Typhoon/Earthquake/Tokyo

Last weekend a huge typhoon whipped through Japan, hitting the southern section the hardest. It rained the entire week beforehand, soaking me on my way to and from work. Apparently a few teachers were required by law to stay at school overnight just in case the neighborhood had to evacuate their homes and relocate to the school.

My friends and I escaped on an overnight bus to Tokyo for a three day weekend. The bus was ten times better than overnight bus trips I've been on in the US. There were two aisles on the bus, so each of the three seats in each row were separated. There was a foot rest, fold out desk, drink holder, light, and far reclining for each seat. Once we got to Tokyo in the early morning the next day, we stopped by the Tsukiji Market, a gigantic fish market. It was really dangerous to walk around because there were so many guys driving trucks and carts as fast as possible. I don't understand why it's open to the public. We were able to eat some delicious sushi at a nearby restaurant though.
This guy is sawing cubes of frozen fish.


During the weekend we ate some delicious food: fresh sushi, cheese tofu, avocado tofu, other delicious tofu, Thai food (with the best crab I've ever eaten!), Mexican food (at a restaurant that didn't have any form of beans other than chili beans!?), Indian curry, tempura, soba, and fresh fruit smoothies. We ate a few of our meals with some of my friends who currently live in Tokyo. It was really nice to catch up with them!

We went shopping in Ginza, Harajuku, Asakusa, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. My favorite store was Itoya, a 9 floor stationery and supply store in Ginza. They actually annexed two shops around the corner too. I could spend hours in those stores. Anyways, while we were shopping in one of the department stores we saw peaches on sale for $12 each!
Ginza:
Asakusa:Harajuku:Shibuya:Shinjuku:
And of course we partied in Roppongi:
It rained a lot on Saturday while the typhoon was headed towards us, but by mid Saturday and all day Monday, the weather was pretty nice. I think the typhoon weakened by the time it reached us.

On Monday morning, the earthquake happened in Niigata Prefecture (about 350km north of Tokyo), on the other side of Honshu Island. I was sitting at our hostel's computer when it happened. I felt like I was swaying back and forth, but I couldn't see anything else moving so my perception seemed really off. I asked another guest if they could feel it and they could, so I knew I wasn't losing my mind or getting lightheaded or something. The swaying wasn't continuous, but the random spurts that I could sense went on for two or three minutes! Quite a weird sensation to experience. Once I realized what was going on I worried that either it would get a lot worse really quickly or something really terrible was happening far away. Turns out it was the latter, as you've all heard about in the news. One of my Japanese friends told me that the same area had an earthquake about three years ago. Japan is earthquake-prone, so the cities are set up a little differently and the buildings have been built to withstand some shaking. All the Japanese cities that I've been to are not centralized with a large downtown area with tons of skyscrapers like all the US cities. Everything is pretty spread out.

I still haven't caught up on my sleep since we got back, so I'm staying in this weekend to rest and pack before my next three weeks of traveling start up. My internet service ends on Monday night, so if you want to call me before I leave, call me this weekend! I have a lot on my mind, so check for a lot of updates this weekend.