Stalactites & Stalagmites

Recently, we went to a local tourist spot that we had yet to visit called Ryugashido. It's a cavern that takes about an hour to walk through. Here's a photo of me outside of the entrance with a scary looking dragon behind me:
They had a good path with many explanations along the way and lots of interesting formations to look at:

I liked some of the mini-lakes that formed underground:
It was interesting to see some small plants growing down there:
Afterwards, we enjoyed some delicious gelato in the souvenir area:

Earthquake - update

Today is day 6 since the earthquake in the Tohoku region. Life in my area has returned to it regular ways and I haven't seen anybody stocking up on food when I was at the supermarket. There is increased helicopter activity since there is an air rescue squadron at the self-defense base in our city.

There was a 6.4 magnitude earthquake near Mt. Fuji last night. Since we can see Mt. Fuji from our house, we could definitely feel the earthquake here (magnitude 3 in this area). I heard on the news that there were 2 people with minor injuries. There was no tsunami warning since the earthquake was inland. There haven't been any aftershocks since then.

It seems that most of the news from what is happening in Japan is being reported pretty quickly around the world, so there's not much more that I know that hasn't been reported. The main for our area is that we are 500 km away from the area hit by the tsunami and we have a strong wind that blows west to east during the winter, which makes me feel relieved about any radiation blowing this way.

Earthquake and tsunami

As you've probably heard, there was a large earthquake and tsunami in the north-east part of Japan yesterday. We definitely felt a lot of shaking during the initial earthquake which lasted a couple of minutes (very long). Since then, we've probably felt about 7 aftershocks. The earthquake took place about 500km north of us and so that's where most of the damage has been. The nuclear station was affected was east of Tokyo (about 300km away from us) and so it seem like we should be alright. I'll let people know if I hear anything else.

Retirement party at traditional restaurant

There was a retirement party for three university professor from my department last Monday. We went to a traditional Japanese restaurant for the event. You can see the three professors below:
It was a formal meal with many small servings. It was the first time I had been to a restaurant like this with each person sitting against the wall with their own tray in front of them.
It was a delicious meal, and since the department paid for it all, it was even more enjoyable.