#NerdsUnite: Around the world with @HeatherReusz

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Heather. She's a nerd who is currently living in Japan by way of Chicago. Yep, talk about a culture shock. She's here today to talk about her life, love (which she is currently balancing long distance) and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT HEATHER!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @HeatherReusz

I’ve just had one of the best weekends ever! Mainly because my boyfriend came to visit. I’ve been counting down to this day for months. I can’t even describe how amazing it was to finally be together after nine and a half months apart.

It was especially sweet because I wasn’t even sure if he was going to be able to make it out to Japan. As a freelance artist he wasn’t sure that he could make the money to come. I begged and pleaded with him to just get out here and I would pay for everything. Hell, I even offered to pay for his flight out here as well as all the food and traveling costs. He refused not wanting to be a bum. I offered to make it a loan that he would have to pay back. Again, he refused. I was crushed. How was I supposed to get through a whole year without him? Finally, in about February, he had saved enough to comfortably make the trip. He immediately booked a flight and the countdown began.

Unfortunately, he did have to come while I was working. We had only three whole days together. It didn’t matter though; we were both so excited about getting to be together again.

His flight landed on Friday afternoon. Since I was working, I couldn’t pick him up from Narita. I had to give him directions to my place. It involved two train transfers and a two and a half hour commute but he made it. He arrived just as I got off of work. I found him at the main entrance of the station just waiting against a pillar. My heart leapt into my throat and I full on tackled him with a bear hug. We both tried to hold back the tears as we embraced. It’s not culturally appropriate to show extreme emotions in public in Japan. I was pushing the cultural expectation as was with our huge embrace. I had explained this nuance to him before he had left so he would know that we couldn’t really kiss or cry without me being ostracized. We had our first meal in Japan…at Burger King since all other restaurants were closed and we were both exhausted.

We had an amazing night. It made me really see all the things that I had been missing. I don’t just mean the sexual stuff although that was pretty amazing. I relished in everything: the way he smelled, how his eyes sparkled, how safe I felt sleeping next to him again.

I had to go to work on Saturday but promised him a great date night as I get out of work on Saturdays at a relatively early time. After work, I took him to Yokohama. We had a great meal in the Yokohama Chinatown and took a night time stroll down the pier. It was romantic and beautiful. Perfection.

The next day was a big sightseeing day. I took him to one of my favorite places in Japan: Kamakura. Most of you probably have not really heard of this town. It was the seat of Japanese power in the Kamakura period which was in the 13^th century. I love it because it has a ton of old temples and castles mixed in with the more modern beach resorts since it’s on the coast. We spent the morning on an island walking through caves and enjoying the great view of Mt. Fuji. In the afternoon we took the historic train line, which is over 100 years old, to two of my favorite temples. Another fun and perfect day.

Monday and Tuesday were a bit of a change of pace. We’re both nerds so we focused on doing some super nerdy things in Tokyo. First stop was the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka. We both grew up on and adored the works of Hayo Miyazaki. Those of you who aren’t even anime nerds may know some of his work: Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Princess Monoke, etc. It was a fantastic experience. The museum made you feel like a child again. It was set up in a way that just captured the imagination and absorbed you in. We walked through rooms designed after his movies, saw some of his original sketches and storyboards from the movies, and saw an original animated short. After the museum, we went to Akihabara which is the anime, manga, video game, and electronics capital of Tokyo. We shopped around at my favorite places grabbing some really sweet anime collectibles. The night ended with dinner and drinks at the Gundam Café, an café themed after my favorite anime franchise Mobile Suit Gundam.

Our final day together was another nerd extravaganza. We headed over to Odaiba, Tokyo to see the life size Gundam. This is the third time I’ve seen it but it is mind blowing every time. To put it in perspective, it’s about 8 stories tall. It stands in front of a new mall. The top floor of the mall is a Gundam theme park basically. We had tickets and spent all day nerding out. I also had a lot of strangers randomly ask for my picture. This happens kind of frequently here for me especially when I go to Gundam events. Most fans are guys so the hard core otaku freak out a little bit when there is a girl let alone a foreign girl going to these things. At least Lucas thought it was hilarious.

