My First Earthquake...

Last night I experienced my first earthquake ever. It hit Kumamoto city at about 1:10 a.m. Sunday (Dec. 7). I was at my friend Yuko's house exiting the bathroom when all of the buildings in the neighborhood started making a lot of noise and rattling. The quake was a 3.1 which is not so small, but nothing that I know of happened aside from scaring me. The scary part is something I never really thought of before until Yuko mentioned it. In an earthquake you might feel something little and it might seem like nothing, but it could be much worse somewhere else near the center. So, it was weird to think that the little rattling I felt could have just destroyed a city somewhere else. In Japan, usually about 5 minutes after an earthquake you can watch TV and see what happened. Luckily it was fine and there was no threat of a tsunami. So, everything is OK. YAY!

It's interesting because the first place I looked (when I realized what was happening) was up at the ceiling. Of course, if it was a big earthquake and strong enough to make that ceiling fall on me, looking up to survey the situation and ponder the structural stability of the building I'm in would likely be a waste of time. I'm talking boarderline laughable. Like if there was a video camera there capturing the moment that the earthquake hit, the video would probably make its way to YouTube with the title "Idiot Foolishly Looks Up a Moment Before Being Crushed."

I should note, that when I looked up at the ceiling I realized that it was pretty funny that I had chosen to do that rather than run to a doorway or under a desk. I am a stupid human being... but hey, who isn't?