Akihabara

Yesterday, 7 people were killed in a major intersection in Akihabara. I often went there on Sunday's, and thus even though I've been back for months, this hits surprisingly close to home. From the pictures, it took place at Chuo Doori where it meets the road that goes in front of Sofmap - one of the major intersections there. This map, with a bunch of labels from when I live there, shows the location - it was obvious from this picture - heck, I can even make out Yellow Submarine, the gaming store, in the background. On a Sunday, the street would have been filled with people - they close it to traffic on the weekends - and this jackass drove a truck into the intersection and then pulled out a knife and started stabbing people. I think I'm just shocked because if I hadn't come home, I TRULY could have been there, at that time, etc. Somehow, I'm far more upset about this than about the cranes collapsing even though that's where I live now - maybe it's because Tokyo was "supposed" to be safe (not that I think, intelligently, that one tragedy committed by a lunatic negates a low crime rate...)

Anyway, there are articles on this scattered about, the NYTimes one seems good - it confirms things that I wrote in this post before I read the article. ;)

Also, I hope all my Indiana friends are weathering the floods okay! The incredible heat wave here is unpleasant - my bedroom was 84 degrees last night - but not otherwise particular dangerous except for the way the car kept trying to overheat yesterday. :) Oh, and there was no power in the hallway of my building, but this didn't effect my apartment - I don't get it either. :) And I get to escape it today - I arrive in Amsterdam at midnight, EST, 6 am local time...