Japan - Day 72

Two and a half months into my stay in Japan and I've finally experienced my first earthquake!!! It wasn't that big - about a 5.1 on the Richter Scale. "Moderate" might be a better description.

(Note: According to Wikipedia an earthquake of this magnitude "can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well-designed buildings." Gotta love Wikipedia, it knows all LOL).

While this may be so, it wasn't exactly earth-shattering (no pun intended) by the time its effects reached the 215 or so kilometers to Oita. The only indicators of the quake here were that I was woken up to a vibrating bed and the light swaying above my head. To my disappointment, my students said that people outside probably didn't even feel anything. As bad as it sounds, I was secretly hoping for something a little more destructive - I'm not talking total annihilation or anything, but maybe a few rattling plates in the cupboard or something... Nonetheless it was a rather novel experience for me.

We got a new teacher this week who is, unfortunately, the walking stereotype of the "Arrogant American." (No offense to my American readers, you know I love all of you). But, not only is he rude but a racist as well... Always a fun guy to have around! Oh yeah, I suppose I should mention that he's also a bit of a stalker... He's invited himself over for dinner, and tonight he was practically waiting at our doorstep when Amy got home. (Who knows how long he'd been waiting there!) Kinda freaky. Not really in a "scary" sorta way, but more in an irritating, "what the hell are you doing here you annoying ass" sorta way. Truth be told I've been trying to be tolerant of him, and I realize that it's hard when you're in a new place to meet new people, but really, if you're trying to make new friends you probably shouldn't walk around uttering racial slurs. Just my humble opinion...

So next week is Golden Week here in Japan. Golden Week is a period which encompasses about 4 different days of public holidays and the cost to travel skyrockets about 400% (You think I'm joking...?) Most people still get time off of work or school, but not us here at Nova. Instead we get to work special holiday hours - which translates into starting work early :( Oh well, I guess the bright side is that we finish early too right...? (I'll just keep telling myself that as I'm dragging myself out of bed 3 hours earlier than usual). You ALL know I don't handle mornings very well... Anyway, moving on... Amy's second day off got switched around next week so now we have two days off at the same time and we've decided to take this opportunity to travel to Hiroshima. We also get to take the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to get there which is kinda exciting. I'm definitely looking forward to the trip as it marks the first time we've left the island of Kyushu since we've arrived in Japan.