"The ground all over Los Angeles is moving..which as you know isn't supposed to do that." David Letterman.

It is good that the ground beneath my feet is no longer actively trying to destroy civilization as we know it.

Things here have generally stabilized, though I read in Yomiuri Shimbun that there is a strong possibility of more dangerous earthquakes. 

I saw that PBS Nova in America had a really interesting special show about the quake here and explained why things happened the way they did. This is a link to the show's online video.

"Pray and let God worry." Martin Luther.

"There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever." Mohandas Gandhi.

It has been a while since I posted anything on my Xanga. I don't think I am a good writer, so for the general sentence or two and photo post, I generally use facebook.

First let me begin by saying that my wife and I are fine. Like all the disasters I have been exposed to (Northridge Earthquake, San Diego fires, etc) I was again on the periphery and not directly involved.

We live in Saitama Prefecture which is slightly north and west of Tokyo, but about 128 miles from Fukushima. Also we are about 176 miles from Sendai where the Tsunami did so much damage.

While I have seen extensive damage on TV and the internet, the only damage I saw around where I live is a broken window. We are more effected by aftershocks, train stoppage and possible rolling blackouts caused by power shortages from the damaged nuclear power facilities in Fukushima.

For me I think that the quake here was scarier than the Northridge quake mainly because the 94 earthquake occurred around 4:30-5am so by the time I was awake and realizing what was happening, it was over. This quake was at 2:45pm and so I was aware of it the whole time.

As for the above quotes, I think I am annoying my wife, because generally speaking I am powerless over nuclear meltdowns, earthquakes and blackouts, so while I care deeply about them and the safety of people here, I am not spending my days worried about these things.

 God bless and take care.

"A city that outdistances man's walking powers is a trap for man." Arnold J. Toynbee.

I like being outside. Staying home and watching TV or doing nothing just about drives me crazy. While I like being outside, I can't say I would do well camping, but hiking and taking long walks is fun for me. So with cold temperatures and occasional snow, I have grown a little frustrated, as I spent most of my life in San Diego which is generally warm, and never snows.

So it has been nice for me to get out and begin walking again.

This summer I have decided to try to climb Fuji-san. I have never tried to do this before, but it is something that I have wanted to do for a long time now. So in preparation for that, I am walking about 2 hours everyday, and 2 days a week I walk about 30km (about 18 miles).  It turns out that Nihonbashi is that distance from where I live in Saitama.

When I lived in San Diego I also walked, but only did the long walk one day a week. The areas I walked in SD had long stretches between intersections so I didn't have to stop often, and was able to maintain a fairly good pace. This is not so in Saitama and Tokyo where it takes me almost 5 hours to cover the distance.

Traditionally distances in Japan were measured by how far away from Nihonbashi they were. In this case I am walking down Nakasendo (route 17), this is in Urawa near my ward office.

A small temple and grave site near Minami Urawa (south Urawa). Further down the road is a used bike and book store, kind of an interesting combination I guess.

Looking towards Kawaguchi as I start to cross over the Arakawa (ara river). On the far side of the river you enter Tokyo's Itabashi ward.

As the afternoon progresses I still have 7km to go to get to Sugamo. Eventually Nakasendo comes to Tokyo University.

From here it was about 45 minutes more walking to get to Nihonbashi and it was fairly dark when I got there so I didn't get good pictures. This weekend I am thinking to leave earlier and so be able to end my walk earlier and get some pictures.

Today in Akasaka I saw this unusual english. The implication is that there is little danger of dying in a fire, so this area can not be used for emergency evacuations.

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." Carl Reiner.

It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything, mostly because I have not had a lot to say. Since my entries tend to be a bit boring anyway, I thought I would refrain from boring you to tears.

This week has been kind of interesting. Winter here is generally cold, but I am told that snow is somewhat unusual. However it has snowed twice in the evenings.

Snowy nights have an weird aura to them. I guess because of the way snow reflects light.

I have a coin bank that has been dubbed "Angry Angry Snowman". We set him outside since there wasn't enough snow to really build a snowman.

Our bedroom window frosted up, so I decided to play around a little bit. I really didn't need help.

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin.

It is that time of year again. Time to forget the old year and look forward to the new one. I hope everyone has a great year and prosperous new year.

On the Chinese calendar this is Tiger year (yea! kitties!!). So yesterday after lunch at the kotatsu (yea kotatsu!!!) I spent a few minutes putting stickers on the tiger shaped soap.

 

It's kind of funny, but his nose sticker kept falling off. I am not sure exactly how we got it to stay on.

SB and I went to Bic Camera in Omiya looking for a certain kind of flash drive, which they didn't have, and ended up having to go to Akihabara to get it. However outside of Omiya Eki I took this picture of the moon and Takashimaya.

Today we went to Starbucks at Kita Urawa for coffee, and saw they had new tumblers, so  I bought one, and am thinking of buying some for my friends in America.

Across from Starbucks is Wendy's Restaurant. Today is the last day that Wendy's will be open since the company has decided not to continue it's franchise licence, so there was a long line of people waiting to get in.

While we were enjoying our coffee, it snowed for about one minute, so very exciting indeed.