The Great Dover Quake

I'll never forget being stuck on the 12th floor of an apartment block when a M.7.0 quake hit Fukuoka. For months afterwards I would constantly feel aftershocks, some real and some merely in my imagination, and even now when I feel the vibrations of a passing truck or train my brain temporarily goes into "Earthquake Defence Mode".

Since coming back the UK I've been regularly checking out a website about recent UK earthquakes. Unfortunately this page does not usually make especially exciting reading as the vast majority of local quakes fall into the pretty insignificant M0.7 to M1.5 range. However, this morning I was surprised to see a M.4.3 quake listed for the Dover Straits (that's the area of sea which separates England and France) and what was most exciting was that it had occurred this very morning!

Now, I thought, an earthquake of such intensity would surely make the news? So, I checked and of course - it was the major headline on the TV news and on the BBC website. The quake, which lasted a few seconds, struck just off Kent and occurred at 0718 GMT. The tremor was apparently also felt in London itself, as well as in East Sussex and in my county, Essex. It was the biggest UK earthquake in five years. If you're interested, you can read the BBC report here.

Did I feel anything? No, unfortunately not. I was fast asleep. Anyway, past experience suggests that an earthquake of at least M4.7 is required to stir me fom even a light slumber, and whilst possibly big enough, the epicenter of this quake was too far away to have disturbed my sleep. I know that M4.3 is a mere sniffle in geological terms - and I know that Japan can quite easily have ten or more such earthquakes in a day without so much as anyone even passing a comment - but for the earthquake-shy British, this is a major event. Apparently the "ferocity" of the quake has left thousands without power - so heaven help us if one day a proper earthquake strikes!

And just in case any of you are wondering, I'm alright!

Fukuoka Now

I was thrilled to be asked recently by Fukuoka Now magazine to provide some photos of Fukuoka for their 100th anniversary issue. In addition to printing a few small-size images along the headers of several pages of the magazine, they also printed a larger size photo of mine of the Mitsukoshi building in Tenjin (page 4).



I was really pleased to see my photos in print and big thanks go to Inge for the request and also for sending me a couple of copies of the magazine.


I'd also like to thank my friend Joanne whom I remember dragging down with me to photograph this scene whilst multitudes of salarymen and giggling schoolgirls walked past giving us odd glances!

"The most beautiful of all seasons"

Spring in the UK is not quite as beautiful as it is in Japan. As we all know, in Japan the spring is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all seasons. I was told this many times by my Japanese colleagues and friends and I cannot help but agree with their assessment. The British spring is not quite as visually spectacular but the flora and fauna explosion which accompanies it is still rather impressive.

I have recently been drinking rather a lot of Pomegranate Juice. It is an excellent juice and I heartily recommend it. Very healthy too!


This is a hoverfly, apparently one of around six thousand known species of syrphid flies (but don't ask me to tell you which one this is!). The fact that it hovers made it surprisingly easy to photograph.

Talking of spring, one rather bizarre fact about the English is that as soon as the sun comes out they tend to dress for the beach. Now this would be no problem if they were actually going to the beach but this, sadly, is not always the case. Now I understand that when it's warm and sunny it might be rather nice to put on a pair of shorts and remove one's t-shirt in the garden - but why on earth should we have to put up with bare chests and tattoos in the BP garage and the local Tesco supermarket? Surely there is a time and a place for that kind of thing and the vegetable aisle is not it!

The same goes for the female of the species - I still can't get over how much cleavage is displayed here. I obviously spent a little too much time abroad because whenever I see overbearing cleavage - which is every two or three minutes - I wince internally and mentally utter "Oh please, put it away!" And don't get me started on the visible thongs and other classy undergarment displays!


Moving on, this rather disturbing episode sums up what it must be like to be a female mallard (bottom of the pile). Acosted, chased down, overpowered and...well, you can guess the rest - you can be sure there'll be plenty of chicks hatching sometime soon!

So the clocks have gone forward, the evenings are getting longer and the football season is nearing its climax. The cricket world cup is now over half-way through and the Aussies, the Kiwis, the South Africans and the Sri Lankans are looking like the main contenders for the top prize. Unfortunately England look like they'll be eliminated soon and Canada lost all three of their games and were sent home early (in case you are wondering). Before we know what's hit us it'll be summer, Wimbledon and Henmania will be upon us and every other man in the local high street will be walking in and out of shops and estate agents naked. What a lot to look forward to!

I really miss ice coffee and ice tea - it's just so hard to get decent iced drinks here.


I went with a friend to the London Aquarium recently where we saw this rather small starfish clinging onto the glass. I expected big things from the aquarium since the reports I'd found on the internet spoke very highly of it. However, whilst I must admit that it was pretty good, it was nowhere near as good as I'd hoped (especially considering the price - although I am a student these days so you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm making full use of a whole range of student discounts whenever and wherever possible).

For those of you who know me well, you'll know that I occasionally watch football. It's the quarter finals of the Champions League this week and if there is only one reason why I'm happy to be in the UK and not in Japan, it's that I don't have to get up for ridiculous 4.45am kick-offs anymore!


Okay, to finish off this rather multi-themed post - and inspired by similar "guess what" competitions on a couple of my friends' blogs recently - I've decided to lauch my own silly photo competition. So, starting with the above photo, the task is simple...what is it? The answer will be revealed in May and the person who comes closest will receive no prize but nevertheless plenty of glory.

Be cool! Use a Chewing Gum Board!

A recently-proposed initiative to tackle the problem of gum littering in a nearby town had me chuckling the other day. Town councillors in the town of Basildon, known around these parts as Basildump, are sick and tired of youths using the floor to dispose of their used gum. You can't blame the townsfolk for wanting to do something about it but - rather than introducing stiff fines like in some parts of Asia - their proposed solution seems to defy logic.

They have suggested the erection of "chewing gum boards" on walls around town where youths will deposit their gum once they've finished chewing it.

Oh, great idea! Why didn't we think of this ground-breaking solution sooner? (he asks sarcastically).

What makes anybody think that a kid who routinely throws his gum on the floor is going to go out of his way to be a conscientious young citizen and dispose of it in a responsible manner on a chewing gum wall? The problem is that this kid, just like thousands of others up and down this "great" country, does not give a flying monkey's toss about anything other than himself. He knows full well that he is not supposed to put his chewing gum on the floor but he nevertheless does it anyway. He is probably the same kid who graffitis the bus shelter, smokes dope on his school lunch break, throws his Big Mac wrappers into a local lake containing thousands of forms of wildlife, gets hammered on vodka before his fifteenth birthday, pushes past old ladies going in and out of convenience stores and swears and shouts abuse at basically anyone who dares to do anything which causes him even the slightest inconvenience.

No councillors, the problem is not that there is nowhere for kids to put their chewing gum, it's more a problem of you lot having raised a generation of hoodlums, yobs, chavs, hooligans and scumbags.

Okay, rant over.

A rubbish question?

Why use a dustbin when you can simply use the floor of the train?