I wanted to go to a cat cafe before I left. I paid about 15 dollars for an hour in cat topia. Was totally worth it.
Since I took so many pictures, I'll just share the facebook like to the album. Enjoy.
Photos
Not much to say about it. It's called "HapiNeko" (Happy Cat I'm assuming). The lady ws nice and it was really cute. I can see why people would want to just go and hang out in there. And the cats were all (mostly) very friendly. Had a few in my lap and so forth. None of them really like to be picked up, but they'd suffer through it. I'm happy I didn't find out about it sooner or yours truly would of been broke because of cats.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Earthquake: Update
Well. Things are getting weird.
We still have aftershocks. Nothing huge by any means, but we are still shaking none the less. There is also news of a power plant that is also having some problems, but since I don't know the full details, I can't go in to that. To my knowledge, things with that are generally okay. The reason I say that things are getting weird is not because of the earthquake, but because of how people are acting.
In my small area of Ontakesan, we were not truly affected. We were shaken, the trains stopped, but we are not flooded and there was no damage beyond something falling off of something else. However, people are buying up food rapidly. Anything bread based (cake, buns, etc.) are gone. The selves have been empty since Friday after the quake. Super markets are closing, and the one that is open has a line out the door. Small bakeries are overwhelmed and are almost bare.
They've closed the school because of the country's recommendation that people should stay home. It will also be closed tomorrow.
I'm not scared of the earthquake because I'm not going to be anything but shaken, if anything. But the people are the ones that are freaking me out. With everything closing and people buying food like it's Armageddon, it's very eerie. We went to another town today and it was even getting bare in some of the big shops in the train station.
There are black outs in the city. They're scheduled to help conserve energy. It has been said that we will not be affected, but with shops closing down, I think we might have a few hours of darkness eventually. I just don't know.
Kids are leaving. Two kids in my dorm have already flown home. I hear more kids are being brought home by their parents. They say they plan to return, but that their parents just want them home. Most of my dorm does plan on staying since we haven't truly been affected. Unless something goes horribly wrong, we have no reason to go.
I can't wait for things to get back to normal.
We still have aftershocks. Nothing huge by any means, but we are still shaking none the less. There is also news of a power plant that is also having some problems, but since I don't know the full details, I can't go in to that. To my knowledge, things with that are generally okay. The reason I say that things are getting weird is not because of the earthquake, but because of how people are acting.
In my small area of Ontakesan, we were not truly affected. We were shaken, the trains stopped, but we are not flooded and there was no damage beyond something falling off of something else. However, people are buying up food rapidly. Anything bread based (cake, buns, etc.) are gone. The selves have been empty since Friday after the quake. Super markets are closing, and the one that is open has a line out the door. Small bakeries are overwhelmed and are almost bare.
They've closed the school because of the country's recommendation that people should stay home. It will also be closed tomorrow.
I'm not scared of the earthquake because I'm not going to be anything but shaken, if anything. But the people are the ones that are freaking me out. With everything closing and people buying food like it's Armageddon, it's very eerie. We went to another town today and it was even getting bare in some of the big shops in the train station.
There are black outs in the city. They're scheduled to help conserve energy. It has been said that we will not be affected, but with shops closing down, I think we might have a few hours of darkness eventually. I just don't know.
Kids are leaving. Two kids in my dorm have already flown home. I hear more kids are being brought home by their parents. They say they plan to return, but that their parents just want them home. Most of my dorm does plan on staying since we haven't truly been affected. Unless something goes horribly wrong, we have no reason to go.
I can't wait for things to get back to normal.
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Earthquake
First things first, I'm fine. Nothing's broken, no wounds, no damage. I didn't reply to my text because my phone's charge/plan expired. It happened today, and I was going to renew it after school, however, their was an earthquake after school, so my plans changed.
NOW! The earthquake. I was at school when it happened. All of the sudden, you just felt things shaking. I at first thought it was me. I remember thinking, "Wow, I must be tired. The room's shaking." But everyone had the same face of, "...is it just me?" Then it REALLY started to shake. Like, stumbling around trying to get away from the windows.
We had to stand outside (which was confusing...because I thought we had to stay inside), and when it stopped, we returned...until the building started shaking again. Our teacher told us to just go home.
HOWEVER!
We couldn't go home because the trains were down. People were just crowding around in the station because, well, people weren't sure what to do. I ended up going back to school, thinking I could wait it out. I left briefly to get some dinner and since everything was still, I thought, "alright. I'll be able to go home tonight."
