Rolling Stone

Yesterday I awoke to the somewhat violent rocking back and forth of my bed. I remember waking up and laughing at the comical nature of the bed hopping around. It wasn't until about 5 minutes later when it had stopped that the thought even occurred to me that was an earthquake. Well luckily it wasn't too bad in that no one noticed until I mentioned it. This happens to be the 2nd earthquake that has occurred while I have been here (3rd if you count another that someone was explaining to me). Mostly mild and sometimes hardly noticeable, earthquakes are capable of occurring quite often. If we just take a look at this chart of Preliminary Determination of Earthquake Epicenters here we'll notice something quite interesting.
Japan seems to be missing on this map, covered by a rather large clump of black dots.

It did remind me of the great earthquake that struck the Kobe area 12 years ago. I remember on my first trip to Japan hearing about the stories of the clean up in Kobe and of the international attention it received. Since then there have been monuments build to commemorate those who died and the lives it affected. This is a piece of the damage kept intact at the earthquake memorial park. The Earthquake created a huge and needed awareness for earthquake safety and how earthquakes need to be handled. You can read about it here



With that I'm off to Tokyo this weekend for a little vacation. Expect pictures and explanations when I get back.