I am at a coffee shop near Ginza. Suddenly a mother and her daughter enter inside. The mother is probably in her late fifties and the daughter is most likely around twenty years old. Both are wearing sport suits and are not very well dressed compared to the rest of people you can usually see around Ginza on Sundays. They sit down and order two coffees. Without saying a word the mother opens up a novel and immerses herself into it, while the daughter starts tapping at her smartphone screen. It doesn’t seem like they have much new to talk about.
After a while, the daughter gets tired of fiddling with her iPhone.
– The couple of earthquakes last week were quite strong – the daughter says leaving her phone on the table.
– Yes, what a shake! Your father’s coffee spilled all over the kitchen table.
– I was at the university taking an exam. Before starting, we had to leave our smartphones in a basket at the entrance – she says while trying to grab her mother’s attention, who closes her book placing it on the table. – Shortly before the building started to shake, the earthquake alarms of the phones started to ring. We all heard our phones in the basket, with the exception of Daisuke’s which rang in his pocket.
– Oh I see, they caught him with his phone during the exam.
– Even when you put your smartphone in silent mode, the earthquake alarm always rings.
– With this system we are more safe. But poor Daisuke, he was caught red-handed.
– The professor forgave him, but he will most likely never be able to sneak in his phone into an exam again – she says while grabbing her smartphone and lowering her glance once again. – The news I am reading on Twitter say that “The Great Earthquake” is coming. There’s a 70% chance that it will happen within the next four years.
– They’ve been saying the same thing for the last 40 years – the mother says without giving it much importance and she comes back to read her novel.