Well, around 7:30 they made the announcement that they would be allowing us to sleep at the school. At that point I finished my dinner, got something to drink and left. That's right. Close to eight at night, I made the choice to walk home.
Now, it wasn't totally crazy. I know my train stops. I know them well. I didn't plan on going alone, but no one else wanted to go, and I wasn't staying. The walk from the first station (Tamachi) to the second station (Shinagawa) wasn't bad. Lots of signs and such, and it was one straight line. The next stations? Very, very difficult.
Japan does not have street signs. At least, not like I'm used to. There is not a name for every street, just big main roads. That's it. I was able to practice my directional Japanese because of the mass of police men that were directing traffic, people, and keeping things orderly (people were walking in the streets a bit). In total, it took me three hours to get to Kamata station which is, get this, the half way point. By the time I got to Kamata, it was 11:14PM, I was hungry and my feet were killing me.
But I had a stroke of luck!
The Tokyu lines were up and running! I walked to the next station when I hear the train bells. And I was able to get a ride to my stop at Ontakesan. I was not the only one at the dorm. There were lots of other walkers who refused to stay at the school and simply walked.
You're probably thinking, "Gabby...Why in god's name didn't you take a taxi?" 1. It was extremely congested. I'm pretty sure I was moving down the street faster than any taxi. 2. I simply didn't want to waste the money. Once I started walking, that was it, I was walking. I had money on me, in case I gave up or something, but I was able to make it home, all for free. :D
I was also not walking alone at night. LOTS AND LOTS of people were walking. And it wasn't just the "oh, it's a night on the town" crowd, there were tons of working class people walking. I was not alone on the dark streets even once.
All in all, I'm safe. Sore and sleepy, but safe. Oh, and guess what? I got to do this three hour walk with a huge bag of vegetables on my back. I bought vegetables before the earthquake, and got to carry those guys around the whole time. How much fun...
NOW! The earthquake. I was at school when it happened. All of the sudden, you just felt things shaking. I at first thought it was me. I remember thinking, "Wow, I must be tired. The room's shaking." But everyone had the same face of, "...is it just me?" Then it REALLY started to shake. Like, stumbling around trying to get away from the windows.
We had to stand outside (which was confusing...because I thought we had to stay inside), and when it stopped, we returned...until the building started shaking again. Our teacher told us to just go home.
HOWEVER!
We couldn't go home because the trains were down. People were just crowding around in the station because, well, people weren't sure what to do. I ended up going back to school, thinking I could wait it out. I left briefly to get some dinner and since everything was still, I thought, "alright. I'll be able to go home tonight."
Well, around 7:30 they made the announcement that they would be allowing us to sleep at the school. At that point I finished my dinner, got something to drink and left. That's right. Close to eight at night, I made the choice to walk home.
Now, it wasn't totally crazy. I know my train stops. I know them well. I didn't plan on going alone, but no one else wanted to go, and I wasn't staying. The walk from the first station (Tamachi) to the second station (Shinagawa) wasn't bad. Lots of signs and such, and it was one straight line. The next stations? Very, very difficult.
Japan does not have street signs. At least, not like I'm used to. There is not a name for every street, just big main roads. That's it. I was able to practice my directional Japanese because of the mass of police men that were directing traffic, people, and keeping things orderly (people were walking in the streets a bit). In total, it took me three hours to get to Kamata station which is, get this, the half way point. By the time I got to Kamata, it was 11:14PM, I was hungry and my feet were killing me.
But I had a stroke of luck!
The Tokyu lines were up and running! I walked to the next station when I hear the train bells. And I was able to get a ride to my stop at Ontakesan. I was not the only one at the dorm. There were lots of other walkers who refused to stay at the school and simply walked.
You're probably thinking, "Gabby...Why in god's name didn't you take a taxi?" 1. It was extremely congested. I'm pretty sure I was moving down the street faster than any taxi. 2. I simply didn't want to waste the money. Once I started walking, that was it, I was walking. I had money on me, in case I gave up or something, but I was able to make it home, all for free. :D
I was also not walking alone at night. LOTS AND LOTS of people were walking. And it wasn't just the "oh, it's a night on the town" crowd, there were tons of working class people walking. I was not alone on the dark streets even once.
All in all, I'm safe. Sore and sleepy, but safe. Oh, and guess what? I got to do this three hour walk with a huge bag of vegetables on my back. I bought vegetables before the earthquake, and got to carry those guys around the whole time. How much fun...
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