Baby, You Rock my World

I love Japan with a passion so fierce it sometimes seems to cause entire buildings to sway; but today we had an earthquake that caused entire cities to sway and buildings to crumble - despite this, I still love my adopted country intensely.

In the latest quake (just before noon today, while I was caught up in a business meeting) 52 people were injured as reported so far on NHK online (in English!).

The epicenter of the quake was off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo and even further from where we live (see the map below). Despite the distance and the fact that the epicenter was off-shore, we felt our office building sway from side to side, rather gently, but still disconcertingly. While the building waved, I said to my British colleague, very calmly, "I am not worried - I watch the Japanese staff and just do what they do". Looking over my shoulder, he said, "Well, they are hiding under the desks". He wasn't joking.

It was also interesting to see a Canadian blogger post about the earthquake almost immediately after its occurance; she kindly included a link to this seismic map - very interesting.

Well - just another day in Paradise!