Rude awakenings.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the night before last, we were rattled out of bed a 5:30ish am by the largest earthquake Okinawa has seen since 1909. That sounds uber-impressive, I'm sure, but it only registered about a 5.0 where we live...not exactly huge. At its epicenter it was an unpleasant 7.0-7.3 depending on who you ask, but that was 50 miles out to sea.

Then there was that massive quake in Chile, which prompted tsunami warnings here. Now, I'm all for being forewarned, forearmed, and whatever other "fores" might be necessary when dealing with a potential tsunami. They're definitely not something to fuck with (not that that stopped Eddie and me from wandering around on a bridge in search of the perfect photograph of said tsunami...).

There is a giant electronic reader board at the gate that has said "TSUNAMI WARNING IN EFFECT" all day long. There are guards who can - and often do - stop outgoing vehicles to advise them of things that need advisory. Let outgoing traffic know that beaches and other low-lying areas are closed. Simple.

With all of that...was it really necessary to wake up the entire base housing with a FUCKING AIR RAID SIREN to let us know there is a tsunami warning? I MEAN, REALLY?

AN AIR RAID SIREN??? REALLY??? AT 7:30 IN THE FUCKING MORNING???

*sigh* No sense trying to go back to sleep. No, now it was time to grab the cameras and scoot out the door to find the best view so we might capture this tsunami and be able to post blog entries titled "Tsunami!" and "Whoa! Wave!" or some such nonsense. No such luck. The waters were almost infuriatingly calm today, with nary a whitecap, let alone a freaking 6-10 foot surge, the likes of which warranted A FUCKING AIR RAID SIREN FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.

However, while we searched for the best view, we gave Katsuren Castle a try. You all remember Katsuren Castle, right? If not, this is what it looks like:
Turns out Katsuren took a bit of a beating during the recent earthquake:
Of course, by the time we saw this sign, it was fairly obvious, since we could see this from the path:
From another angle:
So there you have it. A 14th century castle wall that took a beating, a tsunami that didn't show up, and AN AIR RAID SIREN THAT MADE ME WANT TO STAB STAB STAB SOMEONE. (Can you tell it irritated me?)

Now, in the interest of tempting neither fate nor karma, let me also add that I was not hoping for a massive, destructive tsunami with the requisite injuries and damage. This place is practically built for tsunamis...it's entirely possible for us to get one that's impressive to look at, but doesn't do any damage beyond stirring up some sand and maybe smacking a few palm trees around. We certainly didn't want anything like what mainland Japan has experienced, which has involved some serious flooding and structure damage. I just want a cool picture of a wave!

Hopefully the tectonic plates are done with their little shifty funtimes, and my apartment can stop moving every few hours. Two earthquakes in 48 hours is quite enough, thank you. (The second was quite minor...pretty much felt like a truck ran into our building)

No more earthquakes.

No more tsunamis.

AND NO MORE FUCKING AIR RAID SIRENS AT THE ASS CRACK OF DAWN.