Shaking all over

One the least appealing aspects of living in Japan, apart from a popular Saturday night TV programme featuring a psychic fraud Ehara-san who regresses vacuous chat show celebs back to their previous lives as warrior horsemen on the Mongolian steppes, is the frequency of earthquakes. We just had one about 45 minutes ago and it was not a pleasant feeling. The furniture and window frames started rattling and there was that uncomfortable moment when you have to gage in a matter if seconds whether it could potentially kill you or knock the house down at least. Well, after the tremours had lasted for about 10 seconds and kept increasing in intensity, we erred on the side of caution and grabbed the kids from their futons and stood on the stairs ready to run out the front door. The not-our-taste 1960s style hall light dangling a metre or so from the ceiling swung from side to side, but the house stopped rattling after 30 seconds or so. We put the kids back to bed and turned on the telly in Baa-chan's room. Apparently it was a 6.8 job about 300 miles north of us, round here it was just a 3.0 on the Richter scale. We just signed up for earthquake insurance on Saturday, and the expense suddenly seemed worth it tonight. Sweet dreams.