69: ON EARTHQUAKES AND FIRE

We were lucky we managed to catch the 8:30am train from Nagasaki to Kyoto. As the train neared Kyoto station at about 2:45pm though, it stopped, just short of the platform, for about 20 minutes. We stood by the doors with our luggage ready, wondering what the hold up was. Finally, there was an announcement in Japanese: there had been an earthquake, and the train was to be delayed by 2 hours for its final destination of Tokyo. A chorus of discontent erupted from the front of the car; a group of teenagers who were heading home after a day at Universal Studios in Osaka would not make it back to Tokyo on time. People rushed by us, trying to call their loved ones on their cell phones, but the lines were jammed. Phoebe reassured us that it was just another earthquake. "There are earthquakes all the time in Japan. Thousands of earthquakes every year," she said. There had even been a few earthquakes in Tokyo the past few days, but those were just business as usual.

Once we checked into our hotel, however, we were glued to the TV as we discovered that it was NOT just another earthquake. This turned out to be the only hotel that had an English channel throughout our whole stay in Japan, and we watched on BBC in disbelief as news and footage of the earthquake and ensuing tsunami unfolded before our eyes. In the other room, Phoebe was watching the news straight from NHK, the Japanese station. From now on, there were to be no more funny variety shows on tv. No more soap operas. It was all news.

We watched the news for hours, unable to tear ourselves away from the tv. The afternoon slowly turned into night, and finally we headed out for dinner to have some FIRE RAMEN. The chef literally sets your ramen on fire right in front of you. He gave us a list of rules before he did this. First, we had to tie our hair back (especially bangs, because they could get singed) and wear aprons. We were not allowed to get up and run away, because oil would splatter all over our seat and we would then have to sit down on an oily seat. Lastly, we should not scream nor be afraid. Well, the fire was hot, my apron protected me from the oil splatters, and the ramen was delicious.

Why do I always have such bad luck with natural disasters when I travel? Although, I suppose it was actually good luck that I wasn't in northeast Japan at the time. Depends how you look at it.