The days passed as wonderful blurs. Nerd love is the best kind of love, you know. I wish that he was still here but then I remember that I only have a month and a half left here in Japan! My how time flies!

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Heather on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Around the world with @HeatherReusz

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Heather. She's a nerd who is currently living in Japan by way of Chicago. Yep, talk about a culture shock. She's here today to talk about her life, love (which she is currently balancing long distance) and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT HEATHER!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @HeatherReusz

I was planning this week on writing a little bit more about me and how I came upon this job but then something happened this week that shook me to the core, literally. Last week, I experienced one of the scariest earthquakes I have felt. I knew that earthquakes came with the territory of living in Japan. In fact, I accepted my position with the company about 2 days before the Great Tohoku quake hit. I was confident though that since a large one had just hit the chances of another 9.0 magnitude quake happening during the year I’m here was pretty slim.

At first, they freaked me out a little bit. Coming from Illinois, earthquakes were not on the list of things I had experienced before. It’s almost like the earth knew that so the very first week I was here alone, I was woken up at 4:00 AM with a 6.3 magnitude quake. I woke up in a panic clinging to my bed just waiting for it to pass. Since this initial quake, I have been woken up by earthquakes probably about ten times. They are just a fact of life here. There is small earthquake literally every other day. They are so small though that your body barely registers them. For the first month I was here, I thought there was something wrong with me. I would feel dizzy and disoriented almost every day. I finally told my manager about it and she just chuckled at me saying that those were just passing 2.0 magnitude quakes. So basically I never know if there is a little earthquake going on or if I’m so dehydrated I’m about to pass out. The bigger ones just kind of make me feel like I’ve had a little too much to drink. I get really disoriented and stumble a bit and then just move on with my day. I felt so Japanese when I just taught my class through a 5.1 a couple of months ago. My kids barely reacted to it. I was in a room with four 5 year olds and all they did was pause for a second to watch my reaction. I was astonished. Good thing I didn’t panic!

So clearly I can handle earthquakes like a boss after 6 months of living here, what scared me so much about the one last week? It started as a typical morning being woken up by an earthquake. I awoke with a start gripping my bed. I know that that is something I will never get used to. Waking up to your apartment swaying is pretty terrifying. Luckily it was 7:45 AM so I was about to get up anyway. I sleepily walked over to my computer and started it up just to check what the magnitude was as I’m always curious to know. As I sat at my computer desk, I heard a strange noise almost like an approaching train only about 20X louder than what I’m used to. I later convinced myself that it was the sound of the ground moving under the pressure although I’m not sure you can actually hear that. My whole apartment started shaking. My poor lamp fell over as did a couple of other small things on my desk and dresser. I dove into my earthquake safety zone. It passed in about 30 seconds which is the longest one I have ever felt. I hopped online to check out what the deal was with this earthquake. I was certain it had to be at least a 6.8-7.0 magnitude quake. I was beyond surprised to see that it was only a 5.3. My first reaction was to be disappointed that I had overreacted to such a small earthquake. As I did more research I realized what had made it feel so terrifying for me. My apartment was about 7 miles from the epicenter of the quake. That means that it was much more violent and lasted longer in my city.

The main thing that freaked me out though was the aftershocks. I have never felt aftershocks before but since I was basically on the fault line I felt everything. We had earthquakes for about a good 45 minutes after the big one. They weren’t all too small either. There were about three in the 4.0 range before they started tapering off. My co-workers were more freaked out by the fact that there was a smaller 4.6 before the 5.3. Apparently, that almost never happens and is a bad omen. Yikes! Everything has been pretty clear so far though. Let’s just hope that this stays my most terrifying earthquake while I live here.

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Heather on Twitter!