Author: Christopher

(IMAGE/REUTERS)

Seems like I’ve been dodging these things in my sleep since I’ve been here. This past weekend we have had both a typhoon and an 6.6-6.8 earthquake in Japan. The earthquake occurred in Kashiwazaki approximately 160 miles northwest of Tokyo. Though I was awakened this morning by my bed moving softly side to side, I didn’t occur to me until Alex and I were at the Panasonic center watching the damage from the Northwest side of Japan that it was actually so large.

Even further, the water level was significantly higher and much more “muddy” in the rivers. Alex and I initially thought that it was due to the typhoon but I have just learned that the earthquake also caused some minor tsunamis warnings that had suspended bullet train service, and temporarily shut down the worlds largest nuclear reactor earlier in the day today.

My experiences with earthquakes so far has been fairly mild. I think its primarily because Tokyo doesn’t get hit directly with so many earthquakes. But I think its interesting that I usually sleep through them or get woken up gently by them. My personal experiences with earthquakes and what I see on the TV is so highly mismatched at this point. Very strange. At any rate, I am ok and there were only a few deaths from this past set of natural occurings.

A special thanks goes out to Matt for sending this my way. Apparently, Finding Japan was put into print for the first time in a recent issue of Newtype magazine, a US-based Japanese Manga and Anime magazine.

Does this mean more trips to Manga-cafe’s and Akiba searching for obscure anime titles for me? Perhaps, perhaps not. I think the current formula for FJ works well. But it is nice to get the notice without even trying. Thanks Newtype and thanks again Matt for noticing and sending it my way.

But without Norm McDonald….

I have no excuse not to post another episode except for the fact that my belly is full and I feel sluggish. I promised my fiancée that I would write more along with the podcasts so I think I will start that now. Sometimes its much easier to write in fact, so I think I will enjoy this little departure for a moment.

I’ve got quite a few good topics coming up. I tried making a cooking-cast again but I didn’t turn on the recorder for the second part. I sat there happily making my dinner talking to myself for a good 20 minutes before realizing it, and by the time I did, dinner was done. At any rate, here is my creation. Its a combination of tempura fried pork (is that weird, I’m not even sure) and some delicious vegetables. To top it all off, the secret sauce, also known as tonkatsu sauce. This stuff is amazing.

This weekend I went to Arakawa park on the edge of the Arakawa river. It was pretty peaceful. Since it was a nice day out, I decided to try to go a bit further than I usually do. About 45 minutes away by bike, it was a perfect outing to break up my studying last Sunday. I also caught some audio of the local baseball team kids’ chants. Pretty interesting to hear the difference between what we used to say and how these kids say whatever it is they are saying. I will try to decode it later but I’m sure some of my Japanese speaking friends will know it right off the bat.

Besides that, things are good. Since there is no homework tonight, I’m going to head off to bed a little early and enjoy the evening just relaxing. New podcast out later this week with some excellent topics: Scary little girls, less sushi-eating in Japan, and a bit of Japanese fashion. Until then…