Earthquake!

At around 2:45 today, as I was sitting at my desk at home studying, the apartment began to sway and roll. It was an earthquake. Here in Japan they are a fairly frequent occurrence. This is not the first one I have felt here at our apartment. But it is still quite nerve-wracking. This one went on for quite some time, as well. No damage to our house or anything though, so that's good.

After turning off the gas and opening the front door, I hopped online to see what people were saying. I also flipped on the TV to see if there was any emergency report. Turns out it was pretty big. Very big. 8.8 big. That's huge. The epicenter appeared to be in or off the coast of Northeast Japan. That is a hotspot for earthquakes, where three tectonic plates converge. It's the reason Japan exists geographically. There was also a tsunami warning for most of the pacific coast. Osaka, where we live, is very far away from the epicenter. All the more amazing that we felt it so strongly.

I texted Ulala at her work to make sure she was OK and she was. Then I checked to see if the trains were running, because I was due soon at work for the evening. Trains were fine and I went to work. At work people talked about it but in a casual hey-did-you-feel-that- kind of way.

It wasn't until I got home much later that I realized the extent of the damage to Japan. Truthfully it will be a long time before we know the full extent. The earthquake did a lot of damage to Tohoku area (Northeast Japan). Much worse, there was a massive tsunami generated by the quake that washed over much of the coast. Many people simply did not have time to escape. That area is devastated. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people there and to their families in this terrible and difficult time.