Oh! It's an Earthquake.

Yup. We do get earthquakes in Yonezawa. There was a slight tremor last night. Actually, I wouldn't even call it that. It was more like a light shake. James, Michael and I were at Crescendo, a local eatery/bar, and we were engaged in a conversation with the proprietress about plans for our Saturday event. All of a sudden the customer at the bar exclaimed "Oh! It's an earthquake". Sure enough the hanging lamps in the place were all swaying.

Had the time this morning to make a bento lunch to take to work. It was a simple one: rice, tamago-yaki, and some umeboshi (pickled plums). My fridge is too small for me to store enough groceries in it so I can make super-duper lunches.

One thing about the radiation risk in this city: The general consensus is that the mountain range separating us from Fukushima is relatively effective in ensuring the winds off the ocean don't affect this city. Yonezawa is under the influence of what blows off of the Sea of Japan which is on the western side of the Tohoku region.

Oh yeah, my co-worker James is a Fukushima refugee (of a sort) in that he has had to abandon his home and move to Yamagata. Last night he confided that it might be 50 years before his old neighbourhood is considered safe to live in. He used to commute back and forth from his home to the Yonezawa school. Now his wife and kid have moved over to this side of the mountains. There are a number of Fukushima people who have moved over here. Michael, another one of my co-workers and originally a Vancouverite, has commented that our apartment building wasn't that full prior to the earthquake. Now a lot of the vacancies have been snatched up by people from Fukushima.

That's it for now...Need to prepare for a lesson for my little "monsters". ;-)