Adventures in Japan no. 31

I awoke with a start. It was 3am. There was a loud explosion from outside and the house shook and swayed. Immediately my mind lead me to believe we had just been bombed by North Korea.

It lasted for 3 seconds then was gone. The neighborhood was quiet. There were no dogs barking – did I just imagine it?

My startled husband ran into the room in a panic. “What was that?”, he asked. “Did Daisen erupt?”, I casually asked about the dormant mountain 10 minutes away.

After living in Japan for 16 months I've finally felt my first ubiquitous Japanese earthquake.

16 percent of the world's earthquakes take place in Japan. They're as common as anime and mullets, and almost as scary.

Adventures in Japan no. 30

We discovered a mouse in our house the other day. On top of all the other critters that share our old Japanese house with us, we have a mouse.

We put out poison (“the favorite flavor of mice” according to our manager) and named it Henry. Now whenever we need to refer to it we can say things like:

“I saw Henry in the kitchen tonight”

“Henry ate a box of dry lasagna noodles”

“Henry's dead”

It makes it sound less like we have a rodent and more like there's just an unwelcome visitor. Our school's owner reassured me that mice don't eat people (don't they?) and doesn't think a mouse is cause for moving. Hopefully Henry won't overstay his welcome.