Bump in the Night

I experienced my first big Japanese earthquake last night. The epicenter was a good distance south of us so we experienced only a tempered version of the quake. At it's center the quake was 6.9 on the Richter scale and I have been told that we felt about 3.5 here in Sapporo just after midnight last night.

Tokyo Metro's earthquake safety for foreigners poster

I have felt other earthquakes while living in Victoria, we experience small ones there quite regularly. I had even been woken up by a small quake in Japan last fall while on a field trip. That one was about a 4.5 and at the time we were closer to the epicenter. This one was different though. It may have been because I was on the 6th floor of an apartment building so the building did more shaking than other buildings I have been in. This one was also much longer in duration than others I have felt. It lasted for at least 10 seconds after it woke me up - not sure how long it was rocking before I woke up but I was sleeping hard so might have been a while. I know, it sounds like a short time, but when the world is shaking it seems really long. Nothing in our wee apartment fell over or broke, and despite a little anxiousness before returning to sleep, there was no harm done.

Here is a link to a news story.

When we were in Tokyo last fall, we went on a trip to an earthquake simulator where they teach you what to do in the event of a big one. This real quake was surprisingly similar to the simulator (at the time I wondered how much the simulator could really be like the real thing). At the simulator, we did drills of how to jump under the nearest table during the shaking, how to navigate through a burning building and then got to watch a great 3D movie about the "big one" that hit Tokyo 1923. Here's a photo we took while taking things really seriously....


I am glad that I woke up, although it took me a bit to understand what was going on. My sister sleeps like the dead - I wonder what level of quake it would take to wake her up?