Well, its official. As of Wednesday March 31st, 2010 I survived my first earthquake. I know my mother's heart just leaped into her throat, but rest assured mom. It was less like an earthquake and more like an earth-twitch.
At about 6:30 Wednesday morning I felt the room move my body left, then right. Immediately aware of the implications of said movement, my brain sprang to full consciousness. I continued to lay in bed while straining all of my senses to feel any additional movement that might merit action. After a couple minutes I started questioning if I had felt anything.
"Did I dream that? Maybe one of my neighbors slammed a door or something."
At some point I had convinced myself that I imagined it. One thing was for sure though, I was up for the day.
Since it was my first day for work I wanted to brush up on the research topics we are to be working on while at AIST. So I grabbed my camera and went to the library. On the way I took several photos.
View from the 4th floor down to the courtyard area
Inside entrance to the library/study area
Some VHS tapes that we can borrow. I'm pretty excited because I haven't watched a VHS in like 6 years.
Chihiro, Matt, and I all rode to work on our bikes. On the way I mentioned something about how I thought I felt an earthquake. To which Matt said "Oh, ya. I thought I felt something too." Then Chihiro said "Earthquake? Oh, yes...that was earthquake. It was small though. You get used to them."
At that point I couldn't decide if I was more excited to have already gone through an earthquake, or terrified to have already gone through an earthquake. Either way, the proof is in the pudding. You can see the official documentation by the USGS here:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010ulbh/us/index.html
The first day of work was great. We were introduced to our bosses and they were very cordial. In fact the leader of the plasma actuator research, Segawa-san, took us to McDonalds for lunch. After getting down on a double patty burger (which I ordered by accident), Segawa-san drove took us to some international grocery stores and back to our apartment to drop off the things we purchased. Again, they are very nice.
The remainder of the day was fairly standard except Matt popped his tire trying to jump a sweet gap at a park right next to our apartment. Luckily he bought a patch kit the day before.
-Seth
At about 6:30 Wednesday morning I felt the room move my body left, then right. Immediately aware of the implications of said movement, my brain sprang to full consciousness. I continued to lay in bed while straining all of my senses to feel any additional movement that might merit action. After a couple minutes I started questioning if I had felt anything.
"Did I dream that? Maybe one of my neighbors slammed a door or something."
At some point I had convinced myself that I imagined it. One thing was for sure though, I was up for the day.
Since it was my first day for work I wanted to brush up on the research topics we are to be working on while at AIST. So I grabbed my camera and went to the library. On the way I took several photos.
View from the 4th floor down to the courtyard area
Inside entrance to the library/study area
Some VHS tapes that we can borrow. I'm pretty excited because I haven't watched a VHS in like 6 years.
At that point I couldn't decide if I was more excited to have already gone through an earthquake, or terrified to have already gone through an earthquake. Either way, the proof is in the pudding. You can see the official documentation by the USGS here:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010ulbh/us/index.html
The first day of work was great. We were introduced to our bosses and they were very cordial. In fact the leader of the plasma actuator research, Segawa-san, took us to McDonalds for lunch. After getting down on a double patty burger (which I ordered by accident), Segawa-san drove took us to some international grocery stores and back to our apartment to drop off the things we purchased. Again, they are very nice.
The remainder of the day was fairly standard except Matt popped his tire trying to jump a sweet gap at a park right next to our apartment. Luckily he bought a patch kit the day before.
-Seth
March 29, 2018 at 11:50 PM
It's my first day of work in Tsukuba (here for 3 months from the UK), would you believe it I was also awoken by an earthquake (about 8.15am, for around 5 seconds), so that had me up for the day.
Where is best to see the Cherry Blossom? Perhaps I could take a trip to Mt. Tsukuba this weekend while the flowers are out!
Thanks for the blog, it's great.
Cheers