What's shakin'?

Seems like the bigger ones hit at the worst times.


Big Square = Big Earthquake

Recently had the second earthquake large enough to feel in my new apartment. Being in the 9th floor now, it's the highest up I've been. They say the "feel" magnitude here was about 3--in my previous apartment on the 1st floor I felt a level 4 or 4.2.... which was pretty big..

...especially while trying to use the toilet. Well, as luck would have it, fate struck again while I was using the toilet. This time, the sit down variety. But, luckily, this time I was in the final stages of my duty, as opposed to the initial, unstoppable-even-in-an-earthquake moment. I finished, then calmly sat on the floor for 40 seconds until it stopped shaking.

Anyway, end result--I felt the earthquake from the 9th floor just as much as I have in other buildings on a lower floor. So maybe modern construction is worth something. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Helps me sleep at night.

PS, doing some earthquake research, I found this lovely, colorful graphic showing the geologic depth of earthquakes in Japan over the last 10 years. Tokyo is in the region of medium-shallow earthquakes.. ..which ain't so great. Most folks seem to expect a big one to hit in the next 10 years. Oh well.