Coming Soon to a Subduction Zone Near You!

raven2, originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

Well, about an hour ago, at 11:45, we had a pretty strong earthquake. The epicentre was off the coast of Miyagi; the nearest city was Sendai, and it measured about 6.8.
Here in Tokyo things were swinging and shaking and it went on for quite a while.
I consider this our second warning in as many weeks. After the last earthquake (the biggest in Tokyo for 13 years no less) I decided it was definitly time for action and to get prepared. Here's the list of things to buy and things to do:
Water
Gas for the camping gas stove
Batteries for the flashlight
Candles
Food
Cash, in small denominations
Decide on what do, where to meet etc.
So far I haven't done anything... it's so easy to let yesterday's earthquake slip to the back of one's mind. And then again I have been reminded that under my feet, deep deep down there, several plates are moving, sliding, building up stresses and tensions that one day, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps next year, will give way and this whole city of cards will come tumbling down. And if that happens then it's a brand new game and priorities are suddenly turned on their head. What you took for granted one day will be swept away the next. The convenience store life style that so many in this city live in will be gone as quickly as the stock in the local 7-11. People will be lining up for 7 hours for a small bottle of water. Money will not mean as much as how much food and water you had stored before the earth moved.
The supermarkets are full of food right now. Now is the time to prepare... or get the hell out. The trouble is you can't really imagine that it will actually happen. It's seems like a story that everyone tells but that is just a story. Or perhaps you can believe it but what you think will happen is far from the reality of what is actually going to happen. On NHK 30 minutes ago they showed shop staff picking up the bottles that fallen of the shelves. Some people think that's what it will be like - just picking up a few fallen objects and then carrying on as before.

The ravens know more than they are willing to tell. They will all far away when the big one hits, laughing their feathers off and preparing for the feast.

Cats

Cats, originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

Some little ceramic cats I found on a stall in Ueno park after visiting the zoo last week. Funny, the animals in the zoo had similar expressions on their faces.

Look Out Cleveland

Look Out Cleveland, originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

A word here, a call there, a meeting here and there and the next thing you know the road has changed and you are headed in a new and very interesting direction. Although I have to say that though the mountains look spectacular, the way the figures raise so dramatically to what I was used to down in the valley, those peaks are not a little scary. But I know from experience that appearances can be deceptive, especially in the case of mountains. What looks so steep from the safety (and dullness) of the valley in reality maybe perfectly easy to scale. There is a foreshortening in our perception and that foreshortening can scare us unnecessarily.
Now I've been invited to the base of the mountain, I'm clipped in and I've been given the all clear to start my ascent. No doubt there will be the occasional falling stone, a tricky patch of ice or a difficult pitch but I'll deal with those as I encounter them.
The view should be pretty good from up there. And now if you'll excuse me I have to pack...
Which reminds me I'm seriously considering a Fuji climb next week. Looks like it'll have to be a solo climb, but that's OK, perhaps I need the space to do a little high altitude pondering.

Tokyo from the 49th floor

Tokyo from the 49th floor, originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

Nice view from up here on the 49th floor. I'm relaxing with an iced latte and a window seat. Trying to pick out the places I know, but the city looks different from above compared to street level. I've always thought Tokyo's beauty... if it has any... is in it's details; those little surprises and small corners, which do still exist, although they are being hunted down and concreted over. But even from 49 floors up I'm not sure we can actually say the city is beautiful. It's just that we are surprised by the unusual perspective the altitude gives us, and perhaps simply the sheer size of the city and the number of buildings we can see from our vantage point. Usually you can see, how many buildings, about 10 or 20 from a street corner, perhaps more. But up here there are thousands, countless. It's all starting to look a little like the computer generated cities in the latest Star Wars movie. Perhaps Tokyo is a virtual city. Perhaps it only exists in our minds; we are not really here at all. I know a lot people here who are not really here... there is no here, here.

Stick

Stick, originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

Thought is the real Butterfly Effect, don't you think? A thought can cause small ripples that fan out across your reality that turn into waves and change everything. And that's how it should be.
Without the waves we would be sitting in the middle of a flat calm ocean looking at ourselves in the mirror-like stillness of the deep.
Had the very early universe been uniformly flat then small clumps of matter could not have have formed, clumps which in turn clumped together... and the next thing you know you have several billion glaxies all containing several billion stars.
Thought leads to action and action leads to movement and growth and life. That's the theory anyway. Sometimes a big thought pops into your head, which can be quite scary, and the action it calls for is more than you can manage. But the thought won't go away so you had better just get on with it and see what happens. Everything usually turns out for best anayway, so don't worry about it.
Do you ever get the feel that the universe had just been waiting, patiently, for you to move into the right place, and that once you were there it was as if a key had been turned and things started to move like they hadn't moved previously. The mechanism had always been there, like in some ancient Egyptian pyramid or lost city Indy Jones lock.
Still a few turns to go though.