Earthquake No. 1!

Well that was interesting. I was on the scope last night when I whipped around because I thought someone grabbed the table and started shaking it. Maybe a 2 sec earthquake. I'm not too crazy about being on the 7th floor if this happens often, but people just live with it here and Atsuko came in after it happened and gave me an earthquake education lecture. There was a nasty earthquake in her hometown a while ago and she takes them very seriously.
People are good scientists here! Last night, Friday night at 6 pm, we started our journal club which typically lasts two hours with no food attached. Kenzi Saito (grad student) presented a Nat. Neurosci. paper about the delta GABA receptor and its possible involvement in catamenial epilepsy. Very interesting, and we went though it for two hours, half english half Japanese. It's a good way to learn some more Japanese! I could ask why and how many, haha.
Staining is going well, I had some nice donut looking boutons last night and had just finished high K stimulation when the prep mysteriously died after the earthquake. I'll try again after Atsuko takes me with her to the catfood store where I will acquire some sort of pet to love. Maybe a bug or a beta. There is a wild cat that sleeps under a car by my apartment at night but it doesn't speak english.
I got home last night in time to catch the end of Star Wars episode I. Yoda can speak Japanese!

Janel