I'll be away for the next 3 weeks, going back to France for my brother's wedding (yes, everyone's getting married this year!) and then to Italy for a quick trip with Eiko.
Although I do not wish there's an earthquake while I'm away, I will
definitely feel safer in France, away from those earthquakes like the one that
hit Hokkaido a few days ago (M7 on Richter's scale).
I wanted to write a few lines about it but I didn't really have time to do so
with all the packing, work in the office, buying souvenirs, getting back my
scooter from the cops who picked it up in Shinjuku, etc.
Bruno, on the other hand, has written something about it in his weblog so I'll just refer to it instead (that'll prevent Bruno from telling me I'm copying his ideas too ;)).
See you in 3 weeks from now!
The M7+ earthquake predicted by Yoshio Kushida to happen on September 16th or 17th actually came a little late on the 20th and was "just" a M5.5 one.
It came as I was working on the 15th floor and I couldn't help but to think that that was it. I have to admit that I was feeling a little relieved a few days before, after the deadline of the 17th passed, but this one kind of scared me...
However, it was so short and so weak, compared to my actual expectations of the M7+ one, that I felt a little "disappointed" but very relieved when it finished.
I'm wondering if the researchers will start to pay more attention to that astronomer's work or if they'll just keep pretending that was a coincidence...
The details of this earthquake, from tenki.jp.
After living in
Japan (more or less) peacefully for the last 4 years and
half, I have to admit I tend to forget that we're still exposed to a M7+
earthquake that would destroy Tokyo, as all seismologists seem to agree and as
I mentioned before.
However, some news published in a local newspaper suddenly reminded me of it and I'm really not sure how to take it...
According to Yoshio Kushida, a self-taught astronomer who studies electromagnetic field changes generated by magma movement (which has supposably an influence on charged particles), a major earthquake could strike Tokyo on the 16th or the 17th of September.
The news has apparently spreaded by word of mouth, but the information
hasn't risen an eyebrow of the earthquake researchers, as no announcement has
been made on TV (at least, not that I am aware of).
According to them, there is no technical solution to predict earthquakes as of
today.
I can't help but to wonder how the situation will be handled if that really had to happen. The pictures of the last major earthquake in 1923 which killed about 120,000 people are quite scary, on the other hand, the buildings were not designed to sustain such strong earthquakes at that time.
Yet, recent research has shown that even the buildings which claim to be able to sustain a M7+ earthquake wouldn't resist the added effect of resonance of the earthquake if it happened...
For reference, the summary report of the earthquake in Kobe in 1995.
[the picture above was borrowed from this site]
We went to a very nice Italian restaurant in Minami Aoyama
yesterday, called Ristorante Hiro, to
celebrate our mariage with Eiko's family.
The food was very nice and refined (I had some home-made pasta with wild duck meat, sauteed foie gras, grilled lamb and a chocolate parfait), and there's just enough to make you full but not sick!
There are different menus, price ranging from ¥6,500 to ¥10,000 (the higher priced sets including more choices), but they're quite worth it. Just the plate of succulent beef Eiko had would cost you that price in a regular restaurant!
On the other hand, we also went to a so-called French restaurant called Monna Lisa in Marunouchi building, next to the Tokyo train station.
Quite honestly speaking, you would expect more from a restaurant at the top
floor of that building: the room is quite small, leaving very little space
between the tables, it's quite noisy, the tiles and the walls echoing and
mixing the conversations of all the customers into a loud background noise
making you feel in a bistro.
The food is not bad (although the mussels and the fish were overcooked) but
over-priced in my opinion for this quality (same range of prices as the
restaurant above).
I believe the price you pay reflects more the image of the restaurant
(French restaurant on the 36th floor of a recent building) than the food
itself.
What also makes me believe in this is the way the menu is written, with tons
of basic spelling mistakes (in French) and the actual way the food is
prepared: I don't recall having eaten shellfish cooked with soy sauce in
France.
Yet, I have to admit that the view over the Imperial Palace and the buildings of Shinjuku is quite nice, but all the other factors make it a little difficult to appreciate that last positive point.
Although in photography, it is
recommended to simplify the shot as much as possible in order to put in the
front the actual subject, I couldn't resist and included those 3 points of
interest in this picture:
- The huge building of Roppongi Hills, which seems to come out from nowhere when seen from the peaceful residential neighborhood of Aoyama
- The full moon next to it (although overexposed...)
- and Mars, the little dot next to the moon.
I have to admit that you really have to tell yourself it's the planet Mars
to be impressive. Or else, it's just another dot in the sky, among the
thousands of stars...
Well, since it comes so close to the Earth only every 60,000 years, I had to
see it if I didn't want to sound like a fool ;-)
I bought some flowers for our apartment and I decided to
go for a few shots, inspired by the numerous photos of sunflowers you can find
on the web.
Those pictures are therefore far from being the most original of this kind
but it's still an interesting photographic experiment.
I tried to play with a shallow depth of field to show the same object under
different aspects, although the position of the subject didn't change compared
to the camera:
- I like this one because I played with the manual focus to show only the ends of the petals, leaving the main subject in a blur, bringing a surprising attention to what is usually left almost unseen
- This one is more classical, but I like the way the petals are flying away from the frame, I think it's a very dynamic picture
- For this one, I played with the manual focus again to show only one plane of sharpness. It gives an interesting effect, almost vertigo or as if the flower was burning, as Fred said
- Finally, a shot with a very small aperture the whole flower as sharp
This is it, Eiko and I got married this morning at 11am at
Nakano-ku's city office, with no ceremony, no suit or wedding dress, no
photographer, just a clerk at the counter checking our application forms for
10 minutes.
Yet, the joy of being finally married didn't suffer from the simplicity of
this old Japanese administrative building!
It has been quite a tough day, with the actual registration, the papers to
get to apply to the next counter for a different thing. It was especially
tough for Eiko who had to change her name, change her address, etc.
She still has to change her passport though. As for what's left for me, I'll
have to get some stamp from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, register the
marriage with the French embassy and eventually update my Visa, since I am now
married to a Japanese citizen: that gives me some additional advantages, such
as having a Visa that is independant from my occupation.
The picture here is the bouquet my family sent us for the happy event.
They've been very supportive, especially my brother who didn't hesitate to
wake us up at 6:30am this morning to congratulate us in advance (obviously,
he's still not very familiar with the time difference between France and
Japan! ;))
