Earthquake

 I set myself a challenge to write a post every day this month.

I wanted to see if it was possible. My life gets to be rather boring but by challenging myself to write I have to do things or find things to write about.

After yesterday's post, I wasn't sure what I could write about today.  Another moan about the weather, which is still too hot, or a detailed account of how I'm avoiding packing, I've made that into an art form.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the room that we use for teaching, thinking about the lessons I had to do and chatting with Christopher when the alarm on our phones went off.  This freaked me out. My phone was saying in English "There is an earthquake, please take precautions to protect yourself"  For a couple of seconds I couldn't figure out what was happening.  Christopher's phone was doing the same but in Japanese.  I looked at Christopher, he just said earthquake!

Where we are it wasn't that bad maybe a M2.  The house shook, but nothing fell off the shelves. For me it's the sounds that are scary, there's this rumbling sound that is very deep, then the building grinding, doors and windows rattling.  It was over very quickly and we haven't felt any aftershocks.

I was surprised to find that it measured M7.1 at the epicenter.  

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a megaquake advisory.  This highlights the possibility of a mega-earthquake along the Nankai Trough.  The biggest possibility is within the next week. However, seismology is not an exact science.  The Nankai Trough has been talked about for years, some scientists say it could produce a mega-earthquake in the next couple of years, and others say it could be 30 to 40 years before it becomes unstable. 

This earthquake yesterday was a reminder that I need to check our emergency supplies and update what we would do if we have a very bad one. Where to meet, how to contact each other. The last time we had a big earthquake here was 8 years ago. Hannah was still in school, so we made a plan to meet at Hannah's school, as that is an evacuation place.  We need to sit and talk about this!

I think Hannah had the worst experience yesterday. She is volunteering at an old people's home, it's on the 6th floor! She said that most of the residents are so out of it they didn't notice the quake. Just one lady was panicking.  

I need to go to the other house soon. There are a few cracks on the outside walls that I want to check, I really hope they didn't get bigger or deeper!

This was the cat's reaction to the earthquake.

sleeping as usual