Saturday, March 24, 2007

We Had an Earthquake This Morning...

I was checking my email this morning when my apartment started doing pushups. I guess this is part of its bid to get into shape in time for beach weather. A little light exercising to get its muscles used to stress before joining a gym and taking up jogging...

It had a rolling motion and let me feeling a little dizzy or lightheaded, like something was wrong with my inner ear. The most frightening part of being in an eartquake is when it starts, you have no idea how long it will last or how strong it will become.

How many earthquakes have I experienced here in Japan, these trembling, volcanic islands along the Pacific's vast "Ring of Fire?"

Well, with this most recent one I can only confirm 4. I'm sure there have been tremblors or shimmies all along, I just haven't noticed them. But 4 unmistakeable earthquakes where I've had enough time to recognize the situation and reflect upon it while it was occuring. The realization that, "Hey, this is an earthquake," and then a faint thrill. Fear, excitement, anticipation.

In other, less ground-shaking news, last night I celebrated my 39th birthday a few days early, surrounded by friends. We went to Kushitomo, the fried-food-on-sticks restaurant. We eventually had 8 people, and I had a nice time.

This is the first time I've been out with friends in a while, thanks to my recent physical ailment (that I hope is repairing itself through medication) and it was nice to escape the confines of my apartment, comfy though they are.

We ate way too much food. One thing I've wanted to do at Kushitomo is totally gorge myself. I think it's good to get that out of your system, especially when you're craving something. And I frequently crave delicate, fried foods on slender sticks. Mission accomplished.

I can't speak for the others, but I ate past being full, but stopped just short of the "I need emergency surgery" point. For the last two courses, they brought out fried bananas- which turned out to be molten fruit-lava underneath their golden crust- and then a tongue-soothing dish of sherbet.

Later, walking with T in the rain, I realized I'd made a horrible mistake. I should've eaten the fried banana WITH the sherbet!

Dammit, now I have to go do it all over again! And soon!

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