Earthquakes and stuff

[dr4b]

Yeah, so apparently another huge earthquake (Shindo 6+) just hit Iwate. My apartment here in Saitama was shaking for about 2 minutes. That's no fun.

Also, the weather is very hot lately now that rainy season is over. The high near here was something like 34 today (which is like 93 for the rest of you), and it's only going to get hotter, supposedly.

My coworker Jon apparently decided to quit GEOS, and started telling us and students today. He said his last day is August 6th, two weeks from now, exactly 6 months from when he started. Crazy. Also, Fukuoka-manager got transferred out of Urawa, which is very sad. Dunno if I'll ever see him again.

Yesterday, I bought mini-taiyaki from the sweets stand outside Daiei. That is not so strange. What is strange is that there was a tall blonde-haired Russian girl manning the Daiei stand. She speaks impeccable Japanese and I didn't bother trying to communicate otherwise, even once I got over the momentary "hey, the blonde girl is actually FOREIGN" shock.

UFO catchers make me unhappy lately, although sight-reading level 28's on Pop'n makes me a little more happy, I suppose.

My brain is hopelessly behind on everything I need to do, it feels like. This system of having super-packed exciting baseball weekends and then feeling guilty for not writing about them all week is starting to take a toll on my brain, I think. And this weekend is no different as I'll be going off to Kyushu. Yargh.

Comments

[darksakura.livejournal.com]

My friend on Twitter posted about it and I thought of you. He said the shaking was strong at his place. Glad you're all right!

[guitarcries.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is really bizarre about the Russian chick. Wonder if it's some work exchange program for college students?

[dr4b]

Dunno. Why would someone come to Japan to work in a supermarket, though?

[guitarcries.livejournal.com]

Why do Israeli college students come to America to work in those crappy hair accessory booths at the mall? Why is there a smart, beautiful Italian girl working at the diner near my house? What about the genius Greek guy in his 50s working at another diner I hang out at, who sits and studies English, philosophy, and law when it's slow?

[catbus.livejournal.com]

Aaaahhh we felt it in Akita, it was a 4, and I was scaaaaaaaaaarreedd. My room is on the second floor and it was shaking and swaying.

[dr4b]

Yeah, no kidding, I wouldn't want to be anywhere in Tohoku with this recent series of earthquakes.

[kawaru.livejournal.com]

Explain these Pop'n song levels to me. On GF&DM and IIDX the levels are right there in plain sight. But I've occasionally played an older Pop'n machine, and I played one tonight for 4 songs on the newest version out. I thought maybe it was something with the older versions I was playing and that's why I never saw the levels.

But I played tonight and never saw song levels anywhere, just stars below the song banner showing difficulty, like 5 stars or so. Is there a certain mode you have to play in to get these difficulty numbers to show up?

[dr4b]

What mode were you playing in? I think almost everyone plays in Challenge mode -- IIRC, "enjoy" mode or whatever just has really simple stuff and doesn't even have Hyper or Ex songs, right?