Yesterday afternoon at work I was sitting with one of my students discussing his recent work issue when suddenly I felt the floor move slightly. I stopped talking and looked around and everything appeared completely normal. I asked him if he felt an earthquake and he looked at me strangely and said I needed to take a rest. But we fired up the homepage for Japan’s seismic events and there it was – a big one northeast of Tokyo.
Just about then everybody in the 12 story office building simultaneously did the same thing, and my office computer’s internet connection croaked. So we finished up the lesson, and he went back to work, and between classes the rest of the day I checked for news via my cellphone. Slowly I could see the nature of the disaster, and students that came afterwards described what they knew (in English!) and finally I wrapped things up and went home.
That’s about all I’ve got to tell from Japan. We are in a very safe spot. Our location is on the inland sea protected by Shikoku, Awaji island, and the southern part of Osaka. According to the reports the water level to the south of us went up only 10 cm momentarily. Our house is quite a ways inland, and sits on a slight hill above other houses. In addition it is a newly-built earthquake-safe compliant building, and Kobe house builders know a lot about earthquake safety.
As one of my students said yesterday, people around this area are used to earthquakes, having survived one of the most devastating earthquakes in Japanese history. People in the Tokyo area are not as experienced, and so it will be tough on them in the coming days.
This morning Kuniko went off to work. I’m doing chores around the house this Saturday morning. It’s business as usual for us.
