Shaken

Perfect. The closest I get to perfection is waking up with my friends late on a sunday morning, slipping in Hitch and reclining for another 2 hours while my nose is teased by the smell of cinamon coming from the kitchen. That was the scene Sunday March 20th, 2005 at 10:52 .

At 10:53 the apartment decided to creak and move as if in response to the comedy. I was momentarily taken aback as I remembered reading or hearing something about Kyushu not having earthquakes (jishin).

We waited for the shaking to stop, a whole second.

Then we reacted, Porsha was concerned about our heads, I remember her saying "cover your head" as I was passed through to the kitchen area, and decided maybe the doorway was not the way and returned to take refuge under the Kotatsu.

Buildings, furniture and appliance are not the only things that get shaken during an earthquake, senses get shaken as well. I have always been taught to run for the doorway in the event of an earthquake, move away from things that can fall etc, so its still unclear to me why three intelligent people found themselves under a blanket when the shaking stopped.

A full 30 seconds later it was steady, we emerged and looked around, all was well except for the Video that had taken a fall from its position atop the television, and a few frames that had bowed to show thier respect to mother nature.

Since then, there has been in excess of 140 aftershocks (yoshin) and I have felt 139, could not sleep, kept getting up, not sure what was shaking me or the earth.

All and all, Japan maybe prone to earthquakes, but there is nowhere else I would rather be during one, the buildings are made to withstand the shakes and they literally sway with the force of the earths movements, gas goes off almost simultaneously, thus limiting breakouts of fires, and the Internet still works!