently the USD is dropping. Furthermore, it dropped to an astounding 76.25 last night. While this is good for me when sending money to the US (to pay off my loans!), where 200,000 yen gets me $2560 at 78 USD/JPY, as opposed to $2440 at 82 USD/JPY before the quake; this very bad for a country with heavy exports, like Japan.

Well I need to get to work. We may be having a blackout this morning, so I need to be ready. Also, we actually have a new employee starting today too. As scary as this situation has been (and still is) we're doing our best to continue on, not losing to the disaster.

Day 7, here we go.

Sendai Quake - Day 6

2011-03-16T08:35:00.023+09:00

Google has set up a crisis response page where you can gather lots of information on the earthquake, as well as make donations to Red Cross, Unicef, Save the Children and others. I was about 300 miles away from the main quake, and am 200 miles away from the nuclear plant in Fukushima. It shook hard here (M5), but we are safe and sound, and fortunate to be practically free from damage. The people in up north need all the help they can get though. I'm reporting information as I hear it, for friends and family to keep tabs on my situation.

12:50 am JST (10:50 am CST) -
There have been variety shows airing on TV again today. It was really refreshing to watch something entertaining again. I needed that. Well I'm overdue for getting some sleep. We may lose power around 9:30 next morning, so I need to be ready for that.

10:50 pm JST (8:50 am CST) -
Just had another earthquake M5.3 in the southern part of Ibaragi, but only felt a 3 by the time it got out to Ebina. It shook for a pretty descent time though. My body is so completely out of wack from all these earthquakes and aftershocks. It's so hyper sensitive to any sort of movement, that just bouncing my leg throws me off balance a bit and I can't tell if it's me or the ground shaking. Sitting here on the floor at home for some reason is even worse, and just thinking about shaking throws me off and I feel like it's shaking a bit. Maybe I've lost all trust in the stability of the earth below me, or maybe I just need sleep... maybe a little bit of both.

9:55 pm JST (7:55 am CST) -
Home now. Seeing as though we had 3 lost hours during the day, I stayed a bit later to catch up on a few things. Since all our machinery needs power to run too, we still had someone running them down stairs making up time, so I helped out flipping a few blocks before coming home. I sure hope our working through these outages and still making parts on time makes an impression on our customers! I wonder if these 3 hour blackouts are really gonna continue to be a daily occurrence though. They can be pretty draining. That said, I've got it easy compared to what they're going through up in northern Japan, something I'm trying not to forget.

Anyways, a day in review. Seems like the nuclear plants are safe for the time being, but they're still working hard to get them under control. I woke up to an explosion heard from reactor 2, and a fire on reactor 4, with this picture on TV.

How about that, reactor 4's outer concrete wall was completely burnt and destroyed by a fire. Everything inside there is safe and contained though, for the moment. I've also heard they had to evacuate the plant temporarily because of rising radiation levels. Similarly, they had planned to start airlifting and dumping sea water on one of the reactors, but called it off because of higher radiation levels. At the end of the day though, I haven't heard any alarming news, so I assume things are ok for now. Perhaps the wind blowing SE into the Pacific helped. Anyways, I just saw this picture of the 4 reactors on TV. Yikes.

And finally a little bit of humor - looking for the above pictures, I stumbled upon this image here.

This is a parody on the Dynasty Warriors series. This is Edano Nero, a chief government spokesman who has been making many different announcements concerning the events that have been unfolding over the last several days. The title says Edano Musou (a play on Sangoku Musou), and the subtitle says, "Turning interviews into tableware". Yea I have no idea what that's about, but pretty sure I read it correctly.

7:45 pm JST (5:45 am CST) -
The emperor just gave a speech. Here's an English article on it. Apparently this is a very rare appearance. If you aren't aware, the emperor in Japan has a very unique existence. He is similar to the Queen in England, but only a symbol with no power. After WWII the emperor was left around, basically to keep Japanese society as a whole intact at the time, as the emperor was the very top of Japanese society at the time. Now he is mostly symbolic, and remains a unique part of Japanese culture. He is also a central figure to extreme right wing conservatives who want to expel foreigners (like me) out of the country, but that's another story. To most people he's a cultural symbol, and they don't necessarily feel one way or the other about him. His existence is incredibly fascinating to me, like a left over symbolic figure from history books.

5:10 pm JST (3:10 am CST) -
I just found a very impressive time lapse video of these earthquakes we've been having. You may think that all the earthquakes in the same area before the huge quake hit were cause for alarm, but remember that earthquakes are a very common occurrence here. But who knows, they did seem fairly strong and clustered.

This ends on the 14th, and doesn't include the earthquakes in Tokyo and Shizuoka. I'm not sure how many were counted in this video either, but we've had over 200 aftershocks of M5 or higher.

4:00 pm JST (2:00 am CST) -
Oh yea, going through this the second time was a lot easier. We were able to get back to 100% online within 10 min.

3:40 pm JST (1:40 am CST) -
Power's back!

3:30 pm JST (1:30 am CST) -
We're more than 2 and a half hours into the power outage, and should be getting power back shortly. The UPS is showing over an hour of battery left yet, so it seems I managed to keep at least the website up 100% of the time this round. Others in the office have been doing what they can that doesn't require power. I did a little cleaning in the server room myself.

Here's some pictures of us working through the blackout...

1:50 pm JST (11:50 pm CST) -
Well I've done what I can to keep everything here running as long as possible. Now all we can do is wait for the blackout to pass. Maybe I should bring some playing cards or something with me to work tomorrow.

1:00 pm JST (11:00 pm CST) -

BLACKOUT

Just lost power, which will more than likely last for 3 hours. I guess in some sense I'm happy they're cutting power like they said they would, rather than confuse us by saying they may, may not, or actually maybe we really will after all, cancelling in the end, and finally only enacting the blackout for a small portion. Well, today we're losing power during the daytime, so it's still light out (and warmer), so I'm happy for that.

By the way, there have been a couple earthquakes in the last hour. Both were off the coast of Ibaragi and Chiba. The first we didn't feel in our area, but the second rocked for a bit. Everything's just fine here, just have to wait out the blackout now. After yesterday's experience, I should be able to keep the power up for 3+ hours now.

Oh and, booming success heating up my lunch before the blackout. Just finished eating when the power went out.

12:15 pm JST (10:15 pm CST) -
Seeing as though we may lose power in a bit here, I'm going to go heat up my lunch while I still can.

12:00 pm JST (10:00 pm CST) -
Oh yea, they just showed the wind patters on a weather report. It's all blowing southwest into the pacific ocean, never to be seen again. That provides some comfort. Unfortunately its snowing in the hard hit areas though. I hope everyone is safe and staying warm.

11:50 am JST (9:50 pm CST) -
No big deal here, but I noticed the zoomed in video they show of the power plant in Fukushima has some warping going on, more than likely a result of looking through a tremendous amount of air over the incredible distance that footage is covering. It does however, look very similar to the warping you get around something that's really hot. So it gives the whole thing a really eerie visual effect.

Also, we didn't have blackouts this morning, but we could be facing one at 12:20 until 4pm. At least this time it won't be dark outside, and I won't have to stick around after 7pm to wait to ensure everything comes back online.

11:20 am JST (9:20 pm CST) -
They're making an announcement on the situation in Fukushima. It sounds like the radiation levels are starting to decline again. Whew.

11:07 am JST (9:07 pm CST) -
Woah, they just showed a picture of reactor 4 in Fukushima from yesterday. The outer concrete housing of the building appears completely burnt and charred from the fire. I know the inner portion of the reactor is very well protected, and quite frankly the fact that they all survived an M9.0 quake and ensuing tsunami of unprecedented scale without leakage is amazing in itself, but seeing the building of a nuclear reactor burnt does make one a bit unsettled.

11:00 am JST (9:00 pm CST) -
Just heard a report Mizuho bank (my bank) is having issues with money transfers/deposits, but withdrawals appear to be working fine. Glad I withdrew a bunch of cash the day of the quake just in case!

10:45 am JST (8:45 pm CST) -
White smoke was spotted from reactor 3 (they think) in Fukushima a little before 10. The area is too dangerous to go outside though, so they're unable to confirm the situation. Currently they're showing super zoomed in video from a helicopter a good distance away.

Also, Yahoo is amazing. They've put together a graph and map of the areas anticipated to be affected by blackouts. These resources will help me tremendously.

10:10 am JST (8:10 pm CST) -
At work now. Here's a slightly disturbing story. The Atsugi base is rather close to where I live (like less than 10 miles away). No cause for panic though, even if there were trace amounts of radiation in the area, it is in no way detrimental to my health. Everyone is just taking extra precaution with the situation.

In other news, I hear they've implemented a no-fly zone with no height restriction in the 30km radius around the plant in Fukushima. They're doing it as a precaution to prevent any radiation from spreading. This is supposedly the first time such no-fly zone has been implemented in Japan I guess?

8:25 am JST (6:25 pm CST) -
Just after I woke up and read an article on my phone about how the radiation levels were declining, I hear on the news there was a flame spotted at reactor 4 sometime last night/this morning. They don't know what caused it, nor can they get close to the scene as it is too dangerous. Looks like I'll have to keep an ear out for whats going on there again today.

Also, group 5 and 1 are scheduled for blackouts sometime this morning/afternoon.

Group 5: 9:20 - 13:00
Group 1: 12:20 - 16:00

Only time will tell if we're included in these blackouts again. I'm thankful I've been able to wake up to electricity every day so far though.

Finally, I believe the quake in nearby Shizuoka last night was a separate quake, perhaps induced as a result of the main quake Friday, but basically not an aftershock. As I mentioned last night, I felt 3 or so aftershocks following the quake, but nothing since. Then again I was sleeping, and I've been known to sleep through at least one hurricane in the past (Andrew).

Day 6 here we go!

Sendai Quake - Day 5

2011-03-15T08:15:00.031+09:00

12:00 am - Here's a map of the area for that last M6.4 aftershock in eastern Shizuoka.

And there's little ol me in the neighboring prefecture. It shook well enough here, but wasn't scary. The M6 they had in Shizuoka was pretty bad though. Hope everything is going well there. I'll probably be taking my TV down again tonight just to be on the safe side.

By the way, sounds like the rolling blackouts will be continuing tomorrow. We'll see if we're included in that again or not. Interestingly enough, I hear some cities in Chiba that got hit effected by the large quake and subsequent tsunami were pretty ticked off at TEPCO including them in areas to cut power too, like I literally saw some politician yelling at some TEPCO guys on TV, so they've excluded a number of areas in Chiba and Ibaragi as a result.

Well it's late, and I need to get some sleep. See you all tomorrow.

10:45 pm - Indeed, we felt it as a 4 out in Ebina. Had a third soft aftershock as well. With all these earthquakes I'm starting to get a better handle on the differences between the levels of magnitude in an earthquake. I can't say this is something I'd particularly care to master, but that's the way it is.

10:40 pm - One more soft aftershock, followed by another.

10:35 pm - Just had a strong M6 hit central Shizuoka, which is the prefecture neighboring mine. It was supposedly around a 4 by the time it got out here though. My apartment shook pretty good, but not too bad. That's a pretty strong aftershock, especially 5 days later, and definitely one of the stronger aftershocks we've had in awhile. They say there's no fear of a tsunami.

9:15 pm - My apartment is still here. Yaay. I have electricity, gas, and everything as well. Whew.

I stopped by the convenience store I went to this morning, and they still had some cup ramen left, so I picked up a few while I could. I turned on the TV and noticed some variety shows are on right now. Thats the first time I've seen non-news on every channel since the quake. I want to keep up to date on the state of things, especially with the nuclear plants up in Fukushima, but at the same time I could use a break. Anyways, there's no heightened sense of alert, so I assume things are under control for the moment.

8:15 pm - Alright, everything is confirmed to be up and running again at work. Time to head home. Keeping my fingers crossed about the fire thing they announced.

7:16 pm - Got power back around 6:50, so pretty much 3 hours exactly of blackout. The batteries ran out around 6:40, or 6:45 though, so I almost made it with no down time. Oh well, can't be helped.

6:07 pm - Losing battery on my laptop. Switching to my netbook, at least for as long as the wireless holds.

5:45 pm - Two hours into the blackout. Been working frantically to keep our web server online as long as possible. I've got about 40 min left on battery after cutting all other non-essential systems. The blackout is scheduled to last until 7, but I've heard other areas came back before then. Might be cutting it close, but we'll see. We have backup power for the lights in the building too, but they've long dimmed. Plus the sun is going down. Getting darker but I can still see. A little more and I'll have to bust out the flashlight I guess.

5:30 pm - By the way, I heard them announce over the loudspeakers through the city that there is a fire in Nakashinden........ that's the portion of Ebina where I live. Great.

3:50 pm - BLACKOUT FOR EBINA CITY.

Fortunately I've moved the wireless into the server room so it can run on battery. Should be good for at least an hour.

2:00 pm - They're giving a weather report on the news now. Rain and snow in north eastern Japan. That won't help with the rescue efforts :(

Also, currently there is a light wind blowing SW, which is why some (relatively harmful) radioactive wind is flowing our way. Tonight, and into tomorrow, the wind will pick up and thankfully be blowing east out to sea. Even if the radioactive wind is harmless, it's nice to know it will be blown out to sea never to be seen again.

1:50 pm - I have heard rumors that radioactive wind could be flowing our way. I think they've taken some readings in Tokyo, but these were very small and of no harm to our health. I'm even further away from Tokyo, so it should be even weaker out here.

By the way, Kana is now in Kyushu. I hope she can stay there for at least a week while this settles down.

Also, I called someone at WCCO on Skype, and I might make the morning news there. How about that.

12:15 pm - Lunch! I'll be glued to the news.

12:00 pm - Seems there was a fire in reactor 4, and there may be radioactive material leaking from reactor 3. Yeesh. Nikkei article here. Also, according to the weather report, there is a light wind blowing southwest, aka in our direction from Fukushima, but we're 200 miles away. Later the wind will pick up and blow East into the sea though.

Also, I believe we're part of the group that may lose some power at 12:20... but who knows what will happen. I guess I'll find out when 12:20 rolls by.

11:15 am - Sounds like I'm on the news! I think you can watch it live here, but the feed isn't working for me in Japan.

11:00 am - Prime Minister Kan is giving a speech about the Fukushima nuclear plant situation right now. He started out summarizing the situation of what happened as a result of the earthquake and tsunami, and how that affected the reactors. He's asking people to remain evacuated beyond 20km. Those who are between 20-30km he's asking to stay inside. Most of the evacuations up to 10km appear to be mostly completed.

They are doing their best to prevent any further explosions or leakages of radioactive material. Three times he mentioned actually he mentioned they are doing everything they possibly can to contain the situation. He ended with asking the country of Japan to remain calm and cooperate with the situation.

10:55 am - They've been mentioned that if there is leakage of radioactive material into the environment, they recommend washing your hands, face and clothes after being outside.

10:35 am - There have been almost 200 aftershocks of M5 of higher since the main quake over the last few days. Also these earthquakes have been occurring over a 200km x 500km area in the sea east of Japan. The number of quakes and the scale it is occurring on it unbelievable. Fortunately they seem to be slowing down, but there was a quake centered on Tokyo around 5 am this morning. I didn't feel it out here as it was only a 1 by the time it got out this way. Also I was sleeping.

By the way, once again Boston.com has some amazing pictures in its Big Picture section. My personal favorite (in the 'shows the power of the tsunami' sense, not the 'wow a disaster!' sense), is #24 here.

10:25 am - Oops, mad a big typo in my last post. I mean to say I'm confident there won't be a leak of radioactive material into the environment, but I'm not an expert on the situation so I'll just be keeping my eye and ear on the news.

