Todays Earthquake

Imagine if you will an old building:

shake shake shake
shake shake shake-shake-shake
shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shakeshaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake
shake shake
shake shake shake
shake shake shake-shake-shake
shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shake-shakeshaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake

However, in a NEW building it feels more like:

swaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy
swaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy
shaaaaaaaaaaaake
swaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy
swaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy
shaaaaaaaaaaaake

Just so you know!

Today however, I was teaching in a very OLD building at 4.35pm when a rather long earthquake happened in Chiba (Tokyo). It was only a mild one - a 5.7 (or 6.1 depending on which report you read). I wasn't letting my students out of a hard slog (okay we were in the middle of a game) just because the building might fall down on us. They did look at me a couple of times to just double check I wasn't seriously insane though. But I figure, if you're gonna go you're gonna go - although I could think of better people to go with than those two... Anyway, I did allow them a three minute stop so we could all go and stare out the window, with everyone else in the school at the train that had stopped on the track, just before the platform.

Sad, isn't it, the things we sometimes find interesting!

______________________________

There was an article in The Japan Times the other day about new ATM's that are doubling as slot machines by turning a 105 yen (about 50p) withdrawal fee into a game of chance. It goes on to say that customers who line up three straight 7's when they press the 'stop' button on the ATM screen win 105 yen, cancelling out their fee. However, if you line up a set of 'gold' or 'super gold' images, you can earn a payout of 1,000 yen (about £5).

I particularly love the quote: 'We want our customes to enjoy a little excitement during the waiting time when they operate an ATM,' a bank spokesman said.

Er, yes. Right. VERY exciting...!