Quaking in my boots!

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I was sat at my desk in the teachers room yesterday just after lunch, writing an email, when the whole building started to shake like mad. It is such a weird sensation and it kind of takes your brain a few seconds to realise what is happening. There were only a couple of other teachers in the room and I wasn't sure what to do. When I realised it was lasting more than a few seconds I jumped under my desk (which is what we did during the drill as protection from falling objects). No one else did, so I sheepishly jumped back out again. The quake only lasted a matter of seconds, but at that intensity a few seconds is more than enough. I've only felt two before and they were about a 1 or 2 level - this was a 4, so really quite scary, although over quickly and there was no damage done.

The office lady put the TV on and we watched it reported on NHK. The epicenter was in the next prefecture, Gifu and came in at 5.2 magnitude. I don't think any serious damage was done though. You can see the level of seismic activity on this website. There is a huge cluster of quakes in Southern Nagano. http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20111214131154391-141301.html

So that was my excitement for the day!

Later that afternoon my Kocho-sensei (school principle) came over to say hi. He was hobbling and explained how he'd had too much to drink the night before (the old soak!) and had fallen asleep with his foot on a hot water bottle, and was too drunk to move....hence his foot was blistered from the heat. I like that he is honest about these things!

I only have four working days left in school and eight days before I meet my boyfriend in Tokyo (hurrah!). We will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a traditional ryokan in a lovely town up in Northern Nagano called Yudanaka Onsen.

Here we can enjoy an open air mountain onsen (Dave is slightly worried about exposing his bits in minus temperatures but I've assured him it is lovely once you get into the water). We can also visit Jigokudani park to see the snow monkeys bathing in the hot pools.

Then back to my neck of the woods for three days (I've limited our time in my house because it is so frickin cold and I'd rather be in a warm hotel!). Dave will come into school for a morning and we'll go out for a meal with my eikaiwa group. Then we'll head to Osaka for New Year, one day in Kobe and then on to Hiroshima for three nights, where I really want to do a day trip to Miyajima island to see the famous floating Tori. Finally we've got a few days in Tokyo. Quite a packed two weeks all in all. Apart from my trip to Oshima island in October this will be my first venture out of Nagano.

We are taking the shinkansen from Hiroshima to Tokyo, and I'm very excited about experiencing the high-speed train.

Tonight I have my last karate lesson before a test on Sunday for my first belt. I don't hold out much hope of passing, going on the looks my sensei gave me last week when I was attempting the Hein Shodan routine, but I'll give it my best attempt. Wish me ganbare!

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