Earthquake

In the UK the worst natural disasters we have to deal with are usually floods, politicians or over-abundant patriotism, but at 5.07am Tokyo time this morning I was rudely awoken by an earthquake measuring around 5.0 on the richter scale. According to wikipedia it would take approx. 32 kilotonnes of TNT to reproduce a similar force.

The quake lasted maybe 20-25 seconds and felt as though a giant hand had grasped my little house and shook it. Nothing fell over or was damaged thankfully, I just sat there in my bed swaying with the house and wondering what the heck was going on.

I've barely lived here a week and already the experiences are mounting up.

Update: According to reports the epicentre was 20km below Shizuoka prefecture, which borders Nagano. I live to the north-east of the epicentre and in the red zone on the map above.