Last day in Tokyo. Laying in bed this morning and hear commotion in the hall. Sounds like a room service cart is careening through the hallway. Then I realize I’m vaguely giddy. Then I hear my bathroom door slamming back-and-forth. Then I realize, “oooh, an earthquake.”

I hung around the room for a while. I was on the 49th floor of the Ritz Carlton — a thoroughly modern building, so it is well-built against these things. After a while though, I thought, “screw this; just walk outside and get a coffee anyway.”

I packed up my newspaper and sunglasses and went out to the lift. An American women joined me. She had the look of serious grippedness. As the lift goes down I small-talker her, “were you shaken awake too?” “Yes,” she said, “what’s going on?” “It’s an earthquake,” I answered, and at this point the filial son in me broke out, and I started laughing hysterically. What the hell did she think it was? I don’t think my eye-watering laughter made her feel especially comforted, but I couldn’t help myself. She says, “why are you laughing?” All I could say was, “nothing to be done about it–go downstairs and have a coffee.”

This is my second noticeable earthquake in Tokyo. Each time I am surprised by how it lasts much longer than I’d expect, and it’s much more of a vague swaying/falling feeling than any kind of industrial shaking or vibration.

UPDATE:  Here’s a brief and bad capture I took with my camera.  For a moment when i pan to the window, you can sort of make out the swaying.   I have no idea what the terrible noise on the audio is.

Strong earthquake hits Japan

6 minutes ago

TOKYO (AFP) — A powerful earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck northern Japan Saturday, the meteorological agency said.

The earthquake hit in Iwate prefecture, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of Tokyo, and rattled buildings in the capital.

Television footage showed buildings also shaking in northern cities of Japan. Bullet trains were automatically shut down as a precaution.

The quake had a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), the agency said.

There was no immediate word on potential damage or casualties, and the agency did not issue a tsunami warning.

A new earthquake warning system kicked in for the quake, with public broadcaster NHK flashing an alert moments before it struck.

Japan endures some 20 percent of the world’s powerful earthquakes. It has built an infrastructure intended to withstand tremors.

Ron Carter

Originally uploaded by fstop45.

…assuming no mass-murderers or suicide bombers attack the Tokyo Blue Note, I’ll be enjoying a night of Ron Carter, master bassist.

The Truck

Originally uploaded by karavshin.
This afternoon went to Akihabara ‘Electric Town’ in Tokyo, looking for an amateur radio store I’d been to years ago (Rocket Radio — defunct as far as I can tell).

Anyway, there had been some sort of traffic accident, but the police cordon was massive, there were dozens of investigators and detectives, and there was apparently evidence all over the street.

Had no idea what had happened till I checked Google News and found out that a lunatic had gone on a killing rampage an hour before I arrived. (I had spent the morning buying art supplies at Tokyo Hands and Seikaido). He rented a truck (shown here), drove it down a street, plowing into people, before coming to stop, jumping out, and stabbing a lot of other people before being subdued!

One good way to find cool stuff in Tokyo is to set off on meaningless missions. So this morning I found the location for the flagship Muji store and browsed what was playing on the arts scene. Nothing grabbed me by the throat for attention, so I semi-arbitrarily chose the Boroboro Dorodoro Exhibition - The Return of Japanese Subculture at the Watari-Museum of Contemporary art.  There were two artists showing there,

Misaki Kawai, Taylor McKimens 

American McKimens had one 3-d display that looked like water leaking from the roof, falling and puddling on the floor. It looked nice and was clever.  He uses primitive materials (they look like cheap, strong tempra paints) but paints in a very heavy, simple, bright style, so it works.  I didn’t care for his paintings, they didn’t click with me.  Strange pictures of blobs and of hairy male torsos in underwear.

Kawai had a really cool 3-d display too. Even Luke enjoyed. it was an exceptionally large 3d diorama (is that a contradiction of terms?) of some sort of fantasy space house.  It was made, also, of terribly primitive materials, but painfully detailed.  Her use of lighting and sound gave the display a warmth and life and reality it would have otherwise been lacking.  I wonder what they’ll do with it once the display is over? It’s huge and brittle.
Venue: Watari-um, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art
Schedule: From 2006-10-14 To 2007-01-28
Address: 3-7-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001
Phone: 03-3402-3001 Fax: 03-3405-7714

From here we bumbled through side streets to Harujuku. It was nice to go through Harujuku from the side because we got to see a lot more of the tiny little fashion places I’ve always hear about, not just the big retail stuff  running into the main intersection.

Next week I will be working in Tokyo. Stealing some fun out of it, so on Friday night Ling, Luke and I fly up and then will fly back the following Sunday night. I’ll have to work during the week, but at least it will be a break. It’ll be an exercise in schedule flexibility for Luke, too, something we haven’t tinkered with much.