Welcome to the City

It's now 1:30 AM, May 29th. I am in Japan.
And I am awake because of an earthquake that measured about 5.2 on the Richter scale. Yep.
I would have posted last night, but there were a few, um, variables.

Sorry it's blurry. I didn't even notice when I took the shot.

Click to read more!


I got to Tokyo in the late afternoon (their time), and it didn't seem too different from any other airport as I departed. (I was very groggy all through the landing and arrival since I didn't really sleep 'til the last hour or so.) But then all of the rapid-fire Japanese and the characters on every sign (also with English, fortunately) really tipped me off.
I was in Tokyo. Wow.

As soon as I got here, I caught a bus to get to the hotel, where I'm currently staying with my dad (who is coincidentally in Tokyo for a business trip).
And as soon as I got to the hotel, I went to wash up since flights always make me feel like the grossest person alive. And then we went and got food, even though I told my dad that I wasn't hungry. (He wouldn't listen to my protests, as usual.) We ate at a small place with traditional food (I got a fish, which they serve with shaved daikon on the side, rice, miso soup, seaweed salad, and pickled daikon), and I ate as much as I could before I felt like I was going to die.

They serve finely shaved daikon (that mound of white stuff that looks like shave ice) with fish.
I'm not quite used to it, but it was... um... interesting?

And then we got to the hotel, where I promptly crashed. I went to start typing, but I literally blacked out as soon as I got to my laptop's welcome screen -- I remember nothing else.

But I just woke up because of an earthquake. It was utterly bizarre. I woke up abruptly from my dream (and also finished my sentence out loud, even though I don't even remember what I was doing in my dream). And then I realized that the bed was shaking. It was actually moving (not just vibrating a little or something but real-life shaking).
At that point, I realized that I was experiencing an earthquake. But instead of getting up and getting into a bracing position, I decided that I wanted to stay in bed because it was so comfortable (and because I was so exhausted). (And my dad's still asleep.)
So I guess that was how I started my experience here -- by deciding that sleep was more important than my safety in an earthquake.

So welcome to Japan. Please check your sense of self-preservation at the door.