10:15 am - Right before I went to bed last night there was mention that the coolant levels inside reactor 2 in Fukushima plant 1 were lowering again. I woke to reports on an explosion heard sometime last night. Seems like the building itself is still intact? From the basic concepts of how these boiling water reactors work, even in the event of a meltdown the fuel should be melting into a pool on the bottom or in a torus of water under the reactor, so it should still remain contained. Of course if any of that leaks out into the environment, then definitely there is cause for alarm. I'm fairly confident this ~~will~~ won't happen, but I'm also not an expert. I'll just have to keep an ear out for information as the situation evolves.

Anyways, on my way to work sure enough cars were lined up as far as the eye could see for the gas station. Fortunately there was more food and supplies at the convenience store tonight. They're open 24/7, and get restocked at night, so probably the best time to go out and get food and supplies is late night or morning.

Hearing reports that the confirmed dead has risen to 2500, but the missing count is over 17,000 now. Unbelievable.

9:30 am - Wow, I'm over the 3000 mark now. That's approx 1800 hits since Friday. Thanks everyone!

8:30 am - Time to head out to work. Crossing my fingers we don't lose power again today.

Also, I just interviewed with Fox 9 in Minneapolis on Skype. I might be on the news!

8:10 am - Has it really been 5 days since the Earthquake? Well sounds like reactor 2 in Fukushima had some problems over night. Also the trains appear to be better than they were yesterday, but even then its definitely not going to be enough. Glad I'm a bike ride away from work!

Sendai Quake - Day 4

2011-03-14T06:43:00.033+09:00

Google has put together an impressive crisis response page for this disaster.

11:30 pm - The government has been talking about the power plant and possible rolling power outages tomorrow. I'd like to prepare for set outage times, but seeing as though I was practically crying wolf all day, I'll just be ready as I can at any time, and on alert during our set outage period. With that said, they've rotated the times, and now groups 1 and 5 are going to be sometime in the middle of the day/afternoon. Well, we'll see what happens.

Interestingly enough, a lot of video summaries for the day on the news have been all about the supposed rolling blackouts that never came. Seems like the plea to Japan to conserve power worked so well, they were able to operate w/out cutting power for most all of the day. They say it may turn to be a day to day battle with power supply, which they will cut certain areas if and when necessary.

One piece of good news though, is that the aftershocks have really died down. There were a few larger ones during the day today, but nothing since this afternoon. This seems like a good sign, but it's still too early to let my guard down.

Anyways, survived weekday #1 after the quake. Tomorrow may turn into more of an adventure, but we'll take it one day at a time.

9:30 pm - I just found an amazing, comprehensive article that describes the situation occurring with the Fukushima nuclear reactors. I highly recommend reading this article as it clears up many many confusing aspects about the design and safety features on the reactors. The bottom line is that even in the worst case of a core melt down, which has been prevented, all the really bad radiation will be contained as per design of the reactor. There will be nothing close to Chernobyl, and the effects will be limited to the surrounding area at worst.

Nice to have one less thing to worry about. Thank you science!!

8:50 pm - Got home a couple hours ago. I went out to buy a few things, but anticipating blackouts, most stores were closed. The convenience stores were open, but here too people anticipating blackouts pretty much gutted them of anything useful. I bought some tea and face masks and basically just got a little exercise.

In the end we didn't have any power outage today, and I still have power now. They did cut some power in parts of Chiba in the morning, and in parts of Ibaragi and Shizuoka in the evening. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but I'll be as prepared as I can. Perhaps part of the reason they were able to keep the power on was because of all the companies not in operation at the moment. Unfortunately it seems like a lose-lose situation. They can get people to work and cut power in rotating groups to address power shortages, and tick a bunch of people off who lose power. Or they can say they'll cut power, not let anyone go to work, consequently not need as much power, and tick a bunch of people off for not cutting power like they said they would. This is supposedly going to continue for a month and a half.

5:45 pm - Just heard a report that over 6,200 buildings have been destroyed from the earthquake and tsunami. Wow.

5:25 pm - Seems like the outages are only going to be affecting parts of Ibaragi and Shizuoka, so... according to that we're in the clear. That's cool. (keeping fingers crossed)

5:15 pm - I've given up reporting on what they think may happen and will just mention what actually happens. Right now they are currently enacting a certain portion of outages in Group 5, which we are technically a part of. That doesn't mean we will lose power, but it means we have a possibility of losing power. According to the news though, they're starting the outages, but I haven't heard of anywhere that actually has lost power yet. (We still have power). I have heard however that group 1 will probably not lose power (which I'm in), so that's good to hear.

3:40 pm - Now word on the street is that they are just announcing there is a very small percentage that they will cut power at 3:20 pm (how about 0% since its already past?) There is also a small chance they will cut power at 4:20, but they are saying they're planning on cutting power from 5 to 7... I feel like I'm crying wolf here. I'm happy that we still have electricity for sure, but when they say they're going to cut power, I don't to be caught in the middle of something, so I try to get to a stopping point in my work. Then I don't want to start up again cause who knows when the power will be cut. Oh well, I'll just continue to play it by ear here...

3:30 pm - Hey look at that, we still have power...

3:00 pm - Found what I was looking for. Sounds like they may be enacting the group 5 power outage after all from 3:20 pm. Better get everything prepared just in case.

2:45 pm - I knew the death toll would begin to rise dramatically, but now I'm hearing reports now of thousands of bodies washed onto shore. Just... speechless.

2:20 pm - Found an article from the Washington Post at least confirming they've suspended the blackouts where possible. It sounds like they will continue to play it by ear, but stress that there will be risk of blackout from a shortage in power supply especially during peak times.

One side note here, I have not heard or seen any news stories about looting in Japan yet. In fact, there's already and article of the exact opposite. This is a real testament to the general order and respect ingrained in Japanese culture, one of the aspects I like the most about this place. Even when all the trains were stopped and everyone tried to go home by taxi, even though it may be faster to wave a taxi off the street, there were massive lines hundreds of feet long of people lining up for taxis at the stations. Given this mindset, and given that everyone is aware of how grave of a situation we are facing, asking the people of Japan to conserve energy use should be a viable option that should at least be explored. My two yen.

Also, I hear the trains are stopped today not because they cannot power the trains, but because they cannot power the stations. The trains themselves can run under their own power generated by the train companies, but it's the stations that are powered by TEPCO. This is supposedly the main reason why they have been running on a limited schedule as well.

2:00 pm - I've just heard that there is a huge debate going on regarding the rolling blackouts TEPCO has been intending to implement starting today and lasting through April. Apparently they're receiving pressure from politicians to think of other solutions than shutting down parts of the Kanto area. Basically someone finally stood up and said, "Hey guys, wait a minute. Shutting down Tokyo could cripple the economy. We have all of Central and Western Japan completely intact. How about we ask the country to preserve power, and pump what we can over from other parts of the country before we resort to blackouts." At least that's my interpretation on the situation, but it would explain why they haven't done a blackout yet. I'm still looking for an article to back this up, but it sounds like the 3:20 blackout is also up for grabs. I'll need to keep an eye out on that too.

1:40 pm - This is an excellent article the explains exactly what is going on with the Nuclear reactors in Fukushima.

1:15 pm - Here's a video comparing the explosions of reactors 1 and 3 in Fukushima. They mention that you could see some flames in reactor 3, which is cause for concern. I believe the actual container housing the reactor is still safe though.

12:10 pm - As a result of the hydrogen explosion at reactor 3 up in Fukushima plant 1, we've all put on masks at work as a precaution. We're just under 200 miles away, and the wind is supposedly blowing north, northwest, but you can never be too careful. This is the first time I've ever worn a mask by the way.

11:50 am - Here's an English article on the partially suspended power outages. Looks like CNN already has a report on it here.

11:45 am - A little after 11, the concrete protective housing around reactor 3 in Fukushima's nuclear plant 1 had a similar hydrogen explosion as reactor 1.

10:30 am - Wow, I've surpassed the 2000 page view mark on my blog now (since I started tracking last summer), with over 1000 hits since Friday. I peaked at 138 visits from 89 visitors and 411 page views on Friday alone. Thanks everyone!!

10:15 am - Getting info on that last aftershock. It was a M6.2 off the coast of Ibaragi, 10 km underground (pretty shallow I guess). The strongest felt on land was a weak 5, but we only got a 2 in this area.

10:03 am - Alarms just went off on cell phones. Incoming earthquake... not too bad here. Done now, probably only a strong 2 in these parts.

10:00 am - It's 10am, and I still have power. Guess we got through the morning unscathed? Yaay!

9:42 am - Tokyo Electric has been making announcements as the situation evolves. Now they're saying they're moving on without enforcing the outage for group 1, and are still considering what to do with group 2. We'll just have to play it by ear, and be on alert during our planned

9:30 am - Still here, with power. There was a report the power would cut at 9:20, but so far we're still in operation. Maybe we're in group 1 or 5 and not both... very confusing. Trying to be as prepared as we can though.

9:15 am - Just heard a rumor we could be losing power in 5 min.

9:05 am - At work, we still have power. My desktop is an eerie sort of screen shot from right after the quake of me pouring over news websites for information. I've also got windows and tabs open for what I was working on from before the quake.

8:30 am - Well, I still have power, that's also not stopping my bike from working, so I guess I'll head into work.

7:50 am - Now they're saying they may in fact implement the blackout after all, because of a shortage in power supply. So I guess I'll just have to play it by ear. Glad I've had an extra hour of electricity than expected so far though.

7:30 am - Supposedly they've canceled the blackout for the morning group (which I'm in). But seems they've also halted a lot of train lines, and people are unable to get to work. I'm only a bike ride away though, so that doesn't affect me. The good news though, if we don't lose power is that at least my company can stay online.

7:00 am - Still have power, but I'm sure I'll be losing it shortly. I just found an article talking about the shift in the Earth's axis as a result of the quake. Seems it shifted the Earth's axis about 6.5 inches, the Earth is rotating 1.8 microseconds faster, and some parts of Japan are 12 feet closer to North America.

6:40 am - Well I woke up with power, but it will probably be cut soon enough. They're making announcements around the city.

Sendai Quake - Day 3

2011-03-13T10:29:00.024+09:00

A massive ~~M8.8~~ M9.0 quake hit off the coast of Miyagi prefecture in Japan on Friday afternoon, and several M6 aftershocks have been continuing for the last few days. I live 300 miles or so away, yet we felt an frightening M5 out here. Fortunately there was little to no damage, and my friends, coworkers and myself are safe and sound. Latest earthquake information at the Japan Meteorological Agency. Day 2 posts can be found here.

1:30 am - Alright, I need to get some sleep. I've still got food/water/clothes ready for an emergency, and will be sleeping with my shoes close by in case. I think I'll also take down my TV when I'm not at home/asleep to be safe. When I wake up in the morning I more than likely will not have power either, so I'll update from my phone. I'll be charging everything I can until morning (I even have a spare phone). Seems like I've got an interesting week ahead.

By the way, Google has put together a quite impressive Crisis Response page for this earthquake.

12:30 am - WOAH! I just saw this on TV. If you want to know how high and strong the tsunami was, here is a good indication:

That would be a large ferry on top of a two story building. Unbelievable. How in the world are they going to get that down???

11:30 pm - I've finally got some specifics on the rolling power outages. My company in Nakano, Ebina, Kangawa; and my apartment in Nakashinden, Ebina, Kanagawa are both in the same groups 1 and 5. Here's the estimated outage times -

Group 1: 6:20 – 10:00 (4:20 pm - 8 pm CST)
Group 5: 15:20 – 19:00 (1:20 am - 5 am CST)
Group 1: 16:50 – 20:30 (4:50 am - 6:30 am CST)

Each blackout period will have approximately 3 hours of power outage. G1 and G5 overlap in the evening with G1 starting an hour earlier, so perhaps I will have 4 hours w/out power in the evening. Furthermore, I'm hearing reports this will be lasting through the end of April.

...

Wow. Seems this is starting to hit home. As crappy as it is, I'm at least thankful for my safety more than anything. I guess I'll be playing a lot of DS for the next couple of months though!

8:45 pm - They just officially announced that they will be dividing the Kanto area into 5 different groups and implement power outages in rotation 3 hours at a time. Seems at peak times during the week there is a 4100Kw power demand, but the max capacity with the remaining power plants is 1000Kw short. Seems like this also affects Kanagawa where myself and my company are, so its highly possible I'll be affected.

6:00 pm - They just removed all the tsunami watches!! The coasts should be safe from tsunami now!!

5:50 pm - I found some amazing before and after pictures. Roll over the image to scroll between before/after.

3:40 pm - The original quake was M9.0. There have been multiple aftershocks of M7 since, several of M6, and over 150 aftershocks of M5. They're saying there is a 90% chance another M7 may hit within a week. Looking for articles to back this up.

Found a map on Wikipedia:

3:05 pm - The dead and missing count is up to 2800 now. I've heard multiple reports of hundreds of bodies being found in single areas at a time as well. I'm also hearing that as a result of several power plants being shut down, including the 2 nuclear plants in Fukushima, they may be implementing rotational power outages. During the weekend now there is less power usage, but when people return to work and businesses start up again on Monday, power usage will spike again. Anticipating a shortage, they may cut power to certain areas for 3 hours at a time. Here's a translation of the NHK article.

2:45 pm - I just found a high quality 15 min video from NHK of the main tsunami hitting Sendai, as seen from a helicopter. This is unbelievable. Warning: You can see cars that were driving get swept away by the tsunami. Terrifying.

2:20 pm - I just heard a story of a man in his 60s swept out to sea by the receding tsunami who was picked up by an Aegis cruiser out at sea. Wow.

1:30 pm - Went out for a walk and to get a few things. It's again nice to see semblance of normalcy outside after watching all this destruction on the news. The stores are still fairly gutted, lots of instant foods and batteries sold out everywhere. Otherwise the situation is pretty calm, a nice sunny day actually.

12:15 pm - The main earthquake, after being revised from an 8.9 to an 8.8 has now further revised and upgraded to a magnitude 9.0, which is 474 megatons.

11:20 am - Here's a video from inside the Sendai airport that I found yesterday and have been meaning to post. It's interesting to see views of the tsunami from the ground as it happens. The unbelievable forces of water involved are truly astonishing.

10:45 am - They've been showing this footage of the tsunami hitting Miyako in Miyagi Prefecture since yesterday evening. Notice how the water is pitch black, a result of sand, silt, and dirt from the displacement of earth on the seafloor that created the tsunami. Also, the flow of water is so powerful, one of the fishing boats gets forced under a bridge like its going trough a shredder or trash compactor.

10:30 am - Another aftershock of M4 on land hit Ibaragi and Chiba (closer to Tokyo and Kanagawa), but the only felt maybe an M2 hour here. Again, we received advance warning via TV and cellphone.

9:45 am - Good morning. We had a few aftershocks over night, with a larger M6 off the coast of Miyagi around 8 am. It's very rare for aftershocks of this magnitude to continue for this long. The news is saying it wouldn't be out of the question for a large aftershock or separate earthquake to hit the Tokyo region, partially because of the type of earthquake we had - a shallow megathrust. The Pacific tectonic plate pushes against the Eurasian plate of the coast of East Japan. As the Pacific plate pushes against the Eurasian plate, it pulls some of the Eurasian plate with it. This quake occurred when the Eurasian plate rebounded backward, displacing an immeasurable amount of water, resulting in massive tsunamis of up to 10 m along the entire east coast of Japan.

Basically something like this, except instead of coastline, this happened 50 miles out to sea, but only 25 miles or so underground. The uplift from the immense rebound is what caused the massive tsunamis which lasted for more than a day.

Yesterday perhaps you heard the news about the concrete outer housing on reactor 1 of plant 1 in Fukushima exploding. The reactor itself is fine, and we won't have anything like Chernobyl, but there are already reports of people with radiation poisoning, and hundreds more at risk. Fortunately they've reported these people don't have much risk to their health.

However, it seems similar situations are occurring to reactors 2 and 3 which they're trying to get under control. Because of the type of reactor (boiling water reactor) there fortunately are less risks involved even in the event of a meltdown.

