Typhoon & an earthquake in 1 day

Saturday
There was a typhoon warning for Okinawa, my brother was there for a holiday and was due to fly back on Friday but couldn't get back until Sunday. The typhoon was really strong and caused flooding, damage to buildings etc

Sunday
In Tokyo there were forecast/warning for heavy rain and winds as a result of the typhoon. We woke on Sunday and it was raining but was nothing out of the ordinary, so we decided to go to Sega Joypolis (an indoor theme park of virtual rides, normal rides and games) in Odaiba, we live 1 stop away on the monorail and thought even if the heavy rain hit we weren't that far to come home.

We got a shock when we got there, it was packed to the rafters with people, nothing stops Japanese people on vacation!

Let me tell you about the queues! every ride had a minimum waiting time of 75 minutes, we only got to go on 3 rides! Its a great place though, even with the wait, the ride didn't disappoint, there is nothing like it in Australia. We plan to go back when its not a long weekend and holidays.
http://www.sega.co.jp/joypolis/tokyo/home_e.shtml

Monday
we were woken by an earthquake, it only measured in at 3 but because we live in a high rise apartment, the building is designed to move with the earthquake to cause minimal damage so we shook for a while but wasn't strong enough to do damage. Niigat & Nagasake was the worst hit with Niigata measuring in at 6. Soon after every tv channel had broadcasts on the quake at first it seemed like there was not much damage but as the day went on there were reports of 6 dead and over 200 people injured and countless homeless from their houses collapsing etc.

Last night there were reports that people who evacuated to make shift emergency centres had shortages of water & food. There is no running water and there were number of gas pipe that burst.

It was the worst timing as this weekend was a 3 day long weekend and start of the Summer holidays.

All over Japan experienced heavy rains & winds from the typhoon and earthquakes.

This Saturday we are going to "Hawaiian's", what is that you ask? It is a oversized, gigantic water theme park. There is 5 theme parks and 5 hotels - 3 water parks complete with water slides, whirl pools etc and 2 onsen parks (natural spring). We wanted to stay there but they are booked out until Janauary 2008! so we settled for a day trip tour run by a bus company for only 5,800 Yen (about $60) which includes the but trip there & back, buffet lunch and entry into the park - soooo cheap! We have realised that eveyrthing is so cheap here.
http://www.hawaiians.co.jp/english/index3.html

Watch this space for my report on our trip.

View at night from our new apartment

IMGP2129
Originally uploaded by Yogobear

This is our view at night of Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba.

Its really beautiful at night and my mum tells me we have prime seats for the fire works every July for the Tokyo Bay summer festival.

I don't think we will ever get sick of this.

You can see more photos of our view during the day & night here

5 weeks in Tokyo

It's hard to belive its been 5 weeks since we left OZ. Time has flown past and we have been very busy.

The first month we stayed in a serviced apartment Brian's work provided. It was fantastic didn't have to clean and it was 5 minutes walk to Brian's work.

On the 2nd day we were taken around to look at apartments and from then on we went house hunting practically every day.

We have been living in our new apartment for a week now and finally have most of our furniture, electrical goods, Internet connection, cable TV etc.

The amount of foreigners living in Japan, you would think electricity, Internet etc companies would have forms etc in English BUT NO! I have no idea how people get by, I guess they use relocation companies.

As I write this I am looking at our view of Tokyo Bay & Rainbow Bridge. At night the view is fantastic!

I promise to post some photos soon.....