Quaking

There was an earthquake last night. Japan is earthquake country, so that is not unusual.

Many buildings at ARI had to be rebuilt after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake in 2011. And part of our orientation was what to do when there is an earthquake. The short version – if an earthquake lasts at least 1 minute then evacuate to the appointed outside location. (We do wonder who has the presence of mind to time an earthquake.) The key is to get out of any building immediately, because the aftershock is what likely will cause the most damage. Or the really short version – do whatever the Japanese do, because they have been doing this their entire lives.

Last night’s earthquake at 12:20 probably lasted about 20 seconds, we reckoned. So nothing to worry about (if you are Japanese). But it was strong enough to shake our beds back and forth. We wonder if we would have been knocked off balance if it had been during the day.