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Wednesday, January 14, 2004
bikkurishita!
oh yeah! i totally forgot, but i was in my first earthquake on the 6th! i was in the recording studio at the bentencho education centre, feebly reciting conversation about takoyaki and Osaka-jo for the materials recording in my stuffed up voice, when all of a sudden, the room began to rumble and shake a bit. at first the japanese teachers were like, "oh the subway?" and then i thought so too, but then when the room began to SWAY, i was thinking either the subway had to be RIGHT beside the room or else this was no subway tremor... then one of the ladies said, "oh earthquake!" ever so calmly. and then the male teacher said,"oh, the lights..." as he pointed skywards to the huge studio lights that hung above us. i actually had a moment of sheer heart-thumping panic, where i wondered if i needed to dive under the desk or the doorframe, whichonewhichonewhichone??!! and then the earthquake stopped. whoa man. i was reminded of it when i was watching tv yesterday and there was a feature on the kobe earthquake of 1995. apparently a lot of families left kobe and moved to the outskirts of the region, specifically the hyogo region. they featured a school whose population had decreased significantly (to 130 kids) as a result of the `exodus` and countered that image with a school in Hyogo whose population increased due to the influx of families. It was kind of sad, especially considering how well Kobe bounced back after the earthquake. Nowadays, downtown Kobe is pretty nice... from what I`ve experienced nothing beats their wide sidewalks, numerous shotengais, a tiny but popular Chinatown, and their Luminaire festival. Even Rokko Island is super nice... toronto ga niitteru na... kobe isn`t a bustling metropolis like kyoto, activity in the main core dies at like 7:30, as shiu, shaki and i found out over the winter break... but still, the infrastructure is pretty amazing. earthquakes are a little scary eh? the ground, firmament... is moving... shifting underneath you... the earth is not as dependable as you thought it was...
also not dependable: weather forecasts by japanese people... mr okada, a few teachers and miharu all promised me snow. the most i got was a smattering of hail... but i`ll take it...hail! it stopped after five minutes...sigh. i was like, "oh!yay! solid precipitation, almost like snow! woohoooo!... owowowoowow..woohoooo!..owowow..."
some interesting questions i got during my intro class with Joyo ichi-nenseis:
i. how do you say dog in french?
ii. do you speak english? (one time i said "no" as a joke, and the kid who asked me looked so scared and confused... hehehehheee)
iii. what is your dream?
iv. what is your favourite japanese word?
v. what do you have?
vi. what does your dog like?
oh yeah! i totally forgot, but i was in my first earthquake on the 6th! i was in the recording studio at the bentencho education centre, feebly reciting conversation about takoyaki and Osaka-jo for the materials recording in my stuffed up voice, when all of a sudden, the room began to rumble and shake a bit. at first the japanese teachers were like, "oh the subway?" and then i thought so too, but then when the room began to SWAY, i was thinking either the subway had to be RIGHT beside the room or else this was no subway tremor... then one of the ladies said, "oh earthquake!" ever so calmly. and then the male teacher said,"oh, the lights..." as he pointed skywards to the huge studio lights that hung above us. i actually had a moment of sheer heart-thumping panic, where i wondered if i needed to dive under the desk or the doorframe, whichonewhichonewhichone??!! and then the earthquake stopped. whoa man. i was reminded of it when i was watching tv yesterday and there was a feature on the kobe earthquake of 1995. apparently a lot of families left kobe and moved to the outskirts of the region, specifically the hyogo region. they featured a school whose population had decreased significantly (to 130 kids) as a result of the `exodus` and countered that image with a school in Hyogo whose population increased due to the influx of families. It was kind of sad, especially considering how well Kobe bounced back after the earthquake. Nowadays, downtown Kobe is pretty nice... from what I`ve experienced nothing beats their wide sidewalks, numerous shotengais, a tiny but popular Chinatown, and their Luminaire festival. Even Rokko Island is super nice... toronto ga niitteru na... kobe isn`t a bustling metropolis like kyoto, activity in the main core dies at like 7:30, as shiu, shaki and i found out over the winter break... but still, the infrastructure is pretty amazing. earthquakes are a little scary eh? the ground, firmament... is moving... shifting underneath you... the earth is not as dependable as you thought it was...
also not dependable: weather forecasts by japanese people... mr okada, a few teachers and miharu all promised me snow. the most i got was a smattering of hail... but i`ll take it...hail! it stopped after five minutes...sigh. i was like, "oh!yay! solid precipitation, almost like snow! woohoooo!... owowowoowow..woohoooo!..owowow..."
some interesting questions i got during my intro class with Joyo ichi-nenseis:
i. how do you say dog in french?
ii. do you speak english? (one time i said "no" as a joke, and the kid who asked me looked so scared and confused... hehehehheee)
iii. what is your dream?
iv. what is your favourite japanese word?
v. what do you have?
vi. what does your dog like?
// posted by naomi @ 9:28 p.m. 
