ROCKIN' AND ROLLING

Our goal during our month in Japan is to experience the culture and country as fully as possible. We are making progress, sometimes in ways we hadn't expected. Two days ago we bore a sideswipe from Typhoon Melor that made its way from the Philippines. We crossed it in Kushiro, in southern Hokkaido and thankfully were on the train most of that windy and rainy day. As we headed south, Melor headed north, disrupting train and other traffic.

And as we have enjoyed the wonderful hot springs that dot Japan -- you can even find hot spring spas in downtown Tokyo -- we just now experienced an integral part of Japanese life, the flip side of all those continental plates coming together: our first earthquake. I didn't believe Ron at first when he said: "Woah, the building's shaking." We had just returned from a long day of sightseeing on the Pacific coast, so I thought maybe he was just getting his sea legs back. But it was strong enough to make the hangers in our hotel closet rattle loudly in a back-and-forth movement that lasted about 20-30 seconds as we took in the experience. A quick google told us it was a mere 3 on the seismic chart where we are, 5.1 at its epicenter in a faraway eastern province.

But the Japanese, who experience over 1000 earthquakes a year (and probably many more that are never felt) have mastered the art of building on such shakey ground, so our 9th floor hotel room felt more like it was swaying rather than shaking. Ron looks foward to future rockin' and rolling as long as they're not stronger than a 5 and don't hurt anyone!