Sendai Quake - Day 2

2011-03-12T08:18:00.022+09:00

Day 1 posts can be found here. Also, this blog got on a news article on the Waukesha Patch back at home!

11:40 pm - The M5 earthquake in Niigata also had an M3 earthquake that occurred at the same time off the coast of Ibaragi. Seems to be coincidence, but whew.

11:35 pm - Another earthquake warning via TV and phone, 30 seconds later it hit, but not very strong. It was centered in Niigata I hear. The earthquake from an hour ago off the coast of Fukushima was M6 they're saying now.

11:30 pm - Alright, now they're talking about how a few hundred people in the area around the Fukushima nuclear power plants are at risk of radiation poisoning. Yikes. Also I've heard a report that over 2500 buildings have been reported to be completely leveled. Not damaged, but wiped away clean.

11:00 pm - By the way, I've mentioned it before but there have been many reports of aftershocks and other damage since, so I'll mention it again. Everything around the area I live in is safe and sound. Barring any large quake hitting the Tokyo area directly, I should pull out of this just fine. I'm definitely getting tired of all the shaking though, haha.

10:30 pm - For most of the evening they were talking about the nuclear power plant up in Fukushima that, well... exploded. Not in the nuclear explosion type, but rather the pressure was building up because they were unable to cool the reactor. Also, because of the type of reactor, there's not really a major risk of something like Chernobyl, but they're taking plenty of preparation for the worst case scenario, and are evacuating people within a 20km radius.

Here's a video of the outer shell of the reactor complex basically disappearing at about 45 sec in.

Now after a day of assessing the aftermath, a lot of reports are rolling in about the state of things in Japan. Entire cities on the coast are completely devastated, some wiped clean off the face of the earth. More videos from when the tsunami rolled in are coming out too. Hundreds of thousands of people between the prefectures north of Tokyo and all the way through Hokkaido are without power and gas. They're saying it could take 2 weeks to restore some utilities. The biggest problem though is food. Roads and bridges are devastated, so its very difficult to get supplies through. They're saying people are living off a couple onigiri and some tea a day at the moment. Help is on the way from all over the world, including the US military on its way I hear.

A little on the good news though, the tsunami warnings have been downgraded again, and we don't have any more large tsunami warnings, just normal tsunami warnings around the coast close to the epicenter, and simple watches elsewhere. We did however just get another aftershock that hit to 5 or 6 on land. Actually we found out about it from Kana's cell phone alarm going off, then the news warning of an incoming earthquake, and finally 20-30 seconds later the earthquake came. Amazing to see the earthquake preparedness in action. The quake wasn't bad, but definitely one of the stronger aftershocks we've had in the last several hours.

Anyways, getting tired both physically and mentally. I'll probably pass out on the floor here, heh.

8:00 pm - At Kana's apartment. There have been a few aftershocks yet, but few and far between. Ruling out another separate earthquake in this area, I think things are finally calming down. The trains and streets were normal for the most part, although the grocery stores were still gutted off food. Kana's gas at her apartment was actually stopped automatically from the main earthquake, and we had to go restart it at the meter outside her door. That's a good feeling to know your gas cuts off automatically if there's a strong enough earthquake.

Well we're getting tired of watching the news about all the destruction and such that's going on, so we're watching something else for now, switching back to the news to keep updated every once in awhile.

4:30 pm - On the train blogging from my phone. The trains have no timetables, but are running every 15 min. It's actually really nice to get outside. Watching all that destruction on the news can be a major downer. It's nice to see semblance of normal society and people around the city, and buildings standing. It's actually even more amazing what's going on in eastern japan, cause it's a gorgeous day out over here. They're saying the trains are slowing their speed for safety, but I wouldn't have noticed if they didn't mention it. In fact looking around town you wouldn't guess that one of if not the worst earthquake just hit japan yesterday.

4:00 pm - Just got another aftershock, this one worse than we've had in awhile, at least since aftershocks shortly after the main quake. Seems it was centered in chiba, which is much closer to where I live. Nothing major though.

3:45 pm - My gf is safe and sound at home, and the trains seem to have been running for most of the day now. I'm gonna venture out and see if I can't make it to her apartment. Hopefully I don't get stuck, but if I do I have my phone with me so you'll hear about it!

3:00 pm - Found the video from Kamaishi. Looks like someone took a video of it. I was watching this exact feed.

Also, they've confirmed over 450 or so deaths, and upped the missing to a thousand, making about 1400 total dead or missing. Also, I just felt another small aftershock.

2:00 pm - They just downgraded the tsunami warnings around the country. Miyagi and the surrounding prefectures are still at large tsunami warnings, but the rest of Japan has been downgraded to a regular tsunami warnings or watches. I just saw an amazing video of the moment the tsunami came to Kamaishi, Iwate on the news, but haven't been able to find a video yet. Here are some other amazing ones from YouTube though.

The tank that exploded, around 1:40 in. It took 10 seconds for the explosion to reach the guy who recorded this.

Here's another of the moment the tsunami arrived

An areal view of the tsunami advancing on land.

When I find the video from Kamaishi (釜石市), I'll post it.

1:15 pm - They're saying that M6.7 earthquake in the Nagoya/Niigata area was on a different tectonic plate, and therefore an entirely different earthquake from the massive one we had yesterday. It's certainly possible the one from yesterday could have been a catalyst, but it basically wasn't an aftershock, but a different earthquake all together.

12:10 pm - Yaaay! Kana is finally home! After getting off the train at Shinagawa she headed for Gotanda and Meguro to see if she could catch a train from there to get closer to home. Well apparently she was able to catch a taxi and get all the way home!! Yes! Plus, her room was just fine!!!The TV didn't fall or anything. Plus the stores in that area seem to actually have food, where as the stores in Tokyo were supposedly gutted. Kana! So glad to hear you finally got home! It's been almost 20 hours since the earthquake, but you're home now! 本当にお疲れ様！！ Now get some rest. :D

Hmm... just felt another aftershock while writing this. I fell asleep for another half hour to an hour earlier; no surprise from only getting a few hours of sleep last night. I think its about time I shower and make some lunch though.

10:50 am - Kana called and told me it took half an hour to travel two stations, and then the train stopped again. Man that's gotta be so frustrating not being able to get home. Maybe she can take a different line to get closer to home and walk/taxi from there. By the way, just had another weak aftershock. They're definitely getting fewer and far between, so hopefully this is an indication the earthquake is ending.

10:15 am - I just saw them interview someone who lived on the prefectural border between Miyagi and Fukushima. She said the earthquake was so strong she could barely keep standing, much less keep things from falling over, so she escaped outside. After the earthquake she began cleaning up, but her neighbor warned her of the coming tsunami. The eventually fled by car to higher ground, where she witnessed her own house get washed away by the tsunami. There are many others with similar experiences who have lost so much. I'm thankful for their safety, but can't even imagine the loss they've just experienced. Wow.

9:50 am - They've been talking about it on the news, and I found an English article about it too. There are a couple nuclear power plants in Fukushima, which is on the east coast of Japan south of Miyagi where the earthquake hit. These power plants are right on the coast and got hit hard. They've been talking about them since yesterday. It sounds like they're now telling people within a 10km radius of the power plants to evacuate, as they may need to release some radioactive steam to release growing pressure and heat.

9:25 am - Actually, Kana just called and said the trains started up again so she's gonna train home instead. Sounds like the roads are packed, so it would be faster to go home by train anyways. That said, the trains are packed too, so it'll be a tight ride home for sure. Hopefully it won't take long (usually only 30 min), and more importantly hopefully the trains don't stop again.

9:10 am - Kana supposedly got a taxi! Yeaaa!

9:00 am - Kana called and tells me she's still stuck in Tokyo. The trains had started moving, but stopped again for safety. She's trying to find a taxi to get home if she can. Otherwise she might have to return to her company again to wait it out and get online. She'd definitely like to get home and see if her room is ok. I'd be worried sick.

Sounds like a M6.7 hit Niigata around 4 am, an hour after I went to bed last night so I didn't notice. According to the JMA though, it was only an M1 or 2 around here, so it wasn't that strong by the time it got out here. It's unbelievable how many aftershocks are constantly occurring since. Still looking for an accurate source, but I've seen graphics on TV of 6 or 7 aftershocks of around M5 to M6. In the Sendai area (original quake) and Niigata area a couple hundred miles north of where I live.

8:40 am - Here's a bit of good news. Japan is the most prepared country in the world when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis, and it's definitely saving lives.

8:00 am - Good morning. I ended up falling asleep around 3 am or so last night. Glad to see my TV hasn't fallen on top of me over night, hah. My girlfriend called and said the trains are starting up again around now, but there's thousands upon thousands, probably millions of people also stuck in Tokyo that are anxious to get home. So she might wait a bit for it to calm down some. Her apartment is on the 7th (top) floor though, so we're a bit worried about what her room could be like. Depending on what happens, she might come out here or head to a relatives in the area, rather than sitting this out on the 7th floor. I would be a bit worried about using an elevator after something like this.

Anyways, I hear there was a large aftershock quake in my area over night, but I slept through the whole thing. For what it's worth, I slept through Hurricane Andrew 10 20 years ago too by the way. Everything in my apartment is still upright though, so it must not have been too bad. Still feeling aftershocks, but my body is still hyper-sensitive to motion, so at any given point its difficult to tell it its actually shaking or my body is just out of whack. So far the dead or missing counts is exceeding 1000, according to the news.

I'm hearing some pretty amazing stats about this quake...

"The US Geological Survey is reporting that the coast of Japan has shifted 8 feet (2.4m) because of the earthquake in Japan. The Earth's axis has reportedly been shifted 10 inches too."

I guess the trip home has gotten somewhat slower? But now my GPS Mapping on Google Maps might be slightly off kilter! I wonder if Google will adjust.

Finally, here's an amazing collection of pictures from Boston.com.

Sendai Quake

2011-03-11T22:02:00.021+09:00

Latest Japan quake and subsequent aftershock information available at the Japanese Meteorological Association. Keep pressing "Previous Information." The main 8.8 quake hit around 2:45 pm, and lasted for a grueling almost 4 minutes. Myself and the area I live in, Ebina, Kanagawa, is completely fine and safe from harm 300 miles from the worst of it, and I've been relaying what I've heard on the news. I am doing what I can to be prepared for subsequent aftershocks which do have a risk of being large though.

Thoughts and prayers to those caught in this massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami. A lot of people lost everything in this disaster. I'm thankful for my safety.

Day 2 continues here.

2:30 am - Hah, already a wikipedia on this Sendai Earthquake. It's incredibly detailed already. I love the modern digital age. I wouldn't be able to have a blog like this, call home via skype on my smart phone when the rest of the lines are down, and other stuff without it.

1:50 am - Yikes I'm tired, I think I'll head to bed soon here. I got an emergency bag of stuff ready, and will sleep near it, away from windows tonight. I've also been told to sleep with my shoes near my bed. This is pretty significant, since you *never* bring your shoes inside.

I just heard them mention on the news M6 quakes could continue for the next MONTH.

Also, ~~the death toll is already at 1000~~ the dead and missing is estimated at 1000 so far. I'm sure you have or will be seeing plenty of pictures and video online, but here's a small collection of some I've found.

A shot from a video of the Tsunami itself.

These cars were washed away like marbles.

Here's that city thats burning.

This refinery exploded in a fireball.

1:20 am - There's plenty of pictures and videos out there. Here's a video of that exploding refinery @ about 1:15.

1:00 am - I hear some trains have started running again. Most of the subway and rail in Tokyo is running, not sure about JR though. The Odakyu line (where I live) supposedly started up at midnight. I've seen video of an entire residential area on fire, a tank at a refinery exploding, highways pushed over, massive sink ins, pieces of building falling, ceilings collapsed, everything under the sun. The damage reports continue to pour in too. I'm getting tired but almost scared to go to sleep. Still getting small aftershocks too.

11:30 pm - Apparently Tsunamis are continually coming, about an hour at a time. Usually they come 20-40 mins apart, but because this was so massive, they're distant and HUGE. Certain areas on the coast are being upgraded to large tsunami warnings. I'm hearing tsunamis of over 7 meters still, and it will take a day or more for them to stop. I believe I saw mention on the news of tsunamis coming about 7km inland, but I am much farther inland than that, so I should be fine.

11:20 pm - The casualties are starting to add up. Current reports are 200 dead, 400 missing.

11:00 pm - Still aftershocks. A 5.4 aftershock just hit, but only 3 or so on land. Much weaker out here but still definitely felt it. Watching the news. Shinjuku station is EMPTY. There are no trains and no people on the platform. That is an amazing sight. I am so thankful I live close to work and was able to come home without any trouble. I hope others are able to get home as well. I've put together a change of clothes and some food just in case. My apartment has been shaking once every 15 to 20 min.

10:20 pm - We've been having aftershocks all day since the earthquake. They settled down for the last few hours, but another *just* came (its 10:19 pm). I wonder how long aftershocks will last, and if another big guy is on its way...　With all these aftershocks, my body is now hyper-sensitive, and it feels like its shaking if I just think about it. The idea of doubting the stability of the earth below you is very bizarre.

EDIT: Added an as-it-happened bit.

I'm home now, safe and sound, watching the news. Here's a quick play-by-play from my experience...

The earthquake started slowly, like other earthquakes we've had before. Then it got worse and worse, the lights and A/C units swayed more and more violently, getting louder and louder. Eventually myself and a coworker decided to just get out of the building. As I arrived outside, I was greeted by other people from surrounded buildings out on the street. The powerlines were shaking like crazy, so we tried to stay away from them. The entire ground was shaking too; it was an unbelievable experience. The earthquake continued for a few minutes. At first you're freaked out and the adrenaline kicks in. But when it doesn't stop for awhile you realize how completely out of control you are with the situation and just need to focus on staying safe.

After all was said and done, we returned to the building. Amazingly not a whole lot fell over. A few aluminum blocks we had stacked up, but nothing significant. In fact, just a couple weeks ago we had cabled some of our storage shelves to the ceiling preciously for an earthquake. Talk about timing. There were a few braces in the ceiling that seemed to be bent/on an angle where they met the wall, but nothing major. A few bands that strapped some wire to some beams in the ceiling completely snapped off though. Boy am I ever grateful for the massive massive support beams that our little 2 story building has though.

After work I went out to eat with some coworkers after work. I really needed to let some stress out. My body just ached from being freaked out. I experienced the Niigata earthquake 4 years ago from the 6th or 9th floor of a building in Tokyo, but that didn't hold a candle to this one, which was even further away.

Getting all my info from the news now. This is really surreal. Most all the trains are stopped, and alot of people can't go home. If you weren't aware, Tokyo has a population of 4 or 5 million at night, but 20 million or something during the day. A vast majority of them commute by train... which are all stopped. My girlfriend is stuck in her office. Poor Kana :( I hope they can start up the trains again before morning so you can get home.

The destruction from the tsunami is unbelievable. Entire parking lots and buildings were carried away like toys, some out to sea. The rivers which usually flow out to sea, were overtaken by the tsunami and began to flow inward. I actually live not too far from Sagami River, but I don't think there's any danger out here. The worst earthquake we had here was magnitude 5, and we're around the underside of Japan, shielded a bit by Chiba and the east coast of Japan. That said, there is still a large tsunami warning for the coast around my area. I'm quite a bit inland, so I should be safe. As a precaution though, I'm planning on readying a bag with some emergency supplies and food just in case.

This whole experience has been surreal. We only had a magnitude 5; I can't even fathom what a magnitude 7 was like up in Miyagi prefecture... Well, I'll update more as things unfold and any new info comes in. So far myself and my friends are safe and sound\.

Massive Earthquake

2011-03-11T18:04:00.002+09:00

As I'm sure you are already aware, there has been a massive earthquake in north eastern Japan 50 miles or more off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, 300 miles or so northeast of Ebina where I live. It was recorded at magnitude 8.9, with an aftershock of 7.5.

