Month: July 2007

(IMAGE/REUTERS)

Seems like I’ve been dodging these things in my sleep since I’ve been here. This past weekend we have had both a typhoon and an 6.6-6.8 earthquake in Japan. The earthquake occurred in Kashiwazaki approximately 160 miles northwest of Tokyo. Though I was awakened this morning by my bed moving softly side to side, I didn’t occur to me until Alex and I were at the Panasonic center watching the damage from the Northwest side of Japan that it was actually so large.

Even further, the water level was significantly higher and much more “muddy” in the rivers. Alex and I initially thought that it was due to the typhoon but I have just learned that the earthquake also caused some minor tsunamis warnings that had suspended bullet train service, and temporarily shut down the worlds largest nuclear reactor earlier in the day today.

My experiences with earthquakes so far has been fairly mild. I think its primarily because Tokyo doesn’t get hit directly with so many earthquakes. But I think its interesting that I usually sleep through them or get woken up gently by them. My personal experiences with earthquakes and what I see on the TV is so highly mismatched at this point. Very strange. At any rate, I am ok and there were only a few deaths from this past set of natural occurings.