I'm not dead....
So I gather a few of you have heard about the earthquake that hit about 12 hours ago. Good news is, I was nowhere near it. In fact, I pulled up my handy Japan/US comparison map just to soothe your minds....
The yellow star is Kyoto, and the dangerous-looking circles are where the quake hit. So, quite safe. In fact, you can nudge that star down to the Georgia border a bit, because I was at The Boyfriend's in Osaka when it hit. I was lying on the floor, playing Tetris on his DSLite, and for a moment, I thought I felt a tremor. It was just slight enough to make me think, "Was there an earthquake?" So I noted the time - 9:45 AM - and resolved to check later.
Sure enough, later I got a message from my sister hoping I wasn't dead. So I checked CNN.com and there it was: a quake in Ishiyama at 9:42. Allowing for The Boyfriend's clock being fast plus travel time for the seismic wave to get that far, and I was right on the money. Go me. So, thanks to my sister and my dad, who both called to make sure I wasn't trapped under a pile of rubble...
Hmm... I wonder if I could schedule a small trembler for my family's visit? Who would I talk to about that?
Anyway, we had a nice weekend. I had an extra day off, so we went to the Kobe museum yesterday, where they're displaying some of the British Museum's prize Egyptian artifacts, including a mummy that they scanned with an fMRI so they could see everything without ripping it apart. Cool exhibit, but the museum is WAY overstaffed - I counted six staff members at the top of the stairs at the main exhibition hall, all of whom seemed to have the sole job of telling me to walk down the corridor to my left, where everyone else was walking. There were three people at the front door whose sole purpose was to tell us to wait in line and make sure, I suppose, that we didn't all rush the ticket booth like enraged Hittites and tear the other employees limb from limb.
Still, it was a good time, despite the layout and the crowd. Plus, I got me a new shirt:
I saw it and knew that there was no way I was walking out of the museum without that shirt. Also note: new belt. We stopped by the L.L. Bean store across the way, and did a little shopping. Groovy. And I got excellent, American-style customer service, too: as soon as the customer zeroes in on something, ask if they need any help. Which is different from the Japanese style of customer service - look really busy and if the customer needs anything, he'll probably ask you. As an old retail veteran, that drives me nuts....
We also went to a little out of the way restaurant called Shadow, which serves some outstanding food. A hamburg steak, wrapped in bacon on a bed of sauteed onions, with mushrooms and a mystery sauce that was kind of BBQ-ish. Out-bloody-standing.
So yeah, a good weekend, quake and all.
The yellow star is Kyoto, and the dangerous-looking circles are where the quake hit. So, quite safe. In fact, you can nudge that star down to the Georgia border a bit, because I was at The Boyfriend's in Osaka when it hit. I was lying on the floor, playing Tetris on his DSLite, and for a moment, I thought I felt a tremor. It was just slight enough to make me think, "Was there an earthquake?" So I noted the time - 9:45 AM - and resolved to check later.
Sure enough, later I got a message from my sister hoping I wasn't dead. So I checked CNN.com and there it was: a quake in Ishiyama at 9:42. Allowing for The Boyfriend's clock being fast plus travel time for the seismic wave to get that far, and I was right on the money. Go me. So, thanks to my sister and my dad, who both called to make sure I wasn't trapped under a pile of rubble...
Hmm... I wonder if I could schedule a small trembler for my family's visit? Who would I talk to about that?
Anyway, we had a nice weekend. I had an extra day off, so we went to the Kobe museum yesterday, where they're displaying some of the British Museum's prize Egyptian artifacts, including a mummy that they scanned with an fMRI so they could see everything without ripping it apart. Cool exhibit, but the museum is WAY overstaffed - I counted six staff members at the top of the stairs at the main exhibition hall, all of whom seemed to have the sole job of telling me to walk down the corridor to my left, where everyone else was walking. There were three people at the front door whose sole purpose was to tell us to wait in line and make sure, I suppose, that we didn't all rush the ticket booth like enraged Hittites and tear the other employees limb from limb.
Still, it was a good time, despite the layout and the crowd. Plus, I got me a new shirt:
I saw it and knew that there was no way I was walking out of the museum without that shirt. Also note: new belt. We stopped by the L.L. Bean store across the way, and did a little shopping. Groovy. And I got excellent, American-style customer service, too: as soon as the customer zeroes in on something, ask if they need any help. Which is different from the Japanese style of customer service - look really busy and if the customer needs anything, he'll probably ask you. As an old retail veteran, that drives me nuts....
We also went to a little out of the way restaurant called Shadow, which serves some outstanding food. A hamburg steak, wrapped in bacon on a bed of sauteed onions, with mushrooms and a mystery sauce that was kind of BBQ-ish. Out-bloody-standing.
So yeah, a good weekend, quake and all.