erathquakes, tsunamis, and cat treats, oh my!

So, we set out for a bit of adventure today...But wait. Stop. First, let me tell you about the earthquake that woke me up at 5am this morning. Being asleep and all at the onset, I wasn't exactly at my sharpest when I first started consciously thinking.

So after hearing the immense amount of rattling that was taking place all around me, my first thought was, Somebody's trying to get into my room!!!

But it was more like, SOMEBODY'S TRYING TO GET INTO MY ROOM!!!, only, you know, in thought form.

And then, once I realized that my bed was shaking uncontrollably, really rolling around like it was fluid or something, my next thought was, And now they've gotten in and are shaking my bed!!!

So you can imagine my intense relief when I realized that the amount of noise and movement that had so abruptly woken me up was only an earthquake and not, in fact, harmful intruders who first broke into my room and then, horror of horrors, decided to shake my bed.

Because we all know that most break-ins are in order to shake a bed.

Jails are just full of those kinds of criminals and dear God, please protect us from them all.

But that earthquake really was something; it lasted a pretty long time--maybe even ten minutes--and I was glad when it exhausted itself so I could go back to sleep.

I am also glad that I didn't know about the tsunami warning (!!!) until it had already passed. I am terrified of tsunamis, but have always comforted myself by the fact that I have never lived closer than a two hour drive to any shore. Until now, that is.

Anyway, back to my adventure today.

It started with a trip to the 7-11 nearby. My friends all chose something uniquely Japanese, but me? I, uh, didn't.
Ritz crackers and Evian water are the universal language that translates quite nicely into S-N-A-C-K no matter what part of the globe you inhabit.

But don't worry I did eat some local fare later on in the day, and my friends bought this candy for all of us to share.
At least candy is what they said it was. Having only Japanese writing on it, there was really no way for us to tell what it was, but given how closely it smelled like something that crawled out of the ocean as well as the cat face it sported, we decided it might actually be a cat treat and left it alone.

And then we ventured out onto the subway for the first time.
And by we I mean smart people who actually figured out where we needed to get on and off while Brandon and I wandered behind, happy to follow and lost in our conversation.

It's nice to see how the Japanese care for the pregnant women.
And encourage rude, clueless teenagers to get off their seats and do the same.

We made it to the Tokyo Tower, although I gotta say that I did not think it was very beautiful.
It was pretty tall though, so there's that. We could look for miles and miles and still not see the end of Tokyo, this city is that big.

Oh and we stopped for a bathroom break there. I gingerly stepped around the urine that was on the floor and went to it.
After the tower, we went to a nearby temple and graveyard.
You may find it strange and morbid, but I love graveyards. I think the care and attention to detail in the burial of their loved ones is a special and telling part of every culture: we all love and miss our family, our friends, the people who create home for us.

Graveyards are hallowed and sadly beautiful testaments to the importance of each other, I think. And I kind of felt weird posing for this picture next to this gravestone; I didn't feel like a smile would be apropos, exactly, which left me looking like this.
But I am not sure that cats have the same sense of propriety. At least this one found nothing whatsoever wrong about catching a midday nap on this gravesite.
Too bad I didn't save one of those could-be-candy-but-is-probably-a-cat-treat for this kitty.

We visited the Imperial Palace, but couldn't see much of it because it's closed 363 days out of the year. So we settled for walking around the beautiful gardens that surround it.
And I loved the look of these two swans.
Doing what swans should do and not at all confused or doubting their calling. A lot of us could learn from this, I think.

Oh, and leave it to me to say, well, this...

Please bear in mind that we had only landed in Japan a few hours earlier and jet-lagged doesn't even begin to describe what I was feeling. I walk up to Mindy and her husband Dave who had already been sight-seeing in Japan for 10 days and suddenly remember the facebook status of Mindy's that said something about hiking the Japanese Alps a few days before. Perfect conversation starter, right? Ah, perfect conversation starter when you aren't exhausted and apparently dyslexic. But I am getting ahead of myself here.

I give Dave a hug and, in the middle of the hotel lobby, loudly ask him, So how was hiking the Alpanese Japs?

Yep, not only did I sound crazy, I also managed to sound racist. Just perfect. Of course we both laughed, but still--Japs?!?!?! Did I really have to accidentally say Japs?!?!

Apparently I did.