Earthquake

I am not living in Japan any more - these last few posts you've seen were pre-written - so I have fortunately missed the big earthquake. 

As you know, there was an earthquake of magnitude around 8.8, which hit the coast north-east of Japan, creating a huge tsunami and causing a lot of damage. The biggest city nearest the quake was Sendai, in the Tohoku region.

I am relieved to say that, as far as I can tell, my friends in Kawasaki and Yokohama seem to be okay. In those areas, buildings were evacuated and the earthquake was strongly felt, but it didn't cause a lot of damage; they were too far from the quake. Japan has quite strict rules about earthquake preparedness, and I believe buildings must be constructed to certain standards. Phone networks were down and train lines stopped, as there were a lot of aftershocks.

It sounded pretty scary and I hope things will settle down and there will not be another large quake, as I heard they were predicting.

I send my thoughts and good wishes to the people in Japan suffering from this disaster. :(