Sandier Pastures

Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.

A few days after I came to Japan more than 10 years ago, earthquake woke me up at 3 in the morning after the dormitory building where I am staying swayed for more than 10 seconds. Cold as it is on a winter night, I still went out with only my pajamas on.

The dormitory corridor was silent - not one single soul came out of their rooms! People have been so accustomed to the quakes that they sleep through it!

At that time I thought that was just crazy. Two to three times, I would be jolted by a minor quake and get out of my room at weird times in the night. After a few years though, I have managed to sleep through it. Very dangerous, to think that my school is located in the Kanto area — the area that is expecting “THE BIG ONE”.

Following are some facts about Japan and earthquakes.

• Japan, situated on the “Ring of Fire” arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin, accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

• A tremor occurs in Japan at least every five minutes, and each year there are up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt by people.

• The Great Kanto earthquake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9, killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. Seismologists have said another such quake could strike the city at any time.

• On January 16, 1995, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit central Japan, devastating the western port city of Kobe. It was the worst earthquake to hit Japan in 50 years, killing more than 6,400 and causing an estimated $100 billion in damage.

• On October 23, 2004, a 6.8 magnitude quake struck the Niigata region, about 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, killing 65 people and injuring 3,000.

• On March 25, 2007, a 6.9 magnitude quake struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km west of Tokyo, killing one person, injuring more than 200 and destroying hundreds of homes.

• The Tokyo metropolitan government said in March 2006 that a magnitude 7.3 earthquake under Tokyo would probably kill more than 5,600 people and injure almost 160,000. Official estimates of economic damage have topped more than $1 trillion.

• German insurer Munich Re was even more pessimistic, saying in 2004 that a severe earthquake in the Tokyo-Yokohama area would kill hundreds of thousands of people, cause damage running into trillions of dollars and have global economic repercussions.

Taken from CNN News.

The New Parent has tagged me.

4 jobs I had in my life:

1. Programmer - My former colleagues can tell you honestly why I should not be in this profession!
2. Translator - for a patent office. A very hard job with all the technicalities new to me! I had to accept the job after giving birth because of the time flexibility.
3. Product Safety Engineer - just assisting to the real safety engineer as this field is also new to me.
4. Technical Consultant/Marketing Specialist - this is my present job as written in my contract. I am in the elevators field, a new one for me again. I can’t stick to one work field, can’t I?

4 countries I have been on vacation:

1. Germany - I think it is one of my favorite places on earth. But I will not start talking about Germany because I have to proceed with number 2.
2. Belgium - The countless cathedrals didn’t bore me at all! I had Belgian waffles in hand!
3. The Netherlands - Please put Keukenhof in your dream destination list. This wonderful garden in Lisse only opens 8 weeks a year. It is my image of what would be heaven.
4. UK - London did not surprise me at all as it looked just like a very big Shinjuku, Japan. I would have loved to go to the theatres and see Mamma Mia with my daughter but we were not allowed entry. I She was too young.

4 of my favorite foods:

1. French toast - I make them on weekend mornings for a change in our breakfast routine.
2. Steak - I love meat and my idea of a romantic dinner would certainly include a medium-rare steak. Next year, I promise to have that Kobe beef steak when we go on vacation to Japan.
3. Mangoes - I can eat mangoes of any color, any shape and any variety.
4. Lasagna - homecooked ones by me or by my hubby.

4 places I’d rather be right now:

1. Switzerland
2. Vienna, Austria
3. To where Stacey is!
4. To my parent’s home in the Philippines and celebrate my father’s bday.

I will liberate myself from tagging anyone. If you would like to play, please leave a comment so I can check it out, deal?

By the way, I have to add that this is my 200th post since I started this new blog last January!!

Is there such thing as too much blogging?

Today, the folks will mark their 31st wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Ma and Pa! Thirty one years and six kids after, I’d say both of you are ageing beautifully.

