Tokyo Earthquake: Mariko Rocks

On New Years Day we had a bit of an Earthquake. A Richter 7 at the epicentre, this was a serious quake for Tokyo. I had sort of been expecting it because ever since we have arrived tremors have been rocking the house on a regular basis. Over the years of staying in Tokyo I have become accustomed to these small regular quakes and accepted them as a fact of life here. HMil (Honourable Mother in Law) is so used to them that sometimes when I ask her if she ok after a small shift she responds by asking me why I am concerned. I explain there was an earthquake and she replies "Was there!". She just doesn't notice unless the piano starts moving across the room.

Vulnerable Senior Lady in Earthquake Shocker

 This stoic resistance to nature's forces is not just an individual characteristic of HMiL but as the Montreal News reported:

The tremor struck at 2:28pm with its focus deep at about 370 kilometres, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the depth at 348 kilometres. Its epicentre was located near Torishima, a northwestern Pacific island about 560 kilometres south of Tokyo.There were no immediate reports of damage or injury and no tsunami warning was issued.

The mid-afternoon quake swayed buildings in Tokyo and surrounding areas but it did not disrupt the final of the Emperor's Cup football tournament under way at the National Stadium. "Some people, who were walking, did not seem to notice the quake," a spokesman for Tokyo Disneyland said, adding business went on as usual at the theme park after some rides were automatically shut down.

What I can never get over is just how powerful these events are. The big one in March 2011 actually moved the whole of Japan 20 metres west. The fact that something 560 kilometres away from me can have the building I am in swaying and vibrating around like a fairground ride is an awesome display of nature's power. Of course, as powerful a display as this is one could argue it pales into almost insignificance compared with the human spirit in the face of such threats.

"When it comes to Tokyo, things get immensely complicated," said Dr Stein. "There seems to be broken pieces of plate that are jammed under Tokyo like a pill that won't go down your throat. And on top of that we have the two different slabs of plates beneath it, so there's really a triple stack of faults beneath Tokyo."

source: BBC

Tokyo is coming to the moment in its history when a truly big event is expected. The last time such an event occurred, in 1923, 100,000 people died. This is because Tokyo sits on the conjunction of three tectonic plates and this for the seismologist Dr Stein produces a minimum of a 30% risk of "the big one" in Tokyo at the moment. The quake in March 2011 was the largest ever recorded earthquake at Richter 9+. This has added tension on the other two plates below Tokyo.

So when the room started shaking on New Years Day I knew this was the biggest quake I had yet felt. Immediately I wondered if this was it, could this be the start of the big one. I rushed to the main room and held onto various items of furniture which were beginning to move around. I called for my Ox Hammer and HMil to come into the main room so we were all together. Everything was really beginning to grind. My honourable wife appeared and came over to my side and we both called out to HMil.

She appeared from the bathroom with her electric toothbrush whirring away as she brushed her teeth. Passing the piano she reached up to her favourite toy, her dancing cat. Pressing its paw activates it and it starts to gyrate and dance to an old rock and roll classic "I want you for life". As the toy started dancing and singing out the tune so too did Mariko take to the centre of the room and give it some slick rock and roll moves, she does go ballroom dancing three times a week, and took her toothbrush out, laughed and said,

"Don't worry, it's only a small one." and laughed again. She danced her way through the quake as we watched in awe. At least I had saved her new 42 inch digital television from toppling to the floor!