Earthquake!

As everyone knows, Japan was rocked by a 9.0 earthquake in March of this year. The earthquake was felt as far down as Yokosuka and was very violent. Side note: If you've ever been through an earthquake you know there's violent earth shaking back and forth with no mercy ones and gentler the earth is rolling ones, Japan has always been rocked by earthquakes. I mean, look at the country itself. It's a mountainous chain of islands created by what had to be some of the most violent natural events in Earth's history.

Since Japan is aware of it's propensity for earthquakes, many of their large buildings are built to strict earthquake standards. As a result, I feel fairly safe in any building now standing in the area that felt the 9.0 earthquake as it made it through.

Scientists are perdiciting that the aftershocks of this 9.0 earthquake will be felt for nearly a year. It's true, I've felt more earthquakes here than I ever did in California....and I was in California for 3 years. I've only been here for 3 weeks.

This morning, John and I felt a nice 5.5 magnitude earthquake. The bed was shaking, I was at the table on the computer and the water bottles on the table began to shake. I look across the room and the shoelaces on John's shoes were moving back and forth. It lasted about 20 seconds and then stopped. This is by far the biggest I've felt, but nothing compared to the disaster that happened before we arrived.