Also today happens to be my father’s birthday. Happy birthday Pa, may you have many more birthdays to come. Stay healthy and remember there’s a lot of things you should look forward to, including loads of grandchildren from your six kids!

Although we lived in the Middle East for six months now, close encounters with camels  are not on a daily basis as they do not roam around just like that  in this highly urbanized city as thought by some.

Camels at Dubai Creekside Park

Camels are often called “Ships of the Desert” and very truly so. These animals existed even during biblical times and used to transport people and goods crossing the dry and very hot deserts of Africa and the Middle East.

If I did not come here, I wouldn’t have noticed that there are two type of camels, the one-humped or the Arabian camel that is found in the very hot deserts of North Africa and the Middle East and the two-humped or the Bactrian camel that are found in the rocky deserts and steppes of Asia that get very hot or very cold. Also, the camel’s hump contains fat, NOT water. They can go without water and food for 3-4 days.

Love milk?

Tasting slightly more salty than cows’ milk, but with three times the vitamin C and up to 10 times the iron content, camel’s milk is touted as a powerful tonic against many diseases and as an aphrodisiac. 

Camel’s milk is much more nutritious than that from a cow.  It is lower in fat and lactose, a good news for those with lactose intolerance.  It is normally drunk fresh, and the warm frothy liquid, is usually an acquired taste for the Western palate. 

Camel’s milk is nutritious and delicious (some say, but I have yet to try!), non-allergic, low in fat and high in vitamin C and insulin. Additionally, it is even used in some beauty products and said to be the secret to Cleopatra’s milky complexion.

If these benefits outweigh the yuck factor some people claim, then this is a big boost to the camel milk industry.

Care to try?

By now you must have heard already.

An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale struck the northwestern province of Niigata, Japan collapsing houses and halting train operations. Casualties are said to increase as people searched through the rubble. A fire broke out in the nuclear reactor site in Kashiwazaki City. A tsunami warning was issued off the coastal area but was lifted after a few hours.

Earthquake of almost the SAME intensity struck the SAME area last October 23, 2004.

Japan sits precariously on 4 tectonic plates. Two major earthquake in three years!! After the main quake this morning, several aftershocks came including one strong one with a magnitude of 5.8.

Pictures on top of a mountain; it’s already almost June when this was taken but there are still traces of snow 

Niigata Prefecture is very close to my heart - it is M’s hometown. His family, my in-laws are all there.

Summer in Kawanishi-machi, 20 kms. from Kashiwazaki

Niigata winters aren’t appealing at all so we try to visit them during spring or summer.

Does this justify why I don’t like Niigata Prefecture in winter?

My brother and M’s brother at the peak of winter. My brother wants to see ’some’ snow so I sent him there

My mother in-law called me a few minutes ago saying their house is still standing (as it is built on a very big rock!). Niigata Prefecture is an agricultural area with most of the houses being built on top of rice paddies which is soft and very vulnerable to jolts.

Thinking of all of you and praying for safety, ????????????.

It will be beautiful when it’s all finished.

For now, the world’s tallest building (when completed) under construction looks like this:

M told me that we can actually go near, so we did. At the foot of Burj Dubai:

Around Burj Dubai are developments that consist of another man-made island called Old Town Island. They are talking about a man-made island right in the middle of the city. The brochure looks really appealing. Check out the interactive map of Old Town Island here.

Dubai Mall, when completed, is dubbed to be the largest mall in the planet is also being constructed nearby.

The endless construction is unbelievable. Right now Dubai is already nicknamed the “Crane City”. New Sheratons, Hyatts, Radissons and Hiltons are in line. Even Tiger Woods is developing an exclusive golf course here.

Construction noise is always never far away

Though people outside the UAE are thrilled, residents are complaining. The roads are almost permanently clogged and living in Dubai is like living in a giant construction site where cranes provide as a backdrop to even the most luxurious hotels.

This city has grown big too quickly.

I took the bus this morning but it was uneventful. Good thing I know but almost creepy to think that I don’t have horror bus stories to tell.

