Takehara and Earthquake in Kawajiri

I’ve just had a pretty interesting week. I met up with my old English teacher’s family in a town called Takehara and the next day I was awaken by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake.

On Monday morning around 5am, I was woken up by a strong shake. For the next 20 seconds, the apartment shook, stopped for a few seconds and then shook for another 20-30 seconds. It was surprising as this was the first time that I really experienced a “real” earthquake. I’ve felt a few minor shakes and tremors back home but nothing where you hear and feel the house shaking. Luckily, nothing was broken at home as the buildings are really made to sustain minor earthquakes as they occur here so often. The Hiroshima area doesn’t actually get earthquakes as frequently as other areas of Japan. The earthquake was a minor 5 in the Japanese scale and a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in the western system.

It was pretty amazing that almost no one was hurt and there was very little property damage. I think if a 6.1 earthquake hit Vancouver there will be a lot more damage. The one really hassle because of the earthquakes was that the trains were late and delayed for almost the whole day as all the rail lines had to be checked for any breaks or cracks. Therefore, I needed my Vice-Principal from elementary school to pick me up from my town, as I couldn’t get to school otherwise.

On Sunday I met up with Murayama sensei and we went to a town two train stops away from Yasuura, called Takehara. It had a really nice old district and we spent a good 2 hours walking around the old buildings and visiting a few temples. (Picture below: Shinji and I taking in the free Sake samples)

Murayama sensei’s baby is due two weeks from now and I’m really excited for her family as they will be welcoming a baby girl. With how cute Sougo is, I’m sure the new baby will be adorable.

I spent a great day walking around and just enjoying the good weather. I played with Sougo a lot and being three years old, he is definitely adventurous and wants to see and touch everything. For lunch , we went to a famous Oknomiyaki (Japanese ) resturaunt that has been around for ages.

While walking around Sougo saw a bulldozer and his eyes lit up. The owner was nearby and was nice enough to let Sougo play around with the controls. It took awhile to fetch him away from the bulldozer, but he did try to lift up his dad.

After lunch we made our way to a local beach and watched Sougo dunk himself in the water repeatedly while ripping algae and seaweed from the sea. The water was still a tad cold but it was fun walking around and enjoying the scenery. To finish off the day we went to a seaside café and just chatted while having coffee and eating desserts.

Japanese factoid # 26: A lot of local temples in different regions in Japan have their own superstitions or customs. In Takehara, there is this one little temple with a Jizo (statue). The superstition goes; first you make a wish and then when you lift up the Jizo, if it “feels” light then your wish will come true, but if it feels heavy then it won’t. The thing is solid rock, so needless to say it felt pretty damn heavy- but lets hope my wish still comes true…