Monday, July 16, 2007

Typhoons and Earthquakes

Since moving to Japan I have learned about two new natural disasters, typhoons and earthquakes. And, I actually got to experience one of each in the past couple of days.
Last weekend a typhoon passed through most of southern and eastern Japan. Thankfully, here we just had lots of rain and no other effects. I have experienced others worse than this one.
Then, today I was sitting at the table making a grocery list when I heard my dishes rattling and suddenly felt like my chair was moving. We were having a small earthquake. I turned on the TV a short time later to find out where the epicenter was and found out that this little one was nothing compared to what happened in the morning. There was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake in northwestern Japan. The news tonight said 7 people have died and over 700 were injured.
In South Dakota we have tornadoes (does that have an e in it?) and blizzards. For both of those natural disasters there are generally warnings. For typhoons there are also warnings. But, then there are earthquakes! No warning. No way to know the ground is going to start moving under your feet!
New country, new natural disasters to learn about!

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