RE: NON-SUMO: Mt. Usu Erupted

[Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>]

At 21:48 +0900 3/4/00, Jim Bitgood wrote:
> Now an update from the evening news//
>When I got home from work, I turned on the TV to find a report from the
>Kitanoumi Kinenkan in Soubetsu cho. I missed most of it. But all the damage
>that I could see was the little wooden nameplates in display cases had been
>knocked by the tremors. The glass display cases seemed to be intact. But,
>as I say, I missed most of the report. But it looks like the museum has
>survived quite well so far.


Thanks for the up-to-date information, Jim. For those outside Japan, we 
should explain that this is a really big eruption. The day it started, NHK 
(our public corporation) gave us a live broadcast that  preempted a couple 
of hours of the high school baseball at Koshien -- an annual cult activity 
bemusing to foreigners. They switched the baseball to the educational 
channel (wish they'd do the same with parliamentary debates when sumo's 
on!) and from a number of remote cameras just showed the incredible force 
of nature. There's a new crater just 300 meters above a hot spring resort 
that may never operate again; even if the buildings are intact, they don't 
know yet if the hot spring that is their livelihood has been plugged up. On 
the other hand, the people who chose to operate there knew that this was a 
frequently-active volcano, so you pays your money and you takes your choice.

Hokkaido residents like Jim, please keep the news coming. We're getting 
pretty good coverage but the sumo connections can only be got here on this 
list.

Apologies in advance for any typos -- it's been a *very* long day...
~Doreen in sumoland~

~Subliminal thought for the day~