No problemo

Just wanted to let y'all know, I'm fine. You may have seen the news of an earthquake that we had in Tokyo yesterday afternoon. But I was not one of the 27 people injured--what are the chances, hey?

The train services were stopped for a long time though, and Yusuke and I were late to meet friends for dinner. It was fine because the trains made everyone late. Even the restaurant we went to, a cute little Mexican-esque place in Ebisu, was all backed up and we had to sit at the bar forever before getting to have a table on the terrace like we'd reserved because all the reservations were pushed back. Ugh. But I had a Pina Colada, which made things fabulous. ;) And it didn't rain on us. It's raining now though.

As an aside, I say the place was Mexican-esque because I have never seen such tiny burritos and such. So it wasn't really Mexican like I'm used to, but it tasted pretty much like it. Oh the food was tiny and cute. I'd had a big lunch of curry late in the day though, so I was not bothered. Just amused.

So, when the earthquake happened, I was in the Second Harvest Japan warehouse finishing up the day's activities. Let me tell ya, that is not a place you want to be for an earthquake. All kinds of boxes and equipment on high shelves and stuff. We got out of there and into the open street fast though. And only a few things fell over it turned out.

In other news, work is busy but interesting (for once!) lately. We're getting these papers from GRIPS, which is an institute for policy studies that I think is partially or entirely funded by the World Bank. The papers are Master's theses from students from developing countries. So far I've done one about Vietnam's trade and one about China's currency, both interesting and so much more up my alley than all the tech stuff I'm used to being stuck with. These papers are a lot like my freelance work, but much much longer. So that's been fun but tough deadlines. I have a huge one to plow through tomorrow. I'm thinking about getting started on it now, but trying not to because it's Sunday, and Sunday is not a work day. So I should not do work.

I think I will do some food bank stuff and catch up on e-mails and then take myself shopping. Meeting Yusuke later. Fun fun!