Myself, my friends and coworkers are all fine.

The strongest we had out here in Ebina was a weak 5. They're saying this is the biggest earthquakes to hit Japan in 140 years. I've heard some 4 million buildings in Tokyo are w/out power. There have been several aftershocks of magnitude 5+ too. Here's some images I took from the Japanese Meteorological Association, that I've annotated to show where I live.

Japan. The epicenter was 50 miles off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, near Sendai.

The Kanto area.

Kanagawa. We got around a magnitude 5.

Yes, it was very scary.

There have been constant aftershocks every 5-10 min since. I am very lucky to have been 300 miles from the epicenter, around the bend in Chiba/Tokyo, safe from Tsunami.

The pictures and videos I've seen from the ensuing tsunami are breathtaking. Please keep the people in north eastern Japan in your prayers.

Merry KrisMarose

2011-03-08T11:58:00.010+09:00

My name, Kris Marose, in Japanese is クリスマロス (kurisu marosu). If you take the 'ro' out of my last name, you get クリスマス (kurisumasu). Now say that fast a few times. Figure it out yet? Put a a'Merry' in front if you still don't get it.

...Christmas!

Yes, my name can be used as a pun for Christmas in Japanese. In fact, my friends often wish me a メリークリスマロス (Merry KrisMarose) in December. This pun also works as a silly ice breaker and easy way for people to remember my name.

All Around Japan

2011-03-01T01:34:00.000+09:00

Well this should prove I live in Japan.

I noticed Picasa has this awesome facial recognition feature to it. It groups faces it recognizes, you can then tag them, and it will intelligently add new faces to those groups, to which you can confirm if it got it right or not. Thanks to that, I was able to put together this cool (but very incomplete) collection of shots of me from all around Japan.

Some time later I'll go through and add more. I should have more shots of me in front of Tokyo Tower, in Osaka, and in my Kimono. Anyways, looking through these, after 2+ collective years of living in Japan now, it kinda hits you as to how much I've done. These also make me want to get up and get to more traveling! I'm not a broke college student anymore, I gotta get out and see a bit more of the country! :D

...and remember to take pictures with ME IN THEM.

PS: I wish I could figure out a way to slow down the Picasa auto slide show...

Mac & Don-san's 40th

2011-02-28T02:28:00.005+09:00

I did some sightseeing for the first time in awhile this weekend, but while I sort through all the pictures I took, here's a little something interesting:

Apparently it's the 40th anniversary of McDonald's... in Japan I guess? I'm pretty sure its been around longer in the US. Or is there anything like this going on there? Anyways, McDonald's is selling Big Macs for 200 yen! I'll have to get one.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a Japanese CM on the 200 yen big mac. I actually grabbed the video of the McDonald's website since I couldn't find it on youtube. I'm still testing it out though. I'll update when I get it figured out or give up and just upload it to youtube myself.

Loadingtheplayer...

UPDATE:
Holy cow, this worked. Awesome. For those interested, I used JW Player as the flash player. The bigger problem after I figured out how to use JW Player though, was where to host the files I needed to reference. Apparently I've managed a work around of sorts by uploading 'attachments' to my google sites... site, and then grabbed the url link from the link shown in the 'download' button. Finally, since I can edit the html for this blog post, I just pasted references to the javascript, and whala. Embedded flash!

Ripping Rentals

2011-02-26T00:42:00.000+09:00

I found this out earlier this week and it has blown my mind. Not only can you rent CDs like you can movies in Japan (I already knew this), but it is completely legal to rip music off of the CD for your own personal use. I don't even have to delete the music after I return the CD.

Let me say that again. I can go to Tsutaya (Japanese Blockbuster), rent a CD, and legally copy the music to my computer/mp3 player to listen to whenever I want.

This is made possible by the fact that rental places pay royalties to the artists to offset any revenue loss from copying music. It's been like this since 1985 when the law changed for big electronics companies which sell the blank media and such. In other words, the much larger and more prevalent electronics companies were more influential than any small music company at the time, so they got the copyright laws changed in their favor.

I kind of like the idea. Too bad it doesn't apply to movies though, heh.

Za Ramen

2011-02-22T19:40:00.000+09:00

There's a ramen place next to the train station which I pass every time I come home from Atsugi station. I always see this older dude who runs the place chilling inside at or behind the counter with the TV on, often with few or no people there. One of these days I swore I'd get over there and help his business out, and last night I finally got the chance!

One of my coworkers asked if I wanted to grab a bite after work (I was there pretty late) so I suggested we get some ramen. Turns out this place, called Za Ramen, is actually a ramen chain restaurant from Hokkaido I believe. I've been to Hokkaido and loved it (it's basically the Minnesota of Japan), so that works for me. Check out how cool this guy is!

I had some Corn Cream Ramen, but as usual forgot to take a picture before hand. Oh well, next time.

Here's me after thoroughly enjoying my corn cream ramen.

And the rest of the little restaurant, with some Taiwanese guy sitting at the counter.

And a dark shot of the outside.

I'll have to come back with my nicer camera later. This was all taken from my phone.

Proto(Light)Box

2011-02-21T19:44:00.002+09:00

Every now and then when we face issues with a part we're making, we need to convey this problem in an easily understandable manner to the customer. Often times pictures of problematic areas are the best way to communicate these difficulties, but the dinky camera we had before just wasn't cutting it in the take-good-pictures department. So I did a little shopping around, and found that the Nikon Coolpix P100 is a very good camera. It doesn't look the nicest, but its the best in the super zoom series available.

Anyways, I put together a simple light box, and snapped a few test shots. Oh, since we deal with a lot of prototype parts, I couldn't just grab any random part and start taking shots of it. So I had no choice but to grab a few of the mini Gundam models on my desk and shoot those instead. Really, my hands were tied. Nothing I could do about it.

And here's how I took these pictures:

Finally a slide show for good measure.

Yes I did work today too!

ProtoBox!

2011-02-18T12:14:00.001+09:00

A package arrived from the US this morning. Apparently they've got their own Proto Labs branded packing over there now. Way cool.

Maybe someday we can get our own Proto Labs Japan branded packaging, haha. :D

Several... Hours of Winter

2011-02-17T00:26:00.000+09:00

Seems it did continue snowing through the night, but didn't quite turn out to be what I was hoping for. Plus it all melted before noon. Short lived, but at least we had one ~~day~~ morning of actual winter.

I took a number of shots along my way to work too. Oh and, of course Picasa web albums allows you to embed a slideshow. Why haven't I done this for, well, all my previous pictures?

Actually, since this snow the past couple days have been beautiful out. Did it just get winter out of it's system and now the weather is deciding to play nice? I shouldn't speak too soon though; I've heard forecasts of rain later this week. I don't mind biking home though snow, but rain isn't too fun.

Slight Flurries

2011-02-15T00:55:00.001+09:00

It snowed a bit on my bike ride home.

Good thing I've undergone thorough training in the frigid winters of Minnesota. For those unawares, I biked to the U of M all year round. I only lived 10 min away by bike, preferred to bike, and didn't want to purchase a bus pass since I had a car too. So I continued biking through the fall, into winter to see how long I could last. Before I know it, it's February, I'm wearing a double socks, long underwear, several layers of clothing, a face mask and ski goggles in -30F weather. Good times...

Actually, believe it or not the freezing cold bike ride home I just made through the snow was... fun? Does this mean I've spent too much time in Minnesota? Oh well, it's supposedly going to be snowing through the night. Looking forward to the new paint job we're getting outside! :D

Almost There...

2011-02-04T20:45:00.003+09:00

If you haven't, read this guy first: Auto Mapping!

Success! I cut my time down to the 10 min mark! ...Unfortunately it was because I was rushing to work late this morning, sigh. But hey, getting to work at 9:18 after getting out of bed at 8:54 is pretty quick I guess.

Anyways, I increased the accuracy of the GPS readings on My Tracker down to 65 ft, and got some pretty interesting results. I hug the sidewalk much better this time, not straying into the buildings in the adjacent neighborhood. Again you can see exactly where I crossed the street, but this time with even more accuracy.

Here I got stopped by a light, but since it was a T intersection, I could cross to the other side, travel the top of the T, and then cross back over. This couldn't have taken more than 15-20 seconds, yet it registered the whole thing. Very cool.

Unfortunately it seemed to lose my signal when I biked under the tollway. I'll have to loosen the minimum accuracy to 165 ft for next time. In comparison, the default was 650 ft, so the jump from 650 to 65 while still maintaining the signal fairly well was pretty impressive.

Statistics!

Total Distance	2.2 mi	Max Speed	19.0 mph
Total Time	10:22	Average Speed	12.8 mph
Moving Time	9:16	Average Moving Speed	14.3 mph
Elevation	--	Elevation Gain	34 ft
Min Elevation	151 ft	Max Elevation	182 ft
Min Grade	-3%	Max Grade	5%

Interesting to see the elevation statistics have changed a bit, probably on account of the more accurate GPS readings. Also I stood up on my bike at one point, but if I recognized that, I'd be super impressed.

Auto Mapping!

2011-02-04T01:00:00.004+09:00

I love technology.

I've been exploring the different features and available apps for my smart phone and came across an app called My Tracks. This application basically lets you 'record' any route that you travel with your phone, weather it be by bike, car, train, or even walking. It's quite simple really, as it just takes a snap shot of your GPS position at given intervals, plotting the locations on Google maps. When you're all said and done, it creates a map, or 'track' of the route you took which you can upload directly into your My Maps on your Google account. Unfortunately the direct upload didn't work, probably because the Maps Data API was depreciated as of the 31st (2 days ago) in lieu of the newer APIv3 using Fusion Tables. But I was able to export the information and manually import it into a map.

So here's my bike route home.

I traveled north to go home. It took me less than 15 min to travel the 2.5 miles home, so not bad (I guess?). Google maps directions seems to suggest it would take 11 min by car, so apparently traveling by bike isn't a bad idea. I especially love that the GPS readings were accurate enough that you can see exactly where I crossed the street. It did stray a bit at times (no I didn't bike through the elementary school grounds), but at one point it has me cleanly following the sidewalk. I'll have to play with the settings to see if I can get it a bit more accurate.

And for those who want a peak under the hood, here's all the data points it grabbed from my 13 min trip home. In fact, it uses all those data points, which track not only my position, but also my altitude and bearing, to put together plenty of statistics, like these:

Total Distance	2.36 mi	Max Speed	14.99 mi/hr
Total Time	13:19	Average Speed	10.64 mi/hr
Moving Time	12:10	Average Moving Speed	11.65 mi/hr
Elevation	--	Elevation Gain	54 ft
Min Elevation	177 ft	Max Elevation	200 ft
Min Grade	-1.7%	Max Grade	2.3%

The application also makes a graph of your elevation and speed over distance or time, but I wasn't quite able to export that from my phone. So I just made a table with that handy excel data myself. :D

You can see the dips in speed where I stopped at a traffic light. Cool stuff.

Now, I bet I can make this run in 10 if I tried...

The Little Things

2011-01-22T23:21:00.000+09:00

Just a small, random thing I noticed today.

I was at the 100 yen store picking up a few things, totaling to about 420 yen. I payed with a 5000 yen bill, which means I had 4000 yen (thats 4 x 1000 yen bills) and change back. The lady at the register pulled some 1000 yen bills out of the register, 1, 2, 3, but then the 4th and 5th she set aside, finally making 4000 yen with the 6th 1000 yen bill. Why? The 4th and 5th bills had creases from when they were folded in half twice.

Wow... even at the 100 yen store you're still keepin in classy Japan. It's these little things that make me love this place.

US vs Japan

2011-01-19T21:19:00.000+09:00

Found this pretty cool website that allows you to compare any two countries based on a dozen or so statistics. I did a quick US vs Japan comparison. Pretty interesting.

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/JP

Seems Japan has the US bested by all but 2 categories - birthrate and salary. The birthrate is definitely a problem Japan is facing and something I knew about. It's quite a complicated issue, but primarily its because the expense of living is high, and your education, especially the status of your school traditionally dictates how good of a job you can get. So families tend to pour their resources into one child instead of multiple. Also couples are getting married later, so that's not helping either.

Then of course there's the problem with the society quickly aging because of the long life expectancy and the small birthrate, but that's another problem. At least that means there should always be work for me in the future I guess though, heh.

Anyways, I'm kind of surprised by the salary being lower than the US on average. Not to say that I feel the US is a poor country, but because the cost of living here is so much more expensive. Plus, Japanese society is in love with brands, so you'd think they're buying these cause they have a little more pocket change, but I guess not.

The rest is all as to be expected - longer life expectancy, healthier society, less resource usage, but that's just because its a smaller country. The lesser class division is probably on account of the society being 99% Japanese. In fact, from my observations there isn't much racism, or rather, they society isn't as hyper-sensitive to the issue as the US is. But I suppose that's because other races are in quite the minority. Still, Japan is quite polite so I guess racism wouldn't be as severe in general.

Of course I could be completely wrong. These are just the opinions I've come to based on my own experience with the country over the past 5 years. Interesting stuff though.

Hop Around the World Again

2011-01-12T00:21:00.000+09:00

New Years Resolution #1: Post more often

Went back to the US over Christmas and New Years, from Dec 22nd till Jan 9th. I got to have the bizarre experience of jumping back and forth between cultures again too. Actually since my trip this time was quite a long one (approx 3 weeks), I had started becoming more accustomed to American life again, so coming back to Japan was met with a bit of... nostalgic home-sickness? All the stuff I was getting used to again was now gone, and I had to dive right back into being the oddball giant foreigner again. But when I unlocked the door and stepped back in my apartment... yea, it's good to be home. I certainly miss everyone and many things in the US, but Japan has definitely become 'home' for me now. So it's good to be back.

Boy the roads were so much wider in the US though! I could sit back, relax and enjoy driving again over there. In Japan not only are the roads much narrower, where most of the side streets in the neighborhoods would be one way street in America (but they're not!), but also there's pedestrians and bicyclists galore, so you have to be super careful at every intersection you pass through, especially when turning. But driving in the US... oh man... just pick a lane and go.

Anyways, I got my good share of driving in over there with Milwaukee > Minneapolis > Menominee > La Crosse > Milwaukee. It was definitely good to see friends and family again, and even watch a Vikings game on live TV, in Minneapolis for that matter. Unfortunately I was half asleep through most of it (stupid jet lag!). On the flip side, as I was still getting drowsy in the late afternoon toward the end of my trip, it seems to be making it easier to readjust 15 hours ahead again to Japan time. We'll see how my first day back at work (after 3 weeks! ahhh!) goes. I'll be glad if I can make it into the afternoon without getting sleepy.

Nishioka Signed to the Twins!

2010-12-20T13:36:00.000+09:00

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

2010-12-06T08:30:00.000+09:00

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!

2010-12-03T10:21:00.001+09:00

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!

Japanese Twin?!

2010-11-29T22:22:00.000+09:00

Woah! Twins might have a Japanese player next year! Sweet!!

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101126&content_id=16214266&vkey=news_min&c_id=min

That means I'd be able to see highlights of the ~~Twins game~~ that player on the news! :D

It was always interesting watching the news in Japan. I knew they followed the Japanese players in the majors, so I was excited when say, the Mariners played the Twins because then I might catch some highlights on TV. Except by following the Japanese players I mean that that... follow ONLY the Japanese players. They don't even mention the scores of the games, it just shows as a graphic on the corner of the screen, heh.

Yes, watching the news of a different country is pretty enlightening.

Zoom zoom zoom!

2010-11-20T15:33:00.002+09:00

Japan, your internet, is unbelievable.

At 113Mb/s (or 14MB/s), I could download most mp3 songs in less than a second. I could download most video clips in less than 10 seconds. I could download an entire CD (700MB) in 50 seconds. I could download a DVD in a little more than 5 min, a Blu-ray (25GB) in 30 min, and a dual layer Blu-ray (50GB) in an hour. Japan, your internet is so amazing. I am now basically limited by the speed servers can upload data to me, hah!

