Jishin!
(earthquake)
Last Tuesday there was quite the earthquake
here in Japan.
I was having lunch at the officers
club at Yokosuka base when all of a sudden I felt dizzy
and sick to stomach. (The food is not the best, but
not normally all that bad, so I had no idea why I was
suddenly feeling ill, but as soon as I saw the chandeliers
swinging I realized that I was just feeling disoriented
since the building was moving around me.
It was an unusually strong and long
earthquake with a lot of side to side emotion. The strength
of it ebbed and flowed so could never tell when it was
coming to an end.
Earthquakes don't normally bother
me, but this one was a little different. There have
been a lot of quakes recently, but this one was by far
the biggest and longest. Who knows, maybe were building
up to the big one sometime soon. Just have to wait and
see I guess...
The Japanese measure earthquakes on
their own scale, which ends up sounding about one notch
lower than your average Richter ratings. (I wonder what
that is in dog-counting?....)
The Japanese "shindo" scale
for measuring earthquakes is more commonly used in Japan
than the Richter scale. Shindo refers to the apparent
intensity of an earthquake at a given location, in other
words, what people actually feel, while the Richter
scale measures the magnitude of energy an earthquake
releases at the epicenter.
The shindo scale normally ranges from shindo one, a
slight earthquake felt only by people who are not moving,
to shindo seven, a severe earthquake. Shindo two to
four are minor earthquakes that do not cause damage,
while objects start to fall at shindo five, and heavier
damage occurs at shindo six and seven.
Very rarely a "shindo eight" quake is recorded.
Shindo Eight, is an earthquake strong enough to make
a majority of the adult population to shat themselves..(OK,
maybe I made that last one up...but I am sure it could
happen some day...)
Here
is a link to some peoples experiences during the quake.
I have seen rating anywhere from 6.8
to 7.2 being reported for this quake, but I think these
are all Richter ratings. But regardless of how you count
it, this was a petty big one.
Thankfully no people were killed,
and less than 50 were injured. (I've seen British soccer
matches with higher casualty counts)
--
A week ago Tuesday I was in Kamakura
for the annual Lantern Festival.
I attended last year and I remembered
it being extremely crowded, so I was prepared for the
worst (while secretly hoping for the best).
When my train pulled into Kamakura
station my heart sank. The platform was packed cheek
to jowl with yukata wrapped women and men.
As I joined the queue to exit the
station a southbound train originating from Tokyo arrived
and disgorged a few million more people onto the already
crowded platform. I was quickly in the middle of a shuffling,sweating
(thank fully shorter than me) mob, moving at a snails
pace towards the exit.
To make a long story short, it took
a full 15 minutes to get out of the station, a quick
jaunt that normally consumes less than 30 seconds.
After I squeezed through the ticket
gate and finally exited the station I was feeling a
little cranky, (yet at the same time relishing the elbow
room) so I made a bee-line for the closest beer and
yakitori vendor to fill up on a little refreshments.
My appetite sated, and the 500ml Asahi
Super Dry kicking in, my creative juices started to
flow. (I had once again found my "Happy Place)
I made my way toward Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine and
I was pleasantly surprised to see that 80% of the people
leaving the station turned right and headed for the
beach instead of turning left and heading towards the
shrine.
At the time I didn't know why they were doing this,
just reveled in my good fortune and continued on to
the shrine which turned out to be not crowded at all.
To celebrate my good fortune, I bought
another beer.
I wandered down the light lined paths,
taking shots of some of the more interesting lanterns,
eventually working my way around to the pavilion where
some traditional dancing and music was taking place.
Audio
Clip - mp3
I shot some photos up close to the
performance and then worked my way up the stairway to
get a different angle.
Once I got to the top of the stairs
I realized why people were heading for the beach instead
of the shrine. There was a fireworks show going on at
the beach. And I was getting a spectacular view
of it from my vantage point, high atop the staircase
at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine.
The only thing that could have made
it better was if there would have been a little bit
of a breeze. That night was was very calm and very quickly
the smoke from the first few fireworks began to mask
the ones that followed. Pretty soon all you saw was
just a cloud of smoke that would light up, followed
by the customary explosion.
But it was still a magical moment,
well worth putting up with the crowds at the station.
Just another night in this wonderful
place I am fortunate enough to call home....
Comment 22
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