Is The Ground Shaking, Or Is It Just Me?

when in Rome, right?  you use an odd "clothes
pin mobile" to hang them up

I suppose I should mention the earthquakes, and the after effects of the big one. There are tiny earthquakes everyday and we have felt at least two decent trembles since we have been here. We have noticed that it is hard to feel most of these unless you are sitting still. If you are up and moving around, you won't notice them. Sometimes you wonder if it is actually an earthquake or your imagination, but the dead giveaway is if you hear the house creak and pop like it is settling. Then you know it's really a quake. The two bigger ones have registered as 3's here where we are and were 4.something further east. They are all just a few seconds long, by the time you realize it's a earthquake and start wondering if you should get under the dining room table, it's over. They're a real let down so far. ;)

There is zero damage here from the March 11th quake. I heard rumors that some people lost roof tiles and that a neighbor's garden wall crumbled a little bit. They definitely felt it here. As far as the nuclear situation and the damage up north, we see it on the news pretty regularly. The only widespread effect is that the whole country is devoted to saving energy so that blackouts can be avoided (we have had no loss of electricity so far). Which means that companies and stores are running their air conditioners as little as possible. Which means it can get pretty hot inside sometimes. Chad had to get a fan for his desk because it is so hot at work. The news gives tips on how to save energy all the time. Everyone is asked to save 15% energy this year. As for us, I let the upstairs get hot during the day and only run the air conditioning downstairs (I'll explain the heaters/air conditioners later). I also dry clothes outside (normal here even before the energy saving) even though I have a dryer. And I don't use the dishwasher. It isn't much, but hopefully it's our 15%.  Also I'll say that we don't really know what it was like before the quake so we are probably not aware of some changes.  We've talked to a few people who were here about the differences since and they say it is different but their examples are pretty vague....mostly just that people aren't buying as much or going out (to bars and clubs) as much.

Yum!

Le Clair: currently the #1 rated Ota restaurant on Trip Advisor

So on Tuesday the Japanese wife of one of Chad's co-workers (they are about our age and newlyweds, and her English is pretty good) kindly invited me out to her favorite "cake and tea" shop here in town. It turned out to be an adorable bakery and dessert shop where you can get tiny, pretty desserts and then tea or coffee from a vending machine. Unfortunately it is on the other side of town and there is currently no way I could find my way back to it. 

Le Clair porch

Oh, and the food was not unusual: chocolate, shortcakes, cheesecakes, tirimisu, fruit tarts etc.  I had a really good tirimisu.

 

Mall Rats

There is a mall about a mile from our house. It was the first place we drove to and we still go almost every other day. There is a store at one end called Aeon which is pretty much Japanese Wal-Mart. The other end is a movie theater (yes, they show some American movies) and in between is an arcade, bookstore, cell phone store, fast food, sit-down restaurants, Starbucks, electronics store, drugstore, giftshops, bakery, dessert shop, florist and dozens of clothes/shoes/jewelry/cosmetic boutiques. The boutiques will get a post of their own one day, they deserve it, trust me.

Side note: We were told before coming that we would be stared at a lot because we're foreigners. I have not found this to be true.....we don't get stared at much unless people overhear us speaking English to one another and then they do a double-take. I think that being short, fair-skinned, brown-eyed brunettes really helps us blend into the crowd. Even kids don't really pay us that much attention which tells you we are not that unusual. We've seen a few tall, blonde foreigners out and about they really stand out. But even they are not being pointed at or stared at...the general public is pretty much focused on their shopping or whatever.



Aeon aka Japanese Wal-Mart



inside the mall