Now I just need to put together a file server to store all this stuff I'm gonna be downloading. What a drag!

PS: I could also download all 465GB of my current HD in 9 hours 21 min. :D

Edit 1:
Oh hey look at that, I just got it a bit faster. Gettin close to 120Mbps!

Edit 2:
This just in! I tested my internet one last time before going to bed... 120Mbps broken!!!

Fuji on the Run

2010-11-19T09:10:00.001+09:00

By the way, did I mention I can see Mt. Fuji on my bike into work from my new apartment now?

Rice fields and housing near work.

Dah! Bad timing :(

In some strange way I'm kind of glad I can see Fuji every morning, in that it... continues to develop and mature the Japanese side of me? Yea I know, corny, but cool nonetheless. Anyways, some time later when I have more time I'll take some more (nicer) pictures.

Signs on the Train (also Internet!)

2010-11-15T20:30:00.003+09:00

The other day I'm on my train to/from church, it's pretty empty so my eyes kind of wander around the different people and advertisements until they land upon these masterpieces:

It's painful to get caught between the closing doors. Even more so are the eyes of those looking at you. (Look! Look! Close! Close!)

I believe what this is actually trying to convey is the idea that getting caught in the closing doors not only hurts, but the stares of others when you get stuck is also very embarrassing. But when I read this the first time I thought it actually meant that people looking at you was literally painful for some reason. Anyways, it's more attempts of the train companies to dissuade people from running and jumping into the train when the doors are closing, because of the obvious danger. Many people still do it of course though.

My lit cigarette always points toward others, never toward myself.
Smoker > Tobacco > Fire Others Fire

This one is kind of a mystery. The translation is spot on. I thought it's trying to make a point that its a nuisance to point your cigarette at others... but it doesn't say anything about smoke. It literally uses the word "fire" in Japanese too, and has another person surrounded in fire. I guess it really could talk about ash from cigarettes falling on others though. Still, awesome diagram of a person pointing fire at someone else.

On last thing quick here. I got home from work today to find a package from NTT Communications about my internet that should be installed this Saturday. I've been wondering which plan my internet would fall under - mansion of family type. Since there's basically a $10 difference a month, I would much prefer it to be in the mansion (aka apartment building) type. Sure enough it looks like it will be the mansion type (hooray!). I also wondered what the speed for it would be as well since the person I talked to on the phone mentioned something about it being one of the newer/faster plans they have. Well my plan is Mansion High Speed Type (Mini). I looked up the little chart they sent in my package that compares all the plans they have. The slowest plan they have is 100Mbps... and since mine is the 'high speed' plan, I get 200Mbps...

No, that is not a typo. I said 200Mbps.

Hoooooooooooooly crap thats fast.

That translates to 25 megabytes in one second. WOW. In comparison, the fastest internet I had in the US at my apartment in Minnetonka that was on the fiber loop around 494/694 in Minneapolis was 24Mbps, or 3 megabytes in one second. Of course I'll probably never max that out, but if I'm ever downloading a big file, or say... playing video games online, that extra bandwidth will help out a lot. Especially since I'll have 100Mbps up as well.

Amazing Japan. I love your internet so much.

New Apartment (and Better This Time)

2010-11-09T08:33:00.000+09:00

Yikes, I haven't posted since my birthday? Well I guess I have a reasonable excuse this time, I kind of... moved. But I think I'm going to quit starting my posts with the usual "it's been too long since my last post" bit and just post when I'm able. And hopefully it will be more often.

Anyways yes! Moved! Why you might ask? Well it's a long story, but basically it boils down to the lack of action and responsibility of my land lord/real estate agency (Able) I rented the old apartment from. There were a number of different issues with the apartment I found after I moved in that needed some attention, and if Able did anything about it at all, it was usually delayed or all I got was an excuse as to why they wouldn't do anything. Items like the AC front panel broken, the AC hose outside cracked and leaking, the toilet faucet not stopping, the sink hot water knob leaking, etc were, albeit annoying, something I could live with. But the biggest of these was the water pressure.

::Warning, rant::

When I first moved in I mentioned that the water pressure seemed a bit low - it wasn't exactly something I thought to check when I moved in, plus the water is usually turned off when no one lives there. After I told Able about the water pressure, I pretty much had no response. It took them a month alone to fix the toilet because I had to call and remind them. I finally got them to move when the water started STOPPING, but when they took a look at it, they basically told me that it's weak because I'm on the 3rd (top) floor... which never made sense to me since there's 10, 20 story buildings nearby.

In all, 6 or 7 people came at different times over a couple months to look at my water, all with different opinions and results, but none with quick response. It turns out that the owner just didn't want to spend money on fixing it, especially since he was about to sell the building. Well that's an reason I can accept... if they would only tell it to me before giving me the run around with "there's nothing we can do" and "it's not impeding upon your daily routine". Well they could do something about it (replace the pump) and it was impeding on my life (water stopping). So I basically said, the heck with it, and started looking for a new place.

I eventually found a much newer apartment (2009), much closer to work (15 min via bike), with almost double the space (600 ft²), from a much more reputable and trustworthy real estate agency. It did come with a price as moving into new apartments are quite expensive with the security deposit, finders fee, service and handling fee, insurance, 1st month rent, etc... but its definitely worth it. I feel more relaxed and comfortable just being in this apartment. Plus, thanks to Kana and her mom graciously taking their time to negotiate with Able on my behalf, I'm getting most of my non-rent money back from Able, so in the end I'm not down as much as I would have been if I had moved here from the beginning (although it wasn't available then). Many many many many thanks and apologies for all the stress and time they took to help me out with this issue. I can't even think of how I'll ever be able to repay them! Maybe I can start with importing anything from the US for free.

So yea, new apartment, and I'm loving it - less stress and easier morning commute. I took some pictures before I moved in here, and I'll take some more after I finally finish cleaning up after unpacking.

Oh by the way, I don't know if this qualifies as irony, but for the last month I lived at the old apartment they contracted some cleaning company to basically clean the entire building exterior, including resurfacing the balconies and repainting everything. So the owner will spend money on contracting them for almost a 2 month period, but won't spend money on fixing the innards, the stuff that matters? Yea... oh well. It's done. I'm happier and a bit wiser. :D

International Birthdays

2010-10-22T10:46:00.006+09:00

Hey it's my Birthday. I turn 25 today (woah). Ok well actually its still the 21st in the US, so I guess technically it won't be my birthday until 2pm this afternoon when it hits midnight over there. And actually actually I was born at 7:09 pm on the 22nd, which is in fact 9:09 am on the 23rd over here... So I'll just have to celebrate on both days. :D

Speaking of birthdays, I've probably told this story before, but I like it and its my birthday so I'm going to tell it again.

Back in 2005 I turned 20 (this tends to happen when you were born in 1985). This was very cool that I was no longer a teenager and I officially entered the group of people in their 'twenties.' But at the same I'm I wasn't 21 yet so it was kind of... meh. No longer a teenager, but still have a year to go before I can drink. The following year I studied abroad in Japan (and I'm still studying that broad in Japan... ahem, yea... ok back to my story), and in Japan the drinking age is actually 20 instead of 21. Hooray! I can legally drink a little bit sooner! Then October 2006 rolls around, and I turn 21. Hooray! I'm 21 now! This is a big deal!

...wrong. In Japan you were able to drink when you turned 20, so no one cares about turning 21. In fact, turning 20 in Japan is like turning 18 & 21 combined because you are able to drink, vote, drive, etc. Plus, the government throws this big Coming of Age Ceremony for you and all your other fellow 20 year olds, with the whole country taking a holiday (the 2nd Monday of January I believe). So too bad about 21, that all happened when you turned 20.

So long story short, I completely missed that big 'now able to legally drink' birthday because of my wonderful timing and differences in drinking ages between the US and Japan. Related, Kana turned 20 in Japan while I was there, and then studied abroad in the US the following year... where she turned 21... see above face.

Impromptu Japanese lesson! How do you say happy birthday in Japanese?

誕生日おめでとう！
tanjoubi omedetou!

You can also say it more formally with:

お誕生日おめでとうございます
o-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu

There's no birthday song as far as I'm aware, although I wouldn't be surprised if they sing the Happy Birthday we're used to.

UPDATE: I'm pretty sure this is exactly what a birthday is like in Japan. Yea, definitely. No mistake.

And of course, complete with a remix -

Good 'ol Azumanga Daioh

And back again

2010-10-13T22:03:00.000+09:00

Back in Japan again. This whole impromptu trip to the US has really been an interesting experience. I mentioned it before, but its really been weird to go back and forth between American and Japanese societies. Despite the fact that both are so completely different from each other, they're both normal to me. Americans would probably find life in Japan very different, almost backwards and weird, and of course vice versa for Japanese in American society. Indeed I also feel them to be completely opposite, yet they both feel normal to me. Such a strange concept.

Also for the first time I'm coming HOME to Japan - to a different country. Of the 3 other times I've come to Japan it was always the start of something - vacation, study abroad, a visit. But this time I'm coming home to a home that was already here waiting for me. I didn't have to somehow figure out my way to get there, no hotels either, just going home like business as usual. It's almost like when I would drive home over the weekend from Minneapolis to Milwaukee, except that I flew half way across the planet and it took 4 times as long to get there. That said, those planes sure make the world feel small. Sure a 13 hour flight is crazy long, but not impossible.

By the way, I'm definitely glad I took ANA over Delta again. As nice as it would be to have a direct flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis, the rickety old 747s Delta (aka Northwest) flies on that are old, cramped, and only have a projection screen in the front of each section. ANA's 777s that run between Chicago and Tokyo on the other hand are much much newer, have nicer seats, each with your own personal monitor. They even had over 30 movies to chose from! (No joke!) I watched 4 on the way to Chicago, and 6 (yes 6) on the way back. If I remember correctly...

Tokyo > Chicago
Prince of Persia
How to Train Your Dragon
Wall-E
Some Japanese Shows

Chicago > Tokyo
The Last Airbender
Cop Out
Wall-E
Rush Hour 3
Die Hard 4
Hancock

So if you imagine approx 2 hours per movie, that would be 12 hours of movie I watched on the way back... which is indeed possible on a 13 hour flight. I suppose there is one advantage with being completely out of touch with movies in the US. When I fly back and forth I can watch ALL of them to keep myself from going crazy (I am unable to sleep in a plane seat).

Anyways, nice to be home. Still feels a little weird, but at least I don't have terrible jet lag. Also hooray for American cereal and cheese I brought home with me!! :D

Japan to USA in 24 hours

2010-10-09T07:57:00.000+09:00

There were around 200 or so people at my grandpa's funeral. It was really a testament to how many lives he touched. There were so many things he did that I wasn't aware of either, like visiting shut-ins and such. What an awesome guy he was.

Well this trip to Minneapolis has really been an interesting one. Every other time I've returned to the US it's been planned out in advance, which means I usually have some time leading up to the trip for my mind to switch gears and prepare to jump back into American society. This time however, I booked my tickets on 3 days notice and suddenly I'm here in the US, which is a 180 degree difference from the life I had in Japan. Yet at the same time, despite my life in Japan and the US being so completely, utterly, and drastically different... they both feel normal. It was really a bizarre experience. I'm seeing things I haven't seen in 6 months (restaurants, shops, etc), yet their existence feels commonplace to me, as it should. But the commonplace things in Japan are anything but common in the US, and vice versa. Yet, these are all common to me now.

While in the US I made sure I hit up the usual places - Famous Dave's, Perkins, Baker's Square, Chinese, Pizza, etc - and got my fix on American food. Wow did all of that ever taste AMAZING. I was also fortunate enough to get the RIBZILLA they're promoting at Famous Dave's right now. I took plenty of pictures (and I think my dad even took a video), more of that later.

I also got to go to a Twins game!! I had pretty much conceded that I wouldn't be able to see a game this season, but as I just so happened to be in town, I searched and was lucky enough to find a set of tickets off of craigslist for ALDS game 2. Actually, the seller I found was an Army guy who was very genuine and sincere about the tickets (I was very wary of fraud of course), and he was only looking for a fair price to make up losses on other tickets his brother had found. The seats we found were home run porch terrace (that middle deck out in left center above the bullpen and below the screen), row ONE seats 1 through 4. Oh yea, those front row seats were quite amazing. I took plenty of pictures I'll post at a later date. By the way the game was bittersweet since it didn't quite turn out how I'd like but... at least I was able to go!

Other than that it was nice to see family and friends. I did stop in at work at it looks like people still remember me there (thanks guys!), and met up with some friends to watch the Twins game, and even later had some Boot Hockey!! Again it was strange how easily it was to switch to my American life in less than 24 hours. We'll see how things pan out this coming December when I visit for Christmas and New Years.

More to come!

Remembering Grandpa

2010-10-01T14:16:00.002+09:00

It's been a couple weeks since my last post. I'll definitely admit ~~some~~ a lot of it is do to with procrastination, but this last week of silence was a result of another matter out of my hands.

My grandpa had been spending the last few months with my parents in Milwaukee, as he had grown too weak to take care of himself. This past weekend he collapsed with a headache, and was taken to the hospital where he passed away a couple days later as a result of subdural hematoma. Our family was fortunate enough to be with him before he died, and I was even able to Skype with them in the hospital room, so we thank God we were able to at least say our goodbyes.

It has all been quite a shock to me, since my grandpa has always been energetic and active despite being now 81. The distance between Japan and the US has added its own bizarre twist as well. In some sense, as I'm living on the opposite side of the world in a 15 hour difference time zone, I didn't have regular contact with my grandpa anyways, so it's also difficult to grasp the concept that he is no longer with us. I can't just hop in a car and drive to the hospital, which can also be very frustrating.

I was however fortunate enough to book a flight to Minneapolis for his funeral on Monday. For that funeral we were asked to mention a few items that we remember about grandpa to put in the bulletin. I think I'll end this post with a few of the things I remember about my grandpa.

Remembering Grandpa...

During college when I lived in the dorms, Grandpa was my 9 am alarm clock without fail every Sunday, after which he would come pick me up to go to late church. This is of course after he already went to early church, every Sunday. He also went to bible study too. The church truly was a second home to him.

Grandpa would pick up and throw away litter, or return rocks that had strayed from their bed in the landscape at a parking lot, just because it was the right thing to do and it wasn't too much trouble for him to do it anyways. Every now and then you'd stop and wait, wondering what he's doing picking up rocks in the parking lot, but I wouldn't mind having a few more people like that around.

If you've ever talked to my grandpa, then I probably need give no introduction to myself, since I'm sure you've heard about me and the rest of my family. He certainly loved to talk about his family. Its nice that we were so important to him.

My girlfriend studied abroad from Japan, and whenever Grandpa saw her one of the first things he said was, 'Are you ok? You doing alright?' After a year it almost turned into a joke, but we always appreciated that he cared enough to ask, every time, without fail.

Grandpa was the best cook with the most variety I've ever seen. He had his way with subs, dinned on gyros, made papa's pizza and famous ribs. He was always good company with noodles, and especially enjoyed some good ol' Sunday buffet, both country and chinese style. It was delicious every time. Thanks for taking me out to eat so much Grandpa. I'm gonna miss that.

I have made the trip between Minneapolis and Milwaukee so many times with my grandpa, that he memorized the mile markers for certain road signs that we would pass. Thanks for keeping me company Grandpa.

Grandpa always had at least a dozen boxes of cherrios, and a few jars of strawberry and grape jam and peanut butter (a few each that is). The pantry was also filled with several packages pringles and granola bars. No they weren't for him. He always gave them away to the school, to our family, and to me. I've not met a more humble person who wanted so little, and gave so much.

I've played a lot of cribbage with my grandpa, and one game I got a hand that was 1 point off the perfect hand (four 5's and a queen). Despite my unbelievable luck, somehow he still managed to peg out and beat me.

