There is something in the air...

The night air is still cold, but now it holds a hint of something else, that smell of greenness to come, all the plants preparing for the sudden spurt of growth that is spring, and the overnight appearance of the fluffy pink sakura, currently being introduced by their more garish, hardy friends, the plum trees.

Spring coats (and in my case, a new awesome faux-leather motorcycle jacket from Uniqlo) make their appearance, as we all try to hurry spring along, and get to the warmer days spent under cherry trees, the long vacation of Golden Week... but it is still a bit too chilly, and everyone shivers and wishes they had kept on their now far too familiar winter coat.

But perhaps this feeling in the air is something else.. a kind of tension? The anniversary of March 11th passed, with much remembrance from people, but little movement of techtonic plates. However, for the past few days, there have been some tremors.

While riding on the usually rather subdued Toyoko line, suddenly everyone's cellphones starting to ring and buzz, as the train screeched to a halt... earthquake. I was woken up by a stronger tremor early on Friday morning. However, at least when at home, I can judge whether this is worth worrying about or not. You see, if a tremor reaches more than 5.5 magnitude, my koto's strings start to hum... if it is quiet, then things are ok.