Last Night's Rumblings

Today I’ve been scaring myself. Well, not too badly, but I’ve been looking up earthquakes on the internet. Last night I experienced my first (well, biggest) earthquake. That’s not saying much, since Melbourne is not particularly seismically active, but nevertheless it was kind of a turning point for me, if I think about it.

It happened in the middle of the night and only woke me up for about 2 seconds or so. During that time I was half asleep and while my first thought was ‘earthquake’, I also convinced myself it was probably the guy upstairs jumping. I completely forgot about it until about an hour ago when a teacher sitting nearby asked me if I felt the earthquake last night. According to her, the epicenter was in Aichi, southwest of here, and it only registered 2 on the Richter scale here in Kakamigahara. (2.0-2.9 = minor; generally not felt, but recorded; there are about 1000 every day around the world).

So all that happened was I felt it- nothing fell, nothing broke. But it’s made it real for me now. Not that I’ve been complacent about earthquakes- I actually have an emergency kit in my closet (water, snacks, reflective blanket, face masks, rope, flashlight etc), which is a hell of a lot more than what most Japanese people have. According to a ‘Japan Times’ poll, only 14 percent have a survival kit and know where their local evacuation area is. This is despite the very real - in fact likely - possibility that a big earthquake will hit Japan in the near future. According to the government, there is a 30 percent chance of a 6.7-7.2 magnitude earthquake hitting the southern Kanto region ( Tokyo and surrounds) in the next decade, and a 70 percent chance in the next 30 years. My prefecture, Gifu , also has a strong possibility of a major earthquake in the near future. So, as they say, it’s not a question of if, but when.

Anyway, I’ve just spouted a lot of facts and statistics, but I feel like it’s the least I can do to be aware of them, seeing that I will be living here for the next year or so. Australia ’s spiders, snakes and sharks might strike fear into the hearts of non-Australians everywhere, but I’ll take them any day over a major earthquake!