Sure am going to miss you grandpa. Say hi to grandma for me though. If anyone would like to know more information about him, we've created a caring bridge site for him here.

Twins Clinch!!

2010-09-22T13:42:00.003+09:00

Twins win!! Sox lose!! Twins clinch the AL Central!!!!

By the way White Sox, that was so kind of you to lose 8 in a row at the end of the season. Thank you :|D

I think this is the easiest and earliest we've clinched in Gardy's years at MN (at least easier than the past couple years). Now lets finish strong and get some home field advantage in the playoffs!

PS: I've been slacking this week on my blog. More effort towards new posts coming up.

Where's my broom?

2010-09-17T12:43:00.001+09:00

Sweep. Sweep. Sweep.

Not to jinx it, but sweeping the White Sox pretty much seals the deal. Now lets fight for home field advantage between the Rays and Yankees. Gonna have to get my mlb.tv post season subscription. :D

GO TWINS!!

Oh Der Twains

2010-09-15T18:51:00.001+09:00

So since my blog has already been tainted with references to cool things I found online, here's another for the Twins fans or just general Minnesotan's out there

Der Twain urn Heavern

I realize this is coming from a rival White Sox blog, so it's probably meant as a jab at us goofy Minnesotans, but I think it's hilarious. Parody at its best. Plus, apparently I fit the bill perfectly as I'm Lutheran, a Twins fan, and would die for tatter-tot hot dish at this moment. Maybe my Minnesotan accent could use some work though. And I don't know about der Pavstache, but I'm really tempted. Uff dey mayk it tuu da wurld series I mayht just 'ave to groo ma oon Pavstache eh. Also I'll lengthen my sideburns.

Go Twains! :|D
Uffda!!

...why is there a Wikipedia for uffda!?!

A Little Bit of More Random

2010-09-11T00:57:00.002+09:00

Originally I thought we were going to go right back to the smeltering heat that was this summer, but since that Typhoon blew through things have finally seemed to calm down. It's still getting in the upper 80's as a high, but drops down into the 70's over night. Ugh, finally.

Anyways, normally I like to avoid the 'check out what I found on the interwebz!' pattern, but I can't resist this. So without further ado, for my fellow TNG fans...

For those who get it, leave some love in the comments.

Also on the subject of backgrounds, I ran across this guy on the series of tubes known as the, "internets"

And better yet, someone had the genius idea to write a bash script for this background that replaces the starfield in the background with the NASA astronomy picture of the day... awesome. Yes, I did originally find this on reddit (after I joined the exodus away from the new digg), so I don't know what linking a reddit article does to my blog's integrity but... w/e. It's too cool to pass up (~~possible~~ major Calvin & Hobbes bias here). The results of that script are very cool.

Finally, a little news from the home front. We hired a new guy to help out on the floor. He drives this:

Honda NSX

Yea baby.

He tells me it was tuned and customized to run on a circuit before he purchased it. Unfortunately the manifold and muffler are in the middle of being fixed, so it purrs like a... tank. Anyways, I'll be sure to take some more pictures and video when I get a chance to ride it sometime. Also notice how low it is to the ground. Its got air suspension to take care of that. It just rises off the ground when he turns it on, haha. The engine is in the back too.

Whew!

Wait, I take that back

2010-09-08T20:47:00.000+09:00

So this morning i mentioned that I woke up to it raining. I was mistaken. I woke up to A TYPHOOOON!...... of doooooom... (at nooooon...) >.>

Apparently typhoon no 9 decided to rip through Japan and I was completely unawares of it. How did that happen? I guess I'm not paying close enough attention to the news. That said, I wouldn't care if I had gotten soaked on the way to/from work with the trains delayed. It's a heavenly 77 degrees out. Bring it on.

I'm still not opening my window... (yea, singular). No bugs please.

Rain, Rain, Go Aw-no STAY!!!

2010-09-08T09:12:00.000+09:00

I woke up a little early this morning, looked out the window and noticed it wasn't quite as bright as usual. In fact it was rather cloudy and dreary, almost... like rain clouds...

>.>

It's raining!! Huzzah!! Finally a day where it won't be breaking 90 degrees out!!

Plus as an added benefit, all the stuff that's been caked on the sidewalks and train platforms is finally getting washed away. Hooray for clean streets. Of course its probably going to go right back to the oven tomorrow, and I hear that's supposed to last another two weeks too. Sigh... But then again, I've learned to never trust a weatherman anyways.

Labo(u?)r Day

2010-09-07T08:07:00.000+09:00

I guess it really is Labor Day in the US. Usually I get a dozen or two emails over night since US business hours are while I'm sleeping. But today - zippo. Hope you all had a good labor day. Oh and don't worry, we'll be making up for it by having two holidays later this month.

Sep 20th - Respect for the Aged
Sep 23rd - Autumnal Equinox

:D

Video Tour

2010-09-05T22:13:00.000+09:00

I've been having this epic and ongoing battle with my landlord about the water pressure in my apartment. I've been complaining for 2 months about it being week, and they've sent 4 people already to come take a look. As a result I have a new water heater and a new shower hose and shower head, but its still pretty weak. Lately the water has been cutting off completely from time to time too, yikes. Today 2 more people came to look (how many people does it take to fix my water pressure????), and it looks like they're finally gonna do something.

Anyways, that's a whole nother story, but since some people came to visit I cleaned up my apartment. And I figured I might as well take the chance while its clean to make a quick video tour. So for those interested -

PS: Erik - I'm looking for that sushi commercial, but can't seem to find it yet. Hopefully this gem of a commercial I saw on TV will hold you over.

Kue! (Eat!) Choco-ball!

One Year Already?

2010-09-01T01:13:00.000+09:00

So today, August 31st, marks exactly 1 year since I've started working at Proto Labs... wow.

Well that went by fast. It feels like just the other day I was back in Minneapolis finishing up college looking for a job. I tried exploring a few different routes to get to Japan, including JET and AEON (English teaching jobs), but nothing quite seemed to turn out. Friends of mine in those institutions told me I would be a sure in, but it just didn't work out. I did plenty of prep specifically for each interview too (including reading plenty of forums from past interviewees), but no go. I remember having this weird feeling in the back of my head that something was preventing me from getting back to Japan.

Well obviously whatever that was, it was making me wait for this job. I had actually done some teaching part time jobs in college including TA work for an English as a Second Language class, as well as English and Japanese conversation groups I lead. So it seemed like I was moving toward the direction of teaching English in Japan. But instead I had to go find a job in the field of my major. The nerve, I know. What was I thinking?

I was thinking it would be awesome to work an IT job in Japan, that's what. And it pretty much is. Well, here's to another year.

...by the way, the fall line of beers are coming out now (even though its still 90 degrees out). The cans are auburn, so I was kind of imagining a red beer (which is my favorite) but... apparently not. I think they were going for a more 'roasted' flavor since the flavor is a bit stronger. Still, I'd really love to see an amber lager on the shelves. I haven't even found one on the expensive international shelves yet. Definitely having a Killian's as soon as I get back to the US over Christmas. The cans look cool though -

We are SMAP!

2010-08-27T00:50:00.002+09:00


We are SMAP! Every Day Love Tomorrow.

Found this gem at a convenience store awhile back. Couldn't resist.

It's actually a promotion/sports drink for a new album from the group SMAP, aptly named, We are SMAP! The reason they're advertising it on a sports drink like this is probably because they've done alot of commercials and other promotions for Pocari Sweat in the past. Like this:

Pocari Sweat is basically... clear/white Gatorade without any fruity flavoring. I think it might be an acquired taste if you're not from Japan, but maybe thats just because its different from anything we have in the US. Meh, I enjoy it. Not sure who's idea it was to put 'sweat' in a product name, but at least it doesn't sound so bad in Japanese - pocari suetto (poh-kah-ree soo-eh-tto).

SMAP by the way, is a group of 5 guys that started back in the 90's. They're all in their 30s now if I'm not mistaken. Sounds kinda like a boy band doesn't it? Cause that's basically what they are, but... they're still cool. All 5 of them are basically super veterans in the celebrity scene over here now. They've all got acting careers that have, I'm assuming, sprung off of their popularity with SMAP.

They also have a show that's been running for almost 15 years now called SMAPxSMAP. The first portion of that show, Bistro Smap, is where they have a guest celebrity who chooses a favorite dish, and 4 of the 5 members of SMAP split into 2 teams of 2 and cook their own version of that dish. While they're cooking, the remaining member interviews the guest. Then the guest tries both meals from the 2 teams, decides a winner, and gives them a present. If the celebrity happens to be a girl, they get a kiss on the cheek (a counter of how many kisses they have is on their chef hats). Apparently they weren't necessarily cooks or anything when they started, but now they're practically master chefs. Then the second half of the show is variety, where they can do anything from SNL-type sketches to musical performances and other games. Yes I record it every Monday night on Fuji TV. ^^

Anyways, this particular We are SMAP! drink of course tasted exactly like I expected it to. So... 10/10 for tasting like I thought it would? I'll buy a sports drink like this every once in awhile when I don't want super sweet cafe au le or bitter tea. Also random side note - supposedly SMAP is an acronym for Sports Music Assemble People... so I'm guessing they were going for a group of athletic singers? I suppose that explains why they've done so many promotions with Pocari Sweat, but they've individually and as a group done plenty for lots of other brands including Panasonic, Softbank (cell phone), Dole, Nikon, Gatsby (hair products), etc. Here's a good collection of my favorite with KimuTaku (Kimura Takuya), the hands down coolest Japanese guy out there. The song in these commercials is super catchy for some reason (good job Gatsby marketing).

Any finally I have to show my favorite that's airing on TV right now (hope you don't mind all these youtube videos):

For the facial wash one, the first guy is just some other celebrity (not a member of SMAP), and then he turns into KimuTaku after washing his face. At the end you see him and the director talking,
"So this is what it will look like."
"That's so cool..."

Get's me every time.

Foreigner = Awesome

2010-08-24T01:20:00.000+09:00

You know whats awesome about being a foreigner in Japan?

I can say a word like "bird" with a bunch of Japanese friends, and everyone goes "wooaaahhh, baaado, baarrd, buuurd" trying to repeat my pronunciation.

You know what else is awesome? These:

:D

2010-08-22T21:36:00.000+09:00

Went to the dentist the other day... and NO CAVITIES!!! Turns out my the gum above one of my teeth is a bit loose, so when hot/cold water or air gets up there it stings my nerve. The 'line' I felt on the inside of my tooth ended up being a bit of an uneven meeting of my original tooth and a previous filling. So it was actually just freak coincidence that the tooth with that 'line' was right next to the tooth with a weak gum. Anyways, woo hoo!!!! All I have to do is snack less and take a bit more time when brushing my teeth. No fillings!

That aside, the Japanese dentist didn't let me down. When I sat in the dentist's chair, they set down a paper cup next to me under a little water faucet which filled up the cup. Then they let the chair down, checked my teeth, and put the chair back up so I could rinse. I took a few sips, rinsed my mouth out, and put the cup back down where I got it. Then without anyone pressing anything, it filled the cup back up. I say, "wait a minute... noooooo," pick up the cup again, took a small drink, and set it back down again. Oh yes. It filled it back to the same level again. Seriously Japan? Automatic water dispenser at the dentist? I love this country.

By the way I had them clean my top teeth, and smooth down that 'line' on my tooth. Here I was expecting a 'first visit' fee, a cleaning fee, and maybe something for smoothing down my tooth, but no. $15. Thats all it cost me. So at the end of the day, I found out that I didn't have any cavities, they complimented me on the fact that my teeth were strong, I only need to change a few of my eating habits to heal my gum, and it only cost me $15!

Oh and I couldn't find (nor did I take) pictures of the dentist or that automatic water dispenser, but I'm going back in a couple weeks for a re-check. I'll see if I can't bring my camera with then and take a video of that thing :D

Hot! Too... Hot!

2010-08-19T23:52:00.001+09:00

Is it hot there? Cause its been CRAZY hot here, yeesh. Fortunately I haven't been paying attention to the Fahrenheit temperatures but Celsius, so 34C doesn't... sound as hot as 94F... but now that I've looked it up I'm doomed aren't I? Crap. Regardless, I. cannot. wait. for. winter. It's been 30-36C for the last, as long as I can remember, and I've not seen any hint of it cooling on any weather report either :(

Maybe I have thick Minnesota deep freeze winter blood or something, cause after a 10 min walk from the station to home/work I'm in a full body sweat. Recently I've even been power drying myself down with one of our air hoses (good idea Khing!). I think my electric bill is 3x higher than it usually is too. At least my apartment is smaller so it doesn't take much to cool down.

Anyways, my daily battle with heat exhaustion aside, I think the 3 days off last week finally gave me a bit of time to sit back and fully let the idea that I'm permanently living in Japan sink in. I had been exploring multiple ways to come back to Japan, each met with failure or delay, so when things finally came together it kind of felt too good to be true. Even after I got here I've been keeping too busy with work for it to sink in, so the experience has been different from when I studied abroad.

But here I am, living in my own apartment in Atsugi, Kanagawa. I frequent the ItoyoKado supermarket nearby, but I really like to go to the super cheap Gyomu Supermarket too. I've also found that Japanese clothes fit me better since they're cut slimmer, but unfortunately my feet are 3 cm larger than the biggest standard sizes they sell. I LOVE Japanese TV, and thanks to Torne with my ps3 I can record most of them too (also hooray for my $50 500GB upgrade!). It takes me 30 min to get to work and an hour to get to Tokyo (curse you Sagami line and your once every 15 min trains!!). And if I do go to Tokyo there's pretty much anything and everything I would want to do there. Its been over 4 months since I've moved here now. I've done enough things in enough local places that I'm no longer a visitor but a resident.

Wow, I'm really living in Japan. Very cool.

::EDIT::
Apparently I need to complain about the weather more often. It's 26C (78F) out this morning. This is the first time in months I've not had to jet dry w/the air compressor or deep freeze in the server room after getting to work!

Dentist Get!

2010-08-17T20:47:00.004+09:00

Hooray! Found a dentist!

Kana's mom's friend lives in or knows someone that lives in the Ebina area... or something. Basically I have some legitimate connection to a dentist in Ebina, which is 100 times more valuable (and reassuring) than trying to find one at random on the internet. Actually from what I'm told this guy is supposedly really good, and doesn't do any extra unnecessary and expensive treatments and such. I'm just thanking my stars I found someone! The place is called 国分歯科クリニック (Kokubun Dentistry Clinic).

Anyways, just called and made an appointment for Saturday afternoon. Nervous!!

7up Clear Dry

2010-08-16T22:36:00.003+09:00

I found the 12oz can version of this in a vending machine a few weeks ago, and recently found it at the supermarket. It's pretty good (which is why I bought it twice I guess). It actually kinda tastes like a mix of ginger ale and 7up. It's got the lemon/lime 7up flavor with a bit of ginger ale dry to it. Also its... clear? So there you have it, 7up Clear Dry. If I had a choice between 7up and 7up Clear Dry I'd probably take the latter.

Let's go with an 8/10.

A Nice Break

2010-08-16T01:09:00.001+09:00

**By the way, this is my 101st post! Wow!**

It's Obon season in Japan right now, which is basically a holiday to honor your ancestors who have passed away. Many people go to their home towns to spend time with family, but... well I don't really have a 'back home' in Japan, so I thoroughly enjoyed my 'summer vacation' by spending a bunch of time in Tokyo. Which by the way, Tokyo was unusually quiet probably because most people were away in their home towns. And by 'quiet' I mean Tokyo was busy, and not a mass of people insanity like it usually is.

On Wednesday I went to see Kana off as she went back to her home town in Kyushuu (the southern most island of Japan, same island Nagasaki is on). So since I came into Tokyo (specifically Hamamatsucho) I decided to do some sightseeing as I've been slacking a bit these past few months.

