Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Sometimes Miracles Do Happen...

The death toll from the Amagasaki train accident now stands at over 100. Several hundred are still hospitalized. It's the worst train accident since 1963. The worst thing about it is that it shouldn't have happened in the first place. The whole disaster was brought about by the stupidity and carelessness of one man, not to mention emergency equipment that wasn't kept properly maintained and up-to-date.

All those hundreds of people were just unlucky enough to get that one, boneheaded engineer.

On the other hand, I just found out that a former student of mine that graduated from Seishin this year, a rugby star who was also ranked very high academically, was actually waiting for that train. If it hadn't crashed, he would have gotten on at its next stop. Considering the train had been overshooting platforms and running crazily along its entire route, there's a chance he might have wound up in a deadly crash if he had managed to get aboard as planned.

He's pretty freaked about it, to be sure.

You just never know which number you're going to get until you draw it.

4 Comments:

  • Nothing to do with the wreck, sorrs . . but an answer to a very old question: "what the heck is an Acerola anyway?" the Acerola is a small dark red cherry-like fruit that grows on trees primarily in the West Indies. It has a slightly sweet flavor and apparently one of the highest concentrations of Vitamin C around. It is also called the Barbados Cherry or Puerto Rican Cherry.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:21 PM  

  • Thanks for the info, though it is a bit late. I've found that pure acerola juice is sold as a cold remedy in Germany. (A friend of mine that lived there once sent me a bottle when I had a really nasty cold. We both had a good laugh about it.)

    Acerola drinks are fairly common in Japan, but I was the only one I knew that was actually drinking it when it was supposedly hip back in the early 90s (another manufactured "trend" that never caught on?). Also, to this day, I seem to be the only person on the planet who has ever seen, let alone tasted, Acerola Cola.



    ...Acerola Cola????!?

    By Blogger The Moody Minstrel, at 11:41 PM  

  • Lemon curry?

    By Blogger Don Snabulus, at 2:15 PM  

  • By the way,

    Hi pesky sister! Say Hi to the fam.

    By Blogger Don Snabulus, at 2:16 PM  

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