Earthquake!

At 5:01 this morning, Therese and I were woken by our first big earthquake in Japan. Therese was awake straight away, and once we realised what was going on we made a quick dash for the dining room table, and dived underneath just as the last few tremors shook the building. Naturally, we were straight on the internet to find out how strong it was - the quake.

As you can see from the link the epicentre was about 160km (100miles) away, and was recorded as 6.3 on the Richter scale, which is officially classed as 'Strong'. Amazingly nothing fell over or got broken in the flat, but the pictures were a bit wonky and the elevator had stopped working. According to the local news, 5 people were injured, although none seriously.

It's sort of hard to describe what it feels like - a bit like when you are on a train or tube and it goes over a bad part of track, and suddenly shakes from side to side, and it lasts much longer than you imagine. Having experienced one, I'll be quite happy to not have to experience another - I prefer the ground to stay still at all times!