On the scene
So,this is off topic and I am somewhat sorry. I've hit baking deprivation in a big way (which is demonstrated by the fact that I just bought a cute little pullman pan with the rationale that I have already committed to having to ship a few things from the Ryukyu to home and that I've never seen one that size in the US) and I'm only one month in. Sigh.
But, yesterday my wakeup call was the shaking of the earth and the tsunami warnings. This is not my favorite way to wake up. But I figured that the weekend's excitement was over.
As I type, Okinawa is on tsunami alert due to the Chilean earthquake. It is one thing to be shaken awake. It is another thing to prepare for and speculate on disaster as it approaches. My limited Japanese keeps me mostly in the dark, but I do know that places where I normally work/play/shop are closed and evacuated. Fortunately my hotel is on the East China Sea side of the island, and I am more than 30 feet up, but it is strange and stressfull to think tsunami may be hitting this tiny island. Obviously I have been glued to the internet, but we don't seem to be newsworthy. The one English language TV station that we have is not helpful. I'm used to weathering the weather of the Rocky Mountain region. It is frankly freaky to me to have these threats coming from the earth itself.
Although the Japanese stations continue to flash a map (with Okinawa in red - that can't be good) what numbers I can understand (and it is amazing how desperation is a fabulous language teacher - these were just sounds to me a matter of weeks ago and now I can figure out some words - and I used my first Japanese words to get what I wanted rather than pointing today. Hooray!) tell me that while I have typed and fretted the worst was not as bad as it could have been and has probably passed.
I'm not sure that I will ever be able to process news reports about earthquakes around the world in quite the same way ever again.
Please remember the victims of the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes.
And bake a loaf for me...