Safe and Sound

I know that a lot of people are worried about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan right now but we are safe and sound. Everything that happened was on mainland toward the northeast. We couldn’t feel the earthquake and the tsunami that has hit was way under a meter. They wont call an all clear here until the aftershocks on mainland slow down. We basically live on a mountain, so if a larger wave does come we are still very safe, no worries. I am very sad though for those in mainland, how terrible.

Let me just say that despite the craziness of this evening, today has been a decent day. I woke up with a migraine so I had to call and cancel with Heather for babysitting. I went back to sleep for a bit and woke up and it was gone. Thank goodness. Got some housework done and then headed outside to sweep/clean the steps. I got situated with my music and my ear buds and started sweeping and a man kind of snuck up behind me. He was selling some food and came to ring the bell and realized I was right there. He tried to get my attention but I suppose I didn’t hear/see him and I turned around and gasped at him! He startled me so much we both started giggling for a while and couldn’t talk. He preceded to ask whether or not I spoke Japanese(it’s on my to do list) and then made his way through several English words. He was selling several different food items. He was able to tell me what they were and how much each of them were. He was very kind and patient with me. I ended up buying some noodles which I believe are similar to ramen. And also bought a honey pound cake. Afterwards I went back to sweeping with my music and a bandana over my face so that I didn’t breathe in the dust. I was able to get a bit more done before our neighbor/landlord came over and also startled me. He was bringing us a small strawberry plant as a gift! They are so thoughtful. He even told me that the snails would eat it, so I needed to make sure to take them out. He didn’t say this in that many words, he actually brought over a snail shell and kind of did charades and said ‘eat’. Luckily I’m a decent charades guesser!! I thanked him over and over again with a large smile and he retreated to his house and I went back to sweeping again. I also posted a picture of our stairs with one undone so you can see what I’m talking about. Its a dust/mold I’m guessing, but it took a little work. Houses here look like they age much faster than in the states because of the nature of the materials they're built with. On top of all of that fun, Josh came home today for the weekend, so glad to have him back until Sunday! Hopefully going to buy a few rugs this weekend and maybe an elliptical *crosses fingers*. Hope all of you stay safe, I know we have a few friends on the west coast and we’re thinking of you. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Just realized I forgot to tell you how I found out about the earthquake and tsunami warning. While I was outside sweeping, there was one alarm that went off for several seconds. I didn’t bother with it because weird things are always going on. Then I realized that the neighborhood announcements were going off every five minutes, not that I can understand them because they are in Japanese. So after a while I got a little curious as to what was going on and I had my phone, so of course, I check facebook. I know, I know, what a great news source, but when something fishy is going on you can usually find out pretty quickly. So I saw a friends post about a tsunami warning for our island, but I still didn’t find out about the earthquake or how much damage it did for a while. Our announcements rang probably 3 or four times an hour once things settled down a bit. I was getting a little worried that the alarm meant ‘round up the usual suspects’ at first. Seeing as we are the only Americans in our neighborhood, things wouldn’t be too good for us!