Not too far to Hamamatsucho is Zojoji temple, from which there's a very nice view of Tokyo Tower right behind it (as if you couldn't see Tokyo Tower from anywhere else though. Its kinda big. Can't miss it.) The temple itself was one of the larger ones I've seen in the Tokyo area, so it was rather impressive. There was also a tree planted by President Grant back in 1879, which was kind of interesting to see some 'American' history in a heavy Japanese cultured place. One thing I really fond interesting about this temple was the contrast between the old cultural temple and the new modern Tokyo Tower just behind it. Both are very Japan in their own respects, just from different time periods. More pictures here.

While on the temple grounds I heard some chanting coming from inside the temple itself. I went to take a look, and sure enough some monks were doing a ceremony of some kind, and there were seats set up to watch/listen. There were a number of people there, foreigners and Japanese. Specifically I noticed one group of 4 foreigners sitting not too far from where I was standing. As I got a bit closer I seemed to recognize one of them. To my utter disbelief and amazement, turns out it was Bill (my boss) with his family that had come to visit. Of all places in the massive megalopolis that is Tokyo, what were the chances that I would run into them inside Zozoji temple in Hamamatsucho. I had just run into a friend of mine in Tokyo station from when I studied abroad 3 years ago too. Crazy.

After that I decided to hike over to Odaiba, the artificial island in Tokyo Bay, where Fuji TV is running a theme park in June and July. And as this is a Fuji TV event, of course all the exhibits and games and everything were themed around the different shows that they have, and quite frankly I think Fuji TV has the best shows on TV over here, so I quite enjoyed myself. The interesting thing about it though, was because this is a limited time event, and as its related to Japanese TV, there was no English at all, anywhere. Even if they made English pamphlets and signs, everything is related to a TV show somehow or another, and they don't exactly have running subtitles for them. Which means, no English, no foreigners (except for me). Meh, I'm used to it I guess. It's so weird to catch a look in a mirror cause my gut reaction is 'WOAH! Who is that forei-oh... right... me."

On Thursday I spent some time in walking around Roppongi Hills, which is a large high-class mall not too far from Tokyo Tower. Basically I found chopsticks that were selling for $80 a pair in this place. Good ol' Roppongi Hills (of course I didn't buy them though!). Here's a few pictures I snapped there.

Finally I spent Saturday and Sunday in Harajuku, Hamamatsucho, and Shinjuku. I met Bill and his family for dinner in Harajuku, at an Izakaya called Samukawa, where we'd gone to before when someone from the US came to visit. This place has a little wall in front of its very subtle front door, and inside it has half Japanese decor, but also these large wooden beams on the other half which felt "American" for some reason. They were playing Star Wars on a big projector screen the first time we went, and this time Kiki's Delivery Service (a famous anime by Hayao Miyazaki). And to top it off they had 40's jazz music playing in the background. What a place.

After dinner I met my friend at "one of his many homes" out in Hamamatsucho where he and some friends were hanging out after fireworks they went to earlier. I had a lot of fun as usual blowing the other Japanese friends there away with my Japanese. That never gets old. It works really well too when you introduce yourself in English or in Japanese with terrible pronunciation, and then start talking normally. Man that never gets old.

Anyways, it turned out to be a rather busy but very fun vacation. Spending time in Tokyo made me miss the place though. I really enjoy where I'm living now (especially the price out here), but there's definitely something special about the atmosphere in the city. The skyscrapers encompass you completely, folding you into the city where you can't really see the horizon. The trains and subway are so convenient, you can hop back and forth anywhere across the city itself in 30 min to an hour as well. Just being there, being a part of the city is something special. Hopefully sometime in the future I'll have the chance to live in Tokyo again. That or I'll also have to make many friends in Tokyo so I can have "many homes" of my own. :)

The 64th Annual Atsugi Ayu Matsuri

2010-08-13T17:02:00.004+09:00

I've been in Japan for 4 months now, and I still haven't gone to a festival or fireworks yet! For the past few weekends I've gone out and have heard/seen fireworks off in the distance, even from the train, but I haven't had the chance to actually go to one. Last week there was even a festival just across the river in Ebina, but it didn't quite work out for me to go. But no longer! This past weekend there was finally a festival in my town, so how could I not go?

The 64th Annual Atsugi Ayu Matsuri

Atsugi is the name of my city, Ayu is a fish... apparently called sweetfish in English, and Matsuri means festival. So the 64th annual Atsugi Sweetfish Festival, yea. Pictures here.

Anyways, the atmosphere in the city was definitely different from usual. Aside from 10x as many people than usual, there were people setting up concession stands like... inside the station. Most of the restaurants had little stands setup just outside selling food and drinks. Plus half of the people were wearing Kimono. So to fit better into the atmosphere, I decided this was a good chance to wear my Jinbei.

Quick lesson on Kimono. The word Kimono (着物) literally means something you wear, and (by my understanding) it kind of refers to Japanese clothing in general. So there are many varieties of Kimono for men and especially women, probably of which the most 'internationally' popular is the Furisode (振袖), which is a woman's formal kimono with long sleeves. I hear they can cost as much as a car, yikes. But we can't be wearing something restricting and heavy like that in the hot summer, so there's a much lighter variety called a Yukata. This is generally the festive attire of choice for matsuri, so there were a LOT of people in Yukata. Another, simpler substitute is the Jinbei which, well simply explained is kind of like the tops and bottoms to pajamas. I actually have both a yukata and a jinbei, but went for the jinbei since it is REALLY HOT OUT lately.


Furisode	Yukata	Jinbei

Yea... that about sums that up. As you can imagine I got plenty of stares from practically, well, EVERYONE. As uncommon as it is to have foreigners out in these parts, its even more rare to see one wearing a Jinbei. I completed the look in style with some sunglasses too, haha.

Bacon.

Anyways, included in the festivities were a variety of events, lots of which took place in the various parks scattered throughout the city. In fact, one of the parks not too far from my apartment had some hip hop dancing, which was really interesting because the dancers were wearing Japanese styled hip hop attire. Too bad I didn't take any pictures, oh well.

So first we stopped by Atsugi central park since thats where a lot of the main events were. The place was (of course) packed, lined with booths selling food and drinks, and there was also a stage with some live performances. I took a picture of the stage, and then some random dude ran up to me, said "no pictures please," and ran away... so I took one more picture, and then we got some food. We tried a number of different things including some yakisoba, hot dog, friend chicken, beer, and also bacon. Mmm bacon. On a stick.

Then we made our way to the river side to watch the fireworks. Boy were the streets packed. Pretty much every shop on every street had some sort of stand set up selling food and drinks. When we finally got to the river though, then it REALLLY got back. A few years ago I had gone to the fireworks festival in Sumidagawa in Tokyo, which was basically a massive gathering of the most ridiculous amount of people you could ever imagine all in one area, and afterwords everyone headed toward the same direction jamming the streets. Now take what you're thinking of and multiply that number of people by 10, and thats what Sumidagawa was like. Ayu Matsuri on the other hand out here in Atsugi has lots of people, but when I was told it gets packed, in my mind I'm thinking the insanity that is Sumidagawa, but it was of course nothing like that. So even though it was SUPER packed, it felt pretty spacious considering what I had to compare it with.

Anyways, we found a spot to sit and watch the fireworks, and they sure didn't let us down. I'm told they launched 10,000 fireworks off this year. Wow. Each 'set' of fireworks was sponsored by different companies including Sony, Nissan, Odakyu (train), and NTT East Japan (Internet). My favorite was Sony where they literally launched a couple series of 4 fireworks that spelled out S-O-N-Y one after another. Other pretty cool ones included smilie faces, hearts, saturn, and butterflies. I was able to snap some cool shots of some fireworks too.

So there you have it. Finally got to a Matsuri and saw some fireworks. I'll have to see if I can't make it to a couple more before summer's up. I'm already planning on going to the Matsuri out in Oyama (where Kana lives) at the end of the month where they're supposedly firing off 20,000 fireworks. Next time I think I might go for the Yukata too. Should be fun.

Been busy

2010-08-10T00:37:00.000+09:00

The last couple weeks have been rather busy since we had a couple visitors from the US at work. On the bright side, I drove some more and got to go out for lunch and dinner alot, which was a lot of fun. Thank you Larry!! You're a good cook!! :D

I had my faith renewed in Dell this past week as well. A laptop from the US died Tuesday morning, so I looked up Dell support online to see what I could do. After lots of testing, we determined the motherboard was dead, so I filed a support case to have someone come and fix it. I figured, maybe we'd have to ship the laptop to the US, or if we're lucky we could have someone here fix it in a few days or something... nope. Dell called that afternoon, and an engineer called that evening to setup an appointment for the next day. Sure enough, the following morning a package arrived with the new motherboard, and someone stopped by to fix it that afternoon. He literally took the laptop apart to PIECES; it was pretty amazing. And then when he was all done, he took the time to neatly and preciously clean the thing too, as only Japanese service could do. Well met Dell, well met. ::golf clap::

Actually on that note, the visitor we had last week told me that the maid at her hotel neatly folded all her clothes that she had laid out to keep from getting wrinkled. Man, next time I go to a hotel I'll have to bring a bag of clean laundry and dump it on the bed or something, haha.

Anyways, this past weekend was Ayu Matsuri here in my city, Atsugi. It was pretty awesome　to have a festival in your own town, mostly for the fact that you can just, you know, walk home. I didn't have to battle the crowds like when I went to Sumidagawa in Tokyo 3 years ago. Plus I didn't run into old dude who kept going on and on about how he hates the atom bomb... (by the way today is the 45th anniversary of Hiroshima) although I did run into some... South American guy who purposely bumped into my back, asked if I was American (he was drunk), and then started cursing at me in Japanese when I said no and tried to get away from him. Hmm.

Well I took plenty of pictures of the festival that I'll post later (its Obon season in Japan, so we've got 3 days off coming up this week, yay!). I also finally got some pictures off Kana's camera from Odawara too, so I'll be putting those up as well. Until then!

P.S. I need to find a dentist, I've got a super sensitive tooth. So I'm sure I'll have plenty of adventure to write about finding and going to a dentist in Japan. T_T

More Future Parking

2010-07-29T08:01:00.003+09:00

3 posts, 3 days! The world is ending!!

Last night I mentioned the sweet parking we have out here, and when I woke up this morning, checked digg, I ran across this video...

Source.

Very cool stuff. But at the same time I have to go ::yawn:: since apparently we've been living in the future over here in Japan for awhile, haha. No but really cool stuff. My favorite part - check out that video at 1 minute in. Then check out my old robotics project:

Its that good ol SICK laser rangefinder! I hear they cost thousands of dollars, but are SUPER accurate. For the maze solving robot project a little later in the class we actually had to rely on the accuracy of the laser rangefinder, because the tachometer and odometer readings the robot made for itself were not accurate enough. But thats usually how it goes - utilize the most expensive portion the most, heh.

Hmm... programming robots like that was fun. Gotta build a GUNDAM next!

The Wonders of Driving

2010-07-28T23:21:00.004+09:00

What?! Two posts in two days?! Who's hijacked my blog???

Tonight we went out for Yakiniku (Korean Barbecue) and MAAAAAN it was de-LISCH as usual. But rather than that, I decided 'hey, how bout I be designated driver tonight?' I have my international license, I'd driven a couple times when I was in Niigata before. So, I did.

Hoooooly cow! It felt so good to drive again! Oh the freedom a car gives you. I gotta be careful not to get too used to it though, cause if I look at the price tag that would come along with a car in Japan, it probably wouldn't take me very long to consider other options of travel. But maaaaan was it nice to drive.

The whole wron-err, left side of the road thing is still very awkward, but I've been riding as a passenger a few dozen times already, so I'm somewhat getting used to it. Backing up onto a street is rather difficult though. Its one thing to just concentrate on everything being opposite when driving, but its another to think opposite and backwards at the same time while backing up. However I won't have to worry about seeing behind me thanks to the camera in back which displays on the GPS in front.

I love Japan.

More than the wro-left side of the road thing though, it was the narrower streets that make me a bit nervous still. That said, the cars are smaller too, so that helps (except the company car seems larger than others I've seen for some reason). Anyways, now I can finally run some errands during lunch if I ever need to, or drive home/come back after the trains for server maintenance, or whatever. Still, I really need to get onto getting my motorcycle license and a motorcycle. Cheaper gas, cheaper insurance, and no need to rent a parking spot. Sounds good to me.

While on the cars subject, there's a parking garage that's gotta be 10 stories tall near my house, and its not the 10 story tall parking garage you're thinking of. Here's a hint - its only 1 car length long, and this is how it works.

Oh and one last Twins thing that I gotta mention - Danny Valencia!! Whats goin on man!?!?? Goes 4 for 5 today, putting him at 14 hits in 4 days?!!? How does that happen!?... I LIKE IT!

GO TWINS!!

Finally, A Few Updates

2010-07-27T23:11:00.008+09:00

Blog? Oh, Blog! Right, I have a blog. Video gaaaaaames ::shakes fist:: this time, you've bested my blogging time, for the last time... in a long time... so well!! (Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles? :D ). Ok, time for a post. Its been a few weeks since the last, and I've ran across a bunch of cool/funny stuff I've been wanting to post about, but for now I'll just give a few updates.

In case you've been wondering whats been doing such a good job at pulling me away from my blog, this:

Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record UC 0081. Its only been released in Japan so far, so how convenient for me. :) That said, all the menus are in English for some reason... so also convenient. Yay. The game itself is almost like you playing through the story in an actual Gundam anime, so it thoroughly rocks my socks off. I picked this up used for approx $12 too, what a steal!

In other news, I have a clothes dresser! There was much rejoicing! ::yaay:: I no longer have (clean) clothes strewn across the floor anymore! Everything's tucked away nice and tidy. The dresser is 7 drawers high, and the scary part - I filled it up. Yeesh. Every time I've moved/gone abroad I shed a little bit of dead-weight in stuff/clothes I don't really use, but even after the 8 times I've moved in college (including studying abroad) I still wind up bringing stuff that I later find out I didn't need. To be fair, this time I don't really have a time limit here, so it was more of a permanent move. But at the same time, its amazing how *not* the end of the world it was to live off of several shirts and a few pairs of jeans. What am I doing with all this other stuff? Haha.

Anyways, today we had a visitor from the US, who was ever so gracious enough to piggy back some precious, precious GOLD that I can't find here. Man I <3 Airborne. I've read mixed reviews about the stuff online, but whether there's more ~~placenta~~ placebo (oops) affect or whatever going on or not, I don't really care, cause it works awesome for me. Whenever I feel a cold coming on, I take one of those babies dissolved in water and thats the end of that. :D

Thank you Kim!!!

Phinally, a phunny story. On my way home today I stopped at the department store/supermarket/everything store, Itoyokado, to get a 2L pitcher so I can start making my own tea. I figure rather than buying 2 liters of tea for $1.50, I'll make my own from tea packs which comes to approx 80 cents for 13 liters. Hmm, 6 cents a liter vs 75 cents a liter... tough choice there.

Anyways, there was no one manning the register when I was ready to check out so I caught someones attention (in Japanese) to check out. He rang me up, asked me if I had my point card (in Japanese) and I said I said I did, handing it to him (in Japanese). I wondered how many points I had built up by now, so I asked him if/how I could find that out (in Japanese). He then points out that on the bottom of my receipt it tells me... but as he's doing this he first asks if I can understand Japanese. I politely say that I can, and he finishes explaining the system to me. But in the back of my head I'm thinking... "DUDE! I've been talking to you in Japanese this whole time! I even asked you a rather complicated question, 'How do I find out how many points I've saved up?' in Japanese!! Seriously man? Why would I be asking if I couldn't understand!?"

lol.

This is definitely one of those things we studied about before in my Japanese class. I specifically remember one article we read about "Stop treating me like an animal!", where a foreigner was complaining about how he was treated where people took his picture w/out asking, didn't think he could understand Japanese, etc. Perhaps I'm just optimistic, but I kind of welcome the... different treatment I would get here, since my existence alone over here is special. I'm just your average 6'3" white dude with German ancestry in the US, but over here I'm a GIANT (seriously ran across a lady today that barely cleared my stomach) with interesting blonde/brown hair, and mysteriously blue eyes. Plus my Japanese is often followed by double takes, man that never gets old.

