Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On

The Chinese President’s recent visit, followed by the horrific earthquake in China, have all of us here thinking a lot more seriously about earthquake preparedness. One of the first things we were told when we arrived was that Tokyo is overdue for a really big quake, and we should have a plan for what to do if it happens while we’re here. Japan occupies the most seismically active real estate in the world, and Tokyo itself sits at the junction of three tectonic plates. At some points, the fault line is only two and a half miles beneath the city.

Tokyo had a devastating earthquake in 1855 (when people thought that either giant subterranean catfish or giant mochi-pounding rabbits caused quakes), and again in 1923. That year the Great Kanto Earthquake registered 7.9 on the Richter scale, was followed by horrendous fires, and claimed more than 100,000 lives. Scientists seem to feel another big one is imminent, and the Tokyo metropolitan government estimates that an earthquake of 7.3 would cause 5,600 hundred deaths, 160,000 injuries, and $1 trillion in damage.

Of course, we didn’t pay much attention. Just as we sometimes ignore the tornado sirens in Mississippi, or don’t think too seriously about terrorism anymore when we’re flying, earthquakes just seemed like another abstract threat that wouldn’t touch us. Besides, we’re only going to be here for four months.

But then we started feeling the tremors. We’ve felt them about once a week now, just as people said we would. And then last week there was a bigger one that woke us up in the middle of the night. I thought David was trying to shake me awake, but the bed was shaking by itself. It turned out to be a 6.8 on the Richter scale, centered in the ocean 100 miles from Tokyo. Fortunately there was no damage and no serious casualties in the city. But just days after that, of course, the devastating Chinese earthquake occured.

So now we’re taking things a bit more seriously. We’ve got bottled water available. Know what to do immediately after a quake starts (open the door, don’t leave the apartment, make sure you’re not near any heavy furniture that could fall on you, turn off the gas, deal with any fires immediately, etc.). We also know the local evacuation areas and centers, and have (finally) registered ourselves with the American Embassy. And we’re only going to be here for another two and a half months. . .

On a lighter note (okay, maybe a heavier note) there was a different kind of shaking going on today. The sumo matches are in Tokyo until the 25th, and we decided to check them out for ourselves.

    

Yep, it’s just as we imagined it. Really big guys in really skimpy loincloths grappling with each other in a sandy circle lined with straw rice bags. Each match takes mere seconds, ending when one big body hits the ground or one fleshy foot steps outside the ring. The matches are short, but they’re preceded and followed by a lot of ceremonial chanting, fan waving, and salt sprinkling.

The stadium was offering a special 200 yen (about $2) lunch of “chanko nabe,” a thick stew that the sumo wrestlers train on, that supposedly make them so big. David wanted to try it, but I was a bit leery. Who wants to look like a sumo wrestler? I mean, if fashion models trained on it, it would be one thing. But half-ton man-mountains? I finally gave in, hoping that one lunch couldn’t have really serious consequences. What we got was a relatively small bowl of watery vegetable soup with a little piece of tofu and fish floating in it. All I can say is that these guys would have to eat bathtubs full of the stuff to maintain their size. In fact, David says that the stuff they eat is much thicker, full of lots of meat and fish, and that they do eat tons of it, with lots of rice. I’m happy to have had a watered down version!

Almost as much fun as watching the matches was wandering around Ryogoku, the neighborhood containing the sumo stadium and stables (where the wrestlers train). It’s weird to see these guys just walking on the streets:

                    

The matches we saw were early in the day when the amateurs and up-and-coming wrestlers have their bouts. We had to leave before the really big (literally) champions competed later in the day. But honestly, these guys looked plenty big to us!