Your Japanese word of the week is...

"neru", which is the infinitive form of the verb "sleep". Of course, the dictionary also says there's "nemuru" which also means sleep. The two have different kanji though, so I really have no idea what the difference is. Looking it up backwards shows that "nemuru" means sleep while "neru" can also mean to "go to bed". But really, I guess it's the same deal more or less.........

So, how does that tie in this week?? Quite a few times......

For starters, there were TWO earthquakes over the past weekend. The first of which was early Saturday morning at around 2am or so. The 4.5 Richter quake apparently occurred 50-some km off the WSW coast of Japan. And I was sleeping at the time so when I opened my eyes and heard everything creaking and swaying my first reaction was........ "Wow, what a dream this is!".

Then, of course, I realised it wasn't a dream. Luckily, most of the swaying was lateral (which is no cause for concern according to people here) so no harm done. The day after too, there was a slight tremble in the morning.

The most worrisome thing about all this isn't the earthquakes themselves, but how I'm going to deal with it if a larger one comes. My room, in case you haven't see it, has tatami mats which makes it a sort of traditional style room. Traditional Japanese style rooms have no chairs as everyone sits on the ground. That everyone sits on the ground means the tables are about half-height. That makes it nearly impossible for me to execute what I've learned all through elementary and high school, which is to hide under a table if an earthquake comes, cuz I don't fit. So I'm sort of left with the doorway as the only option.

Either that, or jumping through one of my many glass windows haha....... but let's not try that......

But the wildest "sleep" adventure this past week was this............

Allow me to set up the scenario........

Again this past weekend, Peter came down to Tokyo. This time he wanted to check out the nightlife but it wasn't going to be easy being a Sunday night. Regardless, we headed out to the more happenin' districts of Tokyo to find some life in the night. After a few rather dead clubs and bars, we moved from Roppongi to Shibuya hoping that there'd be more to do. It was more of the same with just a handful of bars open with a handful of people. So we just ended up wandering the night away, meeting the occassional people (including a guy from North Van).

At about 3, we went into a 24hr McDonald's for some food and when we went downstairs for a seat, that was the scene we saw- People passed out at nearly all the tables. I think it's safe to assume it's a mix of homeless people, people who missed the train home, or people who worked so late that it makes no sense to go home. But it was pretty crazy when we saw it......

It gets better though............ a worker came down to tell us he was going to clean this bottom floor but he's just finished the second floor and it's open now (how nice). And so everyone drowsily made their way to the second floor and passed out again. I had Peter snap the picture because I figured no one would believe me haha........

Other things that were still open at night?? A clothing store and a hair salon. We actually saw a guy getting his hair cut at 2am. I was told it was someone who was training, in case, I presume, the hair cut is awful, then there's still 3 hours to fix it before anyone sees it. But who trains at 2am?? Why not at 9 or something, right after it closes?? And if it's not training, who wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks, Yeah, what I really want right now is a hair cut..........

So if you're visiting Tokyo for a day and are looking for a cheap way to pass the night............. there's always McDonald's heh.....

Either way, Peter said he'd come back on a Saturday next time so we can party the night away, instead of taking pictures of people sleeping in a fast food joint............. =D