Japan, Natural Disasters and I: Chapter 1

Originally posted on March 13, 2008

You will always remember your first times. You will always remember odd events. And Japan is always ready to show you odd first times.

When my Japanese adventure started, I was aware of the intimacy between Japan and Natural Disasters. Japan is located on the “Ring of Fire”. Japan is proud to have more than 10% of active volcanoes of the world, and being on 3 major seismic plates.

The event of natural disaster is somehow embedded in the Japanese culture. They learned how to go around it. This is fascinating! But I never understood how Japanese dealt with it and lived with it as if life was normal… until my first time.

I was still fresh in Japan, didn’t receive “Natural Disaster Training” and didn’t read any “Manual to Survive”. In other words, I was not ready. Not ready at all!

Few weeks in Japan, and I needed to discover the night scene in Osaka. My friend Victoria was nice to take me out to the neighborhood’s club slash meet-market: Sam and Dave! We drank, we drank... we danced… I learned my first Japanese pick-up lines... and I applied. I was literally surrounded by fans from, unexpectedly, both sexes. Unfortunately, for me and for them, I wasn’t ready to go beyond practicing “how to pick-up in Japanese”. Let’s say that my heart and mind were still in Beirut. Jet lag issues?

All this is to tell you that I woke up the next morning with a light hangover. So, I woke up in my dorm room and stood up, bumped into almost everything (tiny tiny tiny room), then sat on the chair, opened my Japanese book and started reading. Few minutes later, my head started spinning (non circular spins). I shouted at myself: “Come ooooon! I can’t still be drunk, I didn’t drink that much! Goddam it”! But then, my room started squeaking louder and louder; my chair started moving and I couldn’t stand up straight. With that, an excess of adrenaline rushed into my heart and I realized that it was a “big” earthquake (relatively to the non-Japanese me).

I panicked! I didn’t know what to do. I was surrounded by the enemy: high closets, AC unit…… things that are ready to fall on me! I really felt that I was going to get squashed by these objects. I hated them. “I’m at the 4th floor, so I can’t jump”. So I simply tried to keep my equilibrium in the center of the room with my hands up in the air! I waited. 20seconds. Stronger heart beats. I looked outside: people were acting normal. WHY?!?!? 30seconds. Louis Armstrong fast heart beats. They are not panicking! Someone help me! 40seconds. Apollo 13 heart beats. I wish I had a picture of that minute: I looked so dumb and scared. 43 seconds! I was still alive, the room stopped its roller coaster ride. I laughed.

I called my friend: “Man, did you feel it? What should I do next time?”
Next day, he handed me a booklet: chapter 1, earthquakes; chapter 2, typhoons; chapter 3, tsunami alert; chapter 4, fire.

With that booklet, I felt safe! “Pillows and booklets” are my thing.