Well, here goes......
My second year and third sweltering summer here in the orientalist's dream city. Kyoto. Japan.
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Monday the 6th of September , 2004. 33 degrees.

Chwaas.... ( Konnichi wa )
We had a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG earthquake here last night at midnight.
It didn't feel particularly stong but it went on for about 50 seconds.
That is a long time for the house to be rocking and to be wondering if it's really going to kick in and start doing some serious damage and whether I could run the guantlet down to the river before it does...
We knew that it must have been much bigger where-ever it was coming from.
After I'd ascertained that Mami wasn't freaking out I went down to the living room and turned the T.V. on to find out where the epicentre was.
-Somewhere out in the sea directly south of here about 150 kms away.
About 500 kms of coastline was being given the Tsunami Warning.
Magnitude 7.3 on the Japanese scale , with the prediction of a 1 metre tidal wave.
NHK T.V. switches to a dedicated Earthquake information real-time feed with graphics from the Seismological centre and views from fixed cameras along the coast line focussed on empty streets and quiet harbours.
Well , I don't know what happened because there wasn't even a mention of it on the news this morning ,-and there hasn't been anything tonight either.
One of the frustrating aspects of living in this country..........
Here's the lowdown from Japan Today .
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=311138
and more ....
http://www.jma.go.jp/JMA_HP/jp/quake/quake.040906001957.03.0.html The Japanese Seismologists were right.
They were predicting that the next big earthquake would eminate from that area.
This wasn't the big one , a slider rather than a thumper. Phew !

Yesterday I rode up to the dam by myself at 12 to check out the damage from the flood caused by the typhoon that went through on Monday night and to do some more work cleaning up the illegally dumped rubbish on the slope in the forest which provides access to the best swimming hole in the north Kyoto.
Kamogawa-river runs southward through the centre of Kyoto city centre , slightly to the south of which we live and the dam is 14 kms up it , about 4 kms into the forest in the northern foothills.

I'd been up there last Tuesday and was unable to go near the river as it was roaring in full flood and I went upstream about 100 metres a bit to check out what had happened to the 2 squatters who are living in a heavenly spot just below a bend in the river on a little beach in the forest just .
The old guy has been living in his camp for the last 5 years.
At 3 a.m. his tarpaulin igloo was hit by a 2 metre wall of water sending him into the reeds downstream.
He lost everything and when I got there at about 1.30 he was walking around trying to reassemble things . His residence was half buried in rocks and scree.

That was Tuesday.....
Back to Sunday.
I spent 2 hours swimming in the now completely remodelled pool below the dam , while cleaning up all the detritus before going back to finish off cleaning up the slope.
The pool is now about 4 metres deep (from 3m) below the dam and there's a beautiful new pebble beach been formed on the down-side of the pool.
33 degrees and 21 degrees in the water. Heaven !
I put my googles on and dove into the crystal clear water and down to the depths to check it all out . I could see the O-san shu-ou down there resting on the bottom . It is definitely about 1. 7 metres long . A Giant Salamander , endangered and protected and I found the carcass of a juvenile one about 40 cms long floating among the rocks , killed either by the raging torrent or by the 'yan-ki' bogans who come here to dive from the top of the dam during the summer.
I gathered about 10 big bags of rubbish from the dam and the area downstream and lugged them all through the tunnel in the bamboo forest and up to the road.
It feels good when there's nothing more to do .
I sat for a while on the ledge under the waterfall taking it all in.
Then back down to the beach for a beer.

There was a huge electrical and rain storm while I was working in the forest on the slope and I put all my stuff into a plastic bag under a tree and worked in my shorts as the rain soaked my back and the water came flooding down off the road .
I packed all the rubbish into black bags and hauled it up the steep slope and over the guard rail onto the road.

I started doing this in August last year and started again in June this year.
I had a meeting in July with some of the members of the Kyoto Citizen's Environmental Group's 'Water Team' at which we organised to get together on the 22nd of August to get into dealing to the slippery slope.
There is a lot of Harzardous Waste there , car batteries , printer's ink etc ..which leaches through the soil and into the river.
If you want to have clean waterways , start the cleaning from the top down.
Ironically Kyoto hosted the International forum on Water not far from here last year.

According to the Council we ( 3 members, Mami and a couple of other ladies) got about 2 tonnes up to the road . The following Sunday (29th of August) Fuji-san and I got another 2 tonnes out. I got a similar amount out yesterday.
It seems they're not too happy about what we've been doing.

Anyway ,-the hard work has been done now .
I'm having a meeting with the Kyoto Citizen's Environmental Group on Thursday at which there might be a representative of the Territorial Authority about how to prevent further occurances of illegal dumpings at this particular recreational area and in the area in general.

I got back to my bike to start riding home as it was getting dark at 6.15 to find that my recalcitrant back tyre was flat again.
I knew that the long split next to the valve was the problem and I also knew that I didn't know how to take the 7 speed internal gear wheel off to put the new tube which I had in my bag on to fix it.
I pumped it up and rode down the hill as far as I could before but had to stop under a streetlight when it became obvious that I'd have to have a go at redoing the patch.
That took me about half an hour during which time I got changed into some clean dry clothes and continued listening on my MD to the Audio of Michael Moore rant 'Stupid White Men' . Back on the road and down along the riverside path about 15 minutes into the 50 minute trip I started feeling the contours of the ground below me again. Flat again !
So I walked about 4 ks to the bike shop where I thought they might be able to fix it ,-while teaching me how to get that tricky wheel off , -and back on again.
I've been toying with the idea of riding this bike around Cuba next year.
I got to the bike shop at 8.20 and they gladly took on the task and talked me through the whole process which ended up being well worth the 2,000 yen.
( NZ$30 ?) they charged me.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus-mech.html#upgrade
Back down to the river and wee wee wee all the way home !

Jaa , over and out . Alan in Kyoto. 6th of September , 2004.
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