Quakes and dogs

You may or may not have heard, but there was a series of big earthquakes in Niigata prefecture on Saturday, which caused a lot of damage, as well as a handful of deaths. Luckily we didn't really feel anything in Fukui - it was only when I got home and turned on the news that I found out that it had happened. A shinkansen train (bullet train) was derailed at 200kph, but miraculously no one was hurt. The train tracks have seismographs at 20 km intervals which detect if there is an earthquake and automatically shut off the electricity, but the train was travelling over the epicentre of the quake at the time, so the power couldn't be shut off quickly enough. What most interested me though was the fact that this is the first time a shinkansen train has been derailed. Ever. And the trains have been running since 1964. What the hell would Japanese people think of British trains, or "cages of death" as they're otherwise known?

Anyway, apart from the earthquake drama, it's been a pretty funky weekend. I did karaoke on Friday, and treated my fellow JETs to a rendition of "That's what I go to school for" by Busted, complete with well-timed leaps in the "rocking out" style. I never realised quite how filthy the lyrics to that song are. And strangely appropriate considering the levels of behind doors shagging done by the JET community and Japanese teachers. I also played on probably my favourite Japanese arcade game so far - I've attached a picture below. Yes, that's right, you have to walk a dog. Genius.

The idea is that you have to keep your dog happy by walking as fast as you can on a conveyer belt - the faster you walk, the happier the dog is. As you're strolling down the street with your virtual dog you have to use the lead to steer him/her towards potential points of interest, such as bits of food or flowers.

Unfortunately, it didn't simulate your dog trying to shag the legs of passers-by, or shit in the middle of the high street, but I'm sure that's something they'll keep in mind for the sequel. Unfortunately my dog was a little unhappy with me - although I let him chase after a cat, I got him run over three times. Anyway who says I deliberately tried to steer him under that truck is lying.

Anyway, I have to go and teach some English grammar, sayonara! 

Me, walking the virtual dog.

Earthquakes and drama

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I had my first experience of an earthquake last night! It was really confusing at first - my windows started rattling and I couldn't work out why because it wasn't windy. Then I noticed that my TV was swaying and I finally twigged as to what was going on. But before I stopped wondering if I should dive underneath a desk or start preparing an emergency packed lunch it had stopped.

The quake hit at about 7pm here and was located about 70km off the southern coast of Japan and even caused a small tsunami of about 50cm. It was quite big, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, but didn't cause much damage because it was so far out to sea, and in Fukui we barely felt it. There was also a second earthquake which happened at midnight - it's bad enough being woken up in the middle of the night, but especially confusing when you can't work out why the room's spinning though you haven't had anything to drink. This one was bigger than the first, at 7.4, but it felt about the same.

All very exciting, I can assure you! I also got hit by my first typhoon last week. It's typhoon season here so there's been about one a week hitting the far southern coast of Japan, but No 16 was the first to actually come across the mainland and hit Fukui since I've been here. Luckily because Fukui is surrounded by mountains they dissipated much of the storm's force, but I was still kept awake all night by wind and rain. I also got to experience the phenomenon of tiny red vans whizzing about the streets with sirens on, warning people that a typhoon is coming. Now I just need to see a volcano and a tsunami and I've got the natural disaster set! Actually, there was a small eruption in a prefecture to the west of here last week, but it didn't require any evacuations - just dumped a whole load of volcanic ash all over the local crops, much to the annoyance of the farmers.

In other Lewis related Japan news I appeared in the teacher's play this morning as part of the school festival - a highly embarrassing experience. I've been practicing every night after school this week, but in the end the teachers I was acting with just ad libbed their parts, which left me a little confused, seeing as I had no idea what they were saying. This led to me coming in at the wrong part with all my lines, much to the amusement of the audience! So, a shambles, but a good laugh all the same. The play is a farce set in the eighteenth century, so they decided I should play a European merchant. So I explained that in the eighteenth century English people wore collars called ruffs made out of lace. Unfortunately I think the costume department got the wrong end of the stick and I ended up wearing a giant cardboard collar painted with bright pink and yellow stripes. Still, it looked great...