Natural Disasters

Ok friends,

I am alive and kicking!!! Thank you for the regards.. I am fine despite all the terrible and horrible natural disasters in Japan. Don't worry friends.. I am doing good. Thanks again for the concern ya.

Sorry folks for not replying to all the emails asking me about the earthquake and typhoon. Not that I don't want to, but I was having some problems with my notebook. The backlight burnt and I had to contact HP to get it fix. The process was stressful and frustrating. But my "darling" is working fine now.

A little update about the condition in Japan. The series of disasters started with a strong typhoon last Wednesday. Typhoon Tokage (Lizard in Japanese also known as Typhoon no.23) was extremely strong. I was lucky to have left the lab early, else I might have to spend the night there. The wind was strong and around 6pm, trees were swaying, windows making weird noises, doors banging.... The place where I am staying is kinda safe. But the typhoon went away with 80 lives. Flood was bad. Imagine having a whole bus under water and lotsa landslides. So, it was pretty scary.

And as people was just about to recover from the damage of the typhoon, on Oct 23rd, a strong earthquake hit Niigata. We can't feel the earthquake here in Kobe because Niigata is kinda far from Kobe. Only got to know about the earthquake through the news. EXTREMELY scary. A lot of landslide (due to the strong typhoon), people trap under rock rubbles, damaged road, no electricity, no water... and the sudden temperature drop! So people in Niigata was and I believe IS still suffering from the earthquake. Strong after shocks can still be felt. And till today, more than 400 earthquakes occured since last Saturday.

Watching the episode on TV was scary enough but having felt a mild earthquake the day before yesterday....SCARY. After what happened in Niigata, it is normal to be afraid when you feel a small earthquake. Hence, now I have a safety bag with food, torchlight, water.. just as a precaution. Better be safe than sorry right?!

All that I can do now is to pray hard that nothing serious is gonna happen here in Japan anymore. Mother nature has been going crazy in Japan this year. Also hope that the rain will not cause more landslides in Niigata.