Smile Update Japan

• I lived through my first typhoon and earthquake in Japan, all in a span of three days. I was so excited about the typhoon, as we don't generally have them in the US. At least I don't think we do. I didn't even know what a typhoon was. Categorically, I guess it's a little weaker than a hurricane. In any case, it turned out to be a thunderstorm. Not even a really bad one. The 6.8 earthquake's epicenter was offshore of the Niigata prefecture in Japan; about 8 hours northwest of Nagoya. Supposedly, my city felt 3.0 tremmors, but Monday (some holiday called "Ocean Day". No Joke. I love this country) was a holiday, and so at 10:15 a.m., when it hit, I was soundly asleep on my futon.
• Sunday afternoon Rich, my boss, Raul, and I went to Hamanako Lake, a brackish body of water at the mouth of the Pacific Ocean (I think?), to catch shrimp. Yeah! Shrimp! I didn't even know you could do that! But it turns out typhoons (it hit the day before) are really windy, and so we had to fight 40 to 50 mph winds to catch the ever ellusive creatures. In fact, we didn't catch any because the water was so choppy. C'est la vie! It was nice to get out of the city and see mountains and the ocean (which had 15 to 20 foot swells). While we were driving on the highway toward Hamanako, yellow caution signs appeared regularly: Deer Crossing. Not so unusual. Then: Monkey Crossing. AWESOME! Monkeys! I imagined them sitting on the guardrails flinging poo at passing cars, but alas...we saw no monkeys.
• Remember the whole toothpaste with poison from China debacle? Well, since then, we have gotton news of Chinese Killer Cough Medice (wiped out hundreds of people from Panama), Chinese Dumplings (called nikuman) made with cardboard and lard instead of meat...yummy, and bottled water erroneously labeled as Evian when in fact it was Chinese tap water. Oh yeah, and baby toys painted with lead-based paint. It's the biggest news in Japan right now, so I thought I'd share it with you. Needless to say, I don't buy things from China anymore. Caught up in hysteria, you say? Whatever, all I know is I don't want to grow a third eye or something.