Of Kobe

There was an earthquake the other day in Kyoto prefecture. It was a M3 at its epicenter, but it hit us around an M2. Basically, this means it was just enough to feel, but nothing serious. I was underground in class at the time, and things shook a bit, but it was over within a second. Since Kyoto never really gets these, it was somewhat unusual, but it was fine.

Kan's promised to step down after settling the budget for this upcoming year. He didn't even make it a year without calls for him to step down, which is rather sad.

I went the Kobe yesterday, and had a great time. It was my friend's first time there, so it was a good experience. Slowly, but surely, I'll learn to make my way around Kobe. It's actually rather simple to navigate, much easier than Kyoto. Then again, anything is easier than Kyoto. People who visit here frequently comment on how easy it seems to navigate, in comparison to Tokyo and the like. However, once they manage to get themselves lost once, they learn just how hard it is to get un-lost (yes, I'm making that a word). Kyoto is in some ways convenient. It's set up on a grid pattern, but the problem is navigating where you are on that grid. All of the houses look fairly similar due to the building laws here, and the streets that are fortunate enough to have names frequently end in something-something-temple. Since you can walk anywhere in Kyoto and run into a temple almost as often as you run into a konbini, this makes the city almost impossible to navigate. I actually discovered the other day that there's a song or rhyme that the elderly teach to the youth in order for them to learn the streets. It goes from north to south, and east to west. Learning this song months ago would have been good for me. Needless to say, Kobe is easy to navigate, and I'm really thankful that I was able to go again yesterday.