What a weekend

If every long weekend in Japan is as eventful as last weekend, then I am definitely going to reconsider working here...


The weekend started with Typhoon No. 4, the first one to hit Japan this summer. It wrecked havoc in Okinawa and Kyushuu areas on Friday and Saturday. It was supposed to have the strongest influence on Tokyo by Sunday, so I didn't plan anything on Sunday, just was going to sit at home and watch tv. What happened was that most of the rainfall was over by Saturday night, and there was just gushes of strong wind on Sunday. Some of the JR lines were closed though, so I still couldn't get anywhere even if I wanted to.

Then of course on Monday morning, the earthquake hit Japan. I was sound asleep at the time, but I think I would have feel it if I was slightly conscious. Tokyo wasn't affected at all. We ended up going to Ikebukuro to do some shopping and arcade gaming. The final measurement was 6.8 I think. What caught my attention was that the nuclear plant nearby had to shut down and release some slightly irradiated water into ocean, and the magnitude of this earthquake is 2.5 times more than its designed resistance. It may look like the nuclear power plant is way under-designed, but since Richter's scale is exponential, 2.5 multiple is about 0.4 on Richter's scale. that means the plant should have a designed resistance of around 6.5. That isn't that bad. It's all about perspectives.