Life of D: My First Earthquake

Hi, this is D, I’m back (again and again, lol).

I’m not sure if it is being reported in Singapore but recently in Japan, theres’s been an occurrence of severe rainfall (the worst in 30 years) that has led to the death of >100 people and still another 80 or so reported missing. Additionally, earthquakes, too.

So last Saturday, after coming home from Shinjuku, I was preparing some ingredients to make dinner for the night when suddenly, I just couldn’t chop the carrot in the right places. Somehow, the knife, or the carrot and chopping board, were just not cooperating! Either of it is hovering and I couldn’t understand which and why.

I didn’t think it was earth quake because I have always had naturally shakey hands, so I thought perhaps it is the same problem, just worse.

In a split second, GJH was scrambling around the apartment, putting on a pair of jeans and telling me to stop chopping because the earth quake is quite serious. I was still pretty chill and trying to feel the earth quake when I saw the microwave oven (which was on the fridge) and rice cooker (which was on the microwave oven) wobbling. What followed next was a series of alarm going off on our phones and then the TV, signalling that there’s a 5.0 scale earth quake happening in Chiba.

The earth quake lasted quite a while, according to GJH (I can’t judge how long is considered long); it went away after 10-15s or so?

GJH said it was quite a major earth quake, though the worst he had in this apartment was when the whole building was shaking, or more like ‘vibrating’ according to the way he described it, where he could hear the whole roof and structure rattling.

Because of the frequent occurrence of earth quake in Japan, it also affected the way we place certain things at home. For example, I had wanted to stack a rack on top of another rack to create a higher TV stand (because our new bed plus mattress was much higher than his previous single bed), only to have my amazeballs cost savings plan smashed by GJH because he said it was too unsafe for earthquake, as the TV will probably fall. Likewise, GJH doesn’t allow me to stack things unless they have a firm base. This is definitely something that a ‘newly imported’ Singaporean like me wouldn’t know.

Just a random thought, but perhaps this is also why Japanese design are often ‘low’, as in, low on the floor, like lower tables like Kotatsu, chairs for floor sitting, etc. That way, CG is lower and there’s less chance of things falling? Hmm, I wonder.

By the way, I asked GJH why the first thing he did when earth quake happened was to grab his jeans (I mean, really? lol) and his answer was…

“You know how in a disaster there will always be people naked, topless, bottomless or in their underwear? No way am I going to be caught dead being one of them!”

So now you know, if there’s an earthquake, don’t grab your phone.

*GRAB YOUR PANTS!

Lol.

Till the next update,
D.

 

*p.s.
Seriously, I’m kidding. You should always hide under the table and evacuate if shit gets real.

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