Shaky Islands

Day 27 Sunday 5th September 2010

New blinds...shady!

Woke up this morning and switched on the computer to news of a big earthquake in Christchurch. Seems nobody was killed but the central city is a bit trashed. Here in japan earthquakes are a regular occurrence, or so everyone tells me. In over 70 visits to this country spanning 13 years I’ve yet to experience one here. I have felt them in Auckland and Los Angeles but never in Japan. People here claim that the earthquake factor is a big part of why houses fall apart here. Conventional wisdom is that all that shaking destroys them. I think that while it must play some role, it is overstated. I believe its low cost materials, poor quality construction and shady development companies that are mostly to blame.

On the level

We hung the last of the blinds today and did some tidying up around the garden. I had bought some pink paving stones with the idea of placing some palms in pots on them. Then I figured out that palms won’t survive the winter outside so I guess we are going to need some kind of conifer. I laid the stones anyway and we will figure out which plants will work next spring. We also bought some new mesh for the insect screens which are mostly buggered. The place is looking good now that it’s clean and empty of junk. The flooring man comes tomorrow and on Tuesday we’re off the Nagoya to visit Shizuka’s folks.