Lotusblog

I was somehow able to get up extremely early this morning. Ate some
cookies. Read the news. Checked my email. The usual morning routine. I then
rode to the gym, swam and then while I was relaxing and preparing myself for
the coming day, there was another earthquake.

I have often wondered what it would be like to be in a pool or a bath when
an earthquake strikes- well today I found out. I was in the jacuzzi (where
all gentlemen should be at half past eight in the morning) when the swaying
started and the water started sloshing around. My sports club is actually on
the 9th floor of a central Osaka office building, so I imagine that the
swaying was amplified by the height of the building. It only lasted about 15
or 20 seconds, and wasn’t as intense as the ‘quakes over the last couple of
days, but nonetheless it was kinda scary. At least I was doing something I
enjoy- if worst came to worst I would hate to die in an earthquake whilst in
an ATM queue, riding the subway or even at work. Dying in a jacuzzi doesn’t
seem like a bad prospect at all.

There were two big earthquakes here tonight . The first, around 19:00 stopped trains and scared a lot of people. Apparently it caused some injuries in Kyoto. I was waiting for a friend at Big Man near Hankyu Umeda station whilst talking to a different friend on the phone. The phone-friend panicked and hung up (she was on the fifth floor of a building in Osaka) and while I could feel the floor moving (the sensation is sort of like standing on a large boat that is rocking ever so slightly) I wasn’t sure how big it was. The second happened about 5 hours later at midnight, the train I was riding at the time suddenly slowed down to a crawl, while the train conductor explained there had been an earthquake.

The second was actually the larger of the two (I think it was 7.3 on the Richter scale) and by this time I was a little concerned as to what state my apartment would be in. Everything was OK- a few things had shifted slightly, but that was all.
I am glad I wasn’t home: earthquakes make me pretty nervous and I think I probably would have started freaking out. It’s times like this I am glad I live in a new reinforced concrete building.

I am interested to know what happened (if anything) to Kansai Airport- being stuck in the middle of Osaka Bay not far from the epicentre can’t have been pleasant. Tsunami of up to one metre were also caused by the ‘quakes- and again, I am not sure where they struck and if any damage was caused. September has been pretty exciting so far, what with the huge Typhoon Number 16 passing through last week, and now this.
Typhoon Number 18 is also rapidly approaching.

Batten down the hatches.