Am I in the same place? Maybe it helped that I came out of the house at 6:30 am?

The bus came before I got toasted waiting for it in the uncovered bus stop near our place. Funny how I prepared myself too well before getting out of the house: long hair pulled back with a tie since it is so unsexy to sweat with all the hair sticking to my neck, yuck!; picked a cotton shirt, put a small towel in my back to absorb the sweat; an extra-shirt in my bag; sunglasses and of course an umbrella at hand.

I got a seat and arrived safe and sound after 15 minutes.

Our car was sent for the regular maintenance and since this is Dubai where “things are always not ready tomorrow”, we have to wake up and take the bus to work today.

There has not been a single drop of rain since March 19, 2007 in this part of the world. My memory serves me right because that was the time when we moved out of the company guest house to our flat — and it was surprisingly raining, of all the days! Some of our things got soaking wet including our mattress.

Today on my way to work, M and I were caught up in traffic. Normally, there should be no traffic in that area, that’s why we take that road in the first place! Our guess was another surprise road diversion (happens all the time) or some accident (echo that, it happens all the time too!).

This time we were wrong, as turned out to be that the whole street was under water. No rain, just all the murky waters in the street. This was due to: endless construction, poor workmanship ending up with someone hitting the water pipes.

So, this is what happens when a highly sophisticated cosmopolitan city engages in luxurious and ambitious projects and forgets to put drainage in their roads:

the water level is getting higher and higher; traffic getting worse

The city has zero capability to have the water run off as the drainage system is non-existent. The murky water will remain on Sheikh Rashid road for days, even the endless sunshine can’t solve it. Traffic will be at its worse. We need to find a new route for tomorrow.

11 years ago, I arrived in Japan not even knowing how to introduce myself in Nihongo. Terrified that someone from my school would not be there to pick me up and I only have a one-way ticket. Plenty of Japanese walking briskly at Narita airport and I don’t know a single soul.

10 years ago, after the rigid language training, I can say my name as how the Japs say it “Gure-su” and more - I was enrolled in the university, sitting in the class with 40+ other Japanese classmates, desperately trying to scribble down notes from what I see as “strange graphics” on the whiteboard.

9 years ago, in the middle of a class lecture, I noticed that there is one classmate who is constantly coming in late. He sits at the back and never bothers to take down notes and always do something else, like read books. Rumors say that he is the oldest in our class as this is his second degree…and he does not need to study, he was the brightest.

8 years ago, the brightest and I were on the same laboratory experiment. We were paired out of random. I detested that he had to do our experiments so quickly and I had to stay after classes and repeat it all for my own sake.

7 years ago, after a shocking heartache I refused to go to school for days. Someone knocked at my dormitory room, of course I did not answer. The person at the other side of my door slid my accomplished term papers through the small space and had a post-it with broken English: “I answered these for you, so you will not fail and go back to your home country.”

…that summer he took me to countryside Japan to see things I never thought I could see (I have no car and train tickets I could not afford!)…he was unbelievably friendly.

…in that countryside 7 summers ago I let my wounds heal and promised to myself to pick up the pieces of my broken heart. The place was a heavenly respite from the hectic, chaotic life of the city.

6 years ago, he was helping me write my first resume, trained me to answer interview questions and drove me to my first job interview, 400 kms from the city.

5 years ago, I finally accepted his proposal to start a life together.

4 years ago TODAY, we were married.

Today is one of those Friday the 13th of the year. I haven’t checked my calendar so I don’t know what month/s have the 13th date which falls on a Friday.

I am a little superstitious about Friday the 13th and do not like going out, especially driving on this day. No basis at all for this fear. I wasn’t able to include this in my weird things list so this post.

Nothing really meaty today, as this is just a Friday filler. I am actually at home right now and wrote this post yesterday before I went home. Sounds a little creepy for a Friday the 13th? lol

I would like to ask though,

How do you feel about Friday the 13th?

Would love to hear your thoughts when I come back for work tomorrow. Have a happy and safe weekend everyone!