September 13th, 2008. Quake?

So there's this big rumor passing around the Tokai region of Japan these days that "The Big One" cometh. On Saturday, September 13th no less. For those not in the know; Japan has lots of earthquakes. Maybe that's why I feel so at home here. But we here in the Tokai area (Shizuoka, Mie, Aichi and Gifu Prefectures) have been expecting a magnitude 8 or higher quake for some time now. Like forever. Actually there is some crude statistical evidence behind the expectation considering that roughly every 110 (plus or minus 33) years there has been a major quake in this region, and the last one occurred 154 years ago.
I first heard the rumor on Sept. 2nd from a student who said she had heard that a 'famous researcher' had made the claim. Another student claimed that the prediction was made by a person who correctly predicted the May quake in China. Another person claimed that the predictor (or a predictor) had also claimed to have predicted the staged attacks on 9/11, but neglected to mention it until after it happened–bummer.
Anyway:
"The rumor originated on a Website run by a Brazilian English teacher, Jucelino da Luz, who wrote about his prediction No. 81, saying: "An earthquake will hit
China and may cause a milllion deaths (if it doesn't happen in China, it might happen in Tokai in Japan and cause many deaths)."
from the Shanghai Daily website, which also states at the end of the article:
"Jucelino is 48 years old with four children and teaches English in a Brazilian middle school. None of his 80 predictions have occurred."

I'm not worrying about the prediction coming true, or not, we've heard a few before and we're still here. That said, we are 'overdue', and it could happen in 5 minutes, or then again it could another hundred years or so.

Summertime News

Well the band didn't make the cut for the Ika-Ten 2008 showdown, but we did have a lot of fun yesterday performing on the shores of the Tenryu River during Roland Music employee's annual BBQ Live. As a matter of fact, I started the day at 5:30 to be at Nakatajima Dunes for the Rotarian's beach cleanup. We all spent about an hour on the dunes picking up the detritus and refuse of modern life. Afterwards I went home and grabbed my things to head over to the BBQ Live, where I cooked up some Japanese BBQ with my band-mates for the next couple of hours. My little ones showed up around 3:00 and we skipped rocks for a bit before the show. We played a four song set and afterwards basked in the glory of our two adoring fans.

The kids didn't notice we had played.

We all cleaned up and packed up the amps and headed home.

Saturday was the evening of our locally beloved Iwata Mitsuke Naked Festival. My wife and two little ones were at her folks house where we met our guests and spent the evening eating lovely foods and (some folks) drinking copious amounts of beer and sake. I enjoyed a lite selection of assorted cold teas. After the little ones fell asleep around 11, first Shingo(no.2) showed up to eat, and then went home with his mother. Tetsuo (no.1) showed up a little before 12 and ate and chatted with us all until 2, when I finally decided it was time to call it a night.

I relaxed today.