My birthday earthquake!

Waiting faithfully with Hachiko

I had a real lost in translation moment today but more of that later...

At 19:02, whilst I was in a bath of fizzing pink water a small earthquake shook Tokyo. It was a gentle shake, more like a ripple. It measured 3 in intensity in Tokyo and 5 at its centre just north of Tokyo. (A very similar intensity to the earthquake that hit Lincolnshire last month.)

So I was in the bath and something made me suddenly sit up straight and then their was a squeaking sound and I could feel the bath rocking slightly. Next I could hear a low rumbling sound and the squeaking got louder, the rocking felt like a ripple or series of waves rather than jolts. It didn't last for long. By the time I was out of the bath, Jase had checked on the Japanese earthquake monitoring website which is linked via the title of this blog, and it was fully reported and recorded.

The Japanese were totally unfazed by it but I shall always remember my 34th birthday for being literally so moving. (Sorry I had to get one pun in!)

Earlier in the day we visited Akihabara, which is called "Electric Town" due to the fact that it is jam packed full of shops selling electrical appliances, components and all things electronic. There is an indoor market, the kind of place you'd expect to find selling cheap clothes, knitting needles and wool, second hand CDs and other bric a brac back in Britain but in "Electric Town" the market is just full of brightly coloured wire, circuit boards, lights and other things which Jase absolutely loves,

After dropping by Ginza which has designer stores and glamorous shoppers we went to Shibuya, Outside Shibuya station is a statue of a dog called Hachiko, who would faithfully wait for his owner outside the station everyday to return from work. One day his owner dies before getting home but Hachiko waited for him and returned to wait for his owner at the same time everyday until Hackiko eventually died himself. Then the statue was built of him, there is a picture above.

Shibuya is bustling and very, very noisy. Pop music is piped out into the streets whilst shops compete with each other with different music blasting out of loud speakers. Much of the shop music is jingle based, annoyingly catchy and intrusive. Through this cacophony Japanese teenagers weave around each other in brightly coloured clothes.

Jase took me to a shop called Don Quixote which literally sells everything from bikes (on the top floor) to shoes, games, toiletries, jewellery and naughty fancy dress costumes! Literally everything all piled around all over the place none of it making any sense. Each floor of the shop, and their are many, plays different music and jingles again all competing with each other. It was after about 15 minutes of being in Don Quixote's that we reached the gaming section and not only were my ears being bombarded, my body crowded but the flashing images and the blue lighting tipped me into sensory overload and I felt like I had been transported to some alien planet where some horrible torture was being performed on me! As soon as we were in the fresh air I was fine again.

Tokyo really is a city of contrast. The quiet, dignified Japanese shopping with out even noticing all the sensory chaos!