Anyways, with my little incident here I can imagine how foreigners would be annoyed, but I couldn't help but just laugh about it. I talked to that dude in Japanese the whole time and he still wasn't sure if I could speak it or not, hah!

Lastly, GO TWINS!! Man they DESTROYED the Royals today, 19-1. Mauer goes 5 for 5 with 7 RBIs??? BEAST! And whats up with these Grand Slams? Two games in a row?? Plus in true Twins fashion some guys from the farm are comin up and show stopping. Valencia, Repko, Butera? Keep it up! Plus Delmon Young is at like, .330!!?!? (about time!) I smell a nice streak coming up (nope, not jinxing), even though its started with the Orioles and the Royals, but you need to whoop up on some bottom feeders to get some momentum some times (sorry for any Orioles or Royals fans out there). The one thing I do find funny/scary... we streaked at the end of last year after Morneau went down too... hmm... I'm sticking with the 'gotta step up our game since we lost our trump card' reason.

GO TWINS!!!

TV, Random, and Green Coke

2010-07-07T22:07:00.003+09:00

Right now I'm watching Predator... on TV Tokyo... in Japan. It's Wednesday Theater at 9, and I'm lucky enough to catch this masterpiece with good ol Schwarzenegger himself.

(/sarcasm)

Actually the occasional movie they show on TV here is always interesting. Never thought I'd be watching Predator or Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc in Japan, on TV for that matter. I can switch the soundtrack to English too, which helps, but the Japanese dub is always worth a good laugh. I guess theres a new Predator remake or somethin comin out? So that must be why this is on right now.

Alright, on to a couple random things I've run across lately...

One Hour From USA!

...your guess is as good as mine. I *think* this place is a dry cleaner, or some kind of cleaner since theres a sign on the building that says "Cleaning". But where does "One Hour From USA" come into the picture? One hour cleaning sure but... USA? Is America well known for high quality dry cleaning or something...?

Recommend!!

Found this guy at a shoe store. I'm not sure what it was about this, but this sign that says "Recommend!!" cracks me up for some reason. I guess it kind of sounds like they're saying "Recommend these shoes to others!!" as in the command form of the verb. But if I were asked what would be better they could put "Recommendation!" or "We Recommend!" but... that still seems odd to me... Whatever, I love it. Keep up the good work guys.

And finally, next in my interesting series of drinks from Japan, Green Cola!

When I bought this I was expecting some form of Green Tea flavor Coke. But when I took a sip, it tasted somewhat peculiarly similar to Coke... Actually the Green doesn't stand for 'green tea' but for the 'eco' kind of green. Apparently I'm going to save the environment by drinking environment friendly coca-cola. Well, whatever floats your boat.

But the part I was disappointed about the most - it wasn't even green :(

Physical Exam, in Japan!

2010-07-01T22:53:00.002+09:00

Today I went and got my yearly physical, something I have to do for my health insurance... or somethin. Basically, I got to experience a physical exam for the first time in Japan, and it was an interesting experience, with plenty of 'oh yea, I'm in Japan' moments.

Turns out the clinic my appointment was at is on the way to the station, so that was convenient. When I got to the receptionist, I handed them a couple forms I filled out before hand, my insurance card, and they gave me a number, a folder with all the tests I would have, and also a cup. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the floor below for the exam.

When I got down there I handed them my little folder, and they directed me to the bathroom for the urine sample. Actually while on the subject of bathrooms, there's one thing I've finally realized about Japanese bathrooms. Auto sinks, auto dryers, auto toilets and bidets aside, the toilets themselves (as opposed to urinals) are like, 100% enclosed. Like the walls around the toilet go to the floor, as if the toilet is in its own little room. This difference has come up at lunch a couple times, and naturally to Japanese people they can't quite understand how open the public toilets are in the US. Yet... now that I think about it, urinals at public restrooms in Japan (like at a park) are pretty much completely visible from outside, as in they're not really tucked around a wall or anything. I feel like theres a conflict of privacy going on here...

Anyways, back to my exam, when I got to he main exam waiting room, I noticed everyone else had changed into exam tops and bottoms... Maybe I didn't fit so they didn't offer? When she told me to go down stairs she said I was fine in the clothes I was in so... whatever.

First on the list was my weight and height. And in beautiful Japanese form, the machine for this was completely automatic. I took off my shoes, emptied my pockets and stood on the scale with the height measurement. The lady pressed a button, the machine came down, rested on my head, and printed a piece of paper with my height and weight. Why have I not seen anything like this in the US?! That was WAAAY faster!! In fact now that I think about it... I don't think I've even seen a digital scale for a physical in the US either! Yeesh. Then after that she took my blood pressure (with another automated machine), it printed out the result, she complimented me on my Japanese, and I sat down on a couch in the middle of the room.

Here again was beautiful Japanese efficiency - there were a dozen or so people, all with their own numbers waiting. The entire room was lined up with different 'stations' and we all basically moved from one room to the other depending on which tests we had. Brilliant!

Next up for me was a chest X-ray. After I finished with that, the lady complimented me on my Japanese, and I went to wait for the next station - testing my eyes and hearing. The eye test was looking through a microscope type instrument and reading the direction that the letter "E" was facing. I gotta say it was interesting doing an eye exam in Japanese. I had to think a little bit more than usual. The hearing test was done in a soundproof 1 person booth. She put some headphones on and I pushed a button when I heard any noise. When I was done she complicated me on my Japanese and I went to wait for the next station.

Finally I met an actually doctor and all he did was feel my throat a bit, and listened to my breathing a bit. On my way out I heard them talking about how surprised they were of my Japanese. Yes, every single person I met was surprised at my Japanese, haha. Not that this is a bad thing, who doesn't like compliments? I definitely can see a day where I get tired of it though, haha. I just gotta keep it from getting to my head - I'm definitely lacking in my kanji (chinese characters).

So yea, had my first physical in Japan, it was super automated and incredibly efficient, and every single person complimented me on my Japanese. Also, I didn't have to do any blood work, so no needles! YES!!! Man I was sweatin bullets about that.

Oh also random thing on the way home today. There was this little kid, maybe 8, who fell asleep on the bench. The train came and he still didn't wake up. There's only one train he could ride from the platform he was on, so I went to wake him up. I shook his shoulder and said, "Ooii! Densha kita yo!" which means "Hey! The train is here!" Of course he woke up startled, but he was ten times more startled when he looked at who woke him up. Then he thanked me but kinda mumbled a little bit probably because he was shy/startled/didn't know if I could understand him. Man I can't image how surprised he was to see my SUPER FOREIGNER face staring at him, hahaha.

My Epic Quest, It Is Complete

2010-06-27T21:59:00.003+09:00

Those of you who tuned in some time ago may remember my amazing Hunts Barbecue sauce and (more amazing) Johnsonville Bratwurst find. I actually found those in the lower level of the department store at the station I live at, Hon Atsugi. I forget the name of the store, but it wasn't necessarily some fancy pants expensive place. For some reason this store just has stuff from all over the world in it. Plus the prices weren't exactly that outrageous either. Usually when you think of import stores theres a 2x price hike for shipping or whatever, but I was able to get that barbecue sauce for 500 yen, and the pack of 6 brats for 600 yen (~$1 each). I have no problem at ALL paying that price. In fact, I'm still dumbfounded by the fact that I have Johnsonville brats in my freezer at this very moment. Plus! I can go get more whenever I need some!

Well my quest continued. When I went to Shonan Beach with Ishikawa-san and company a couple weeks ago, another friend and her daughter tagged along. Turns out this person is married to an American who works at the nearby American base. Well as it turns out, they also have a supermarket at this American base. This American base where Americans live. And naturally Americans working at this American base enjoy American food over Japanese food. Yes... oh yes, are you getting my drift?

I wish you could see the tears on my face. Each one is for all the Americans who have lived in Japan and dealt with absence of Barbecue Sauce and Ranch Dressing (and brats! bonus!). Many thanks to Kana for asking that friend who came about whether or not they had ranch dressing at the American base!

So with this I believe I've found the secret to permanently living in Japan! (sorry mom and dad)

My quest for the holy grail (ranch dressing and barbecue sauce), was complete. And there was much rejoicing, yaaay

...I wonder if I can find buffalo sauce somewhere.

Catching Up

2010-06-24T20:50:00.003+09:00

This blog needs some more blog, and less non-blog.

Two weekends ago we went to Shonan Beach down at Chigasaki for a picnic and barbecue. It had been like, almost a month since we'd done a barbeue so we had to do one again. To keep the pace up, we'll be doing another on July 4th (total coincidence). I definitely need to be as AMERICAN as possible for that. Maybe I can find an American flag belt buckle somewhere...

Anyways, Shonan beach was pretty fun. We were worried about the weather as to whether it would rain or not. It seemed like every day we checked during the previous week Saturday and Sunday would swap weather forecasts. The barbecue was planned for Sunday and as Saturday turned out to have gorgeous weather we were worried Sunday would be rainy but some how or another the weather turned out nice and sunny, although a little windy.

The barbecue on the beach was... well pretty much exactly that. We set up shop on the beach, planted a little mini grill, and FEASTED. Once again Ishikawa-san was master chef (and master eater), and it was a lot of fun.

One interesting thing about this place was that the peninsula (man made i think) we were on had this breakwater on the tip, and you can go fishing and such off of it. But the most interesting part is that you can... fish crabs right on the breakwater structure. They're just crawling around (or hiding from us scary people), but if you're quick with a net, free crabs for you! Unfortunately I guess they don't taste good? But oh well, it was fun to catch crabs. What really blew me away was watching some old dude with some simple fishing line pull an octopus out of the water!! Wow.

The only problem with this fun we were having at the beach... all day long... in the hot sun... was that I was a major idiot and didn't put sun screen on... Its been almost two weeks since and I'm a freakin snake man right now. Yeesh.

Ouch.
My skin was like, burning, so I wanted to live inside the fridge or better yet freezer. So I cranked the AC down. The only problem was that my body was getting cold cause the room was cold... but I couldn't really wear a whole lot of clothes because my skin was burning. But since my skin was burning I wanted to keep the room cold... AAAHHHH!!! 悪循環だ！ (vicious circle)

Anyways, this past weekend I visited Kana in Oyama again. No pictures this time around, but we decided to rent a movie. The only problem was we rented probably the worst movie ever created - The Curse of King Tut's Tooooommmmmbbb!!!. Yea umm... unbelievable. Words cannot describe this atrocity. Basically I think this is what happened...

"Hey, archeologists/adventurist are popular right now! Let's make a terrible made for TV movie to jump in on the popularity!"
"That's a great idea! How much money should we invest on this?"
"How about 15 million dollars!"
"But how are we going to convince people 15 million dollars was invested into this?"
"Who knows, how about we make it really long and put some cheap CG in it. That should eat up a lot of dough."
"I love it!"

...ugh. At some point during that movie I switched over from interest in the movie to interest in how BAD that movie was. Wow.

Well Sunday I got a chance to go to St Paul's international again in Iidabashi (Tokyo) where I went to church while I studied abroad. Man I can't tell you how cool it is to see familiar faces. Everyone I know right now I've only known for a few months now (wow, its already been 3 months), so it's nice to be around people with a bit more history. Best of all, dude and his family from Madagascar are still there. wewt.

When I mentioned I'm interested in offering what I can with music (trumpet, choir, etc) they seemed pretty psyched, haha. I guess they enjoyed the Easter 3 years ago where I played trumpet and we threw together a choir (and I directed! hah!). Now I gotta get my trumpet over here (I brought my mouthpiece for now).

Alright, that covers it for now. I promise less non-blog and more blog in the near future.

Quite the Week

2010-06-17T20:33:00.002+09:00

I haven't posted for awhile. Last week was... quite a ride.

Last fall at the beginning of the school year, Mary, a fellow teacher and very close friend of my mom was diagnosed with cancer out of the blue. After a roller coaster over the past several months, she suddenly went to be with the Lord last week. By this point it wasn't exactly a surprise but it still feels rather sudden and shocking. We're of course very sad to part with Mary, but there's also a strange feeling of comfort knowing where she is at this very moment.

Mary, we're glad you're rejoicing in heaven, but we're so sad to see you go. You will be greatly missed!

Johnsonville Heaven

2010-06-06T19:21:00.005+09:00

This.

Also this.

Unbelievable.

Hemp Haircut

2010-06-02T21:57:00.005+09:00

Finally got my hair(s)cut today for the first time since coming back to Japan. It was rather long, so it felt good to shed a couple pounds off my head. I was much overdue.

I went to this place that Ishiakawa-san goes to in Shake (same station as work) called Hemp... and I'm pretty sure its a reference to what you think it is. The sign for this place was this huge graffiti style sign with a Jamaican kind of color scheme. His car (van) was also tricked out with a skirt and flames paint job. The store itself had a whole assortment interesting knick-knacks and stuff as well.

But the guy was... just a normal nice guy. I guess that kind of stuff is just his hobby (in a good way). My haircut actually turned out not to bad either. Much better than the $35 haircut I got in Tokyo 3 years ago where I left it up to the barber and he gave me a... mullet. Yes a mullet. man I'll never forget that.

Anyways thats that. Got my hair cut in Japan and it turned out pretty good. Cool.

Internet Fixed!!!

2010-06-01T20:47:00.002+09:00

YES! Got my internet fixed.

Thank you Brian L for suggesting I drop the MTU down to 1412!! Worked like a charm!!! Seems we had similar problems at Proto Labs Japan when we got the internet there and thats what they did to fix it. Ahhh feels so amazing when it works correctly. Thank you!!!

Now all pages load nice and snappy, AND my ps3 is able to connect to PSN. Awesome.

Dez Intranetz is Fast

2010-05-31T21:39:00.003+09:00

Finally got some internet in my apartment over the weekend. Its well... internet in Japan. I'll let you judge how fast the bandwidth is...

I better go buy a few terabytes to fill up with these speeds, yikes. In comparison the last internet I had was 25 down, and 8 or so up. How bout that.

Well the modem got delivered on Saturday morning, the same time the internet company was supposed to come install it. Only, they never came to install it. Fortunately, this is one of those moments where I'm really glad I majored and work in an IT field. Since no one came to set the thing up, I went ahead and did it myself. Still, I can't believe they didn't even call. Usually when someone comes they call 10 min before they even get there.

Something's kind of weird with the internet yet though. Some pages load fine, others sit there churning and never load. My ps3 can also get online, but it times out when trying to log into Playstation Network. I thought it might be my ISP's DNS, or some other setting where they're blocking certain ports, but when I hooked the PS3 directly to the modem, it worked fine. But I'm not sure how it could be my router since its a pretty nice one (D-Link DIR-655) I got 6 months ago and I've used it with my PS3 ever since I got it. So I opened up all the ports for PSN and that didn't work so I put the PS3 on DMZ, but still no. I also tried disabling the SPI, QoS, and WISH; as well as loosening up the NAT endpoint filtering, and it still didn't work. I set the PS3 DNS to the one from my ISP, but still no. My internet is VDSL and with a PPPoE connection though, so maybe my router doesn't like that? PPPoE's are kinda... yuck. You following all this? Good. Cause I'm open to suggestions :)

##EDIT##
Figured out my internet problems, see next post.
##EDIT##

And now for something completely different. I found this at the supermarket yesterday. Pepsi Baobab.

Apparently this is a cola they created using the Baobab Tree thats native to Africa as a motif. Ok, sure whatever.

It's actually... pretty good. I think I might have another the next time I stop at the supermarket. Except I'm not sure about the whole Baobab tree part, unless its related to giner somehow, cause this is basically Ginger Ale. Still, its really good though. Much better than Chocolate Sparkling.

メリー クリスマロスMerry KrisMarose