On October 6, at 1:35 p.m. Japan time, I had my most memorable experience in Japan to date; I experienced my first major earthquake. At first, I thought one of my students was trying to be funny by shaking the back of my chair. When I turned around no one was there. Then I realized my desk and then the school itself was trembling, sounding like a roaring truck. My teachers all reacted the same way I did at first; staring out the window in disbelief as the mountains appeared to be trying to get up and move. Then I promptly pulled my chair back, hit the floor on one knee, and crawled under my desk. Then many of my teachers followed suit. Some still stood, gaping. I guess they don't get many earthquakes here. Thank goodness for all that training in elementary school! It wasn't bad, and I felt calm as it was going on. It was afterwards, when my brain finally got the message "We just had an earthquake" that I started getting quivery and my stomach started sinking. Even now, I can still sense the little aftershocks that just rattle my chair a little, and my stomach is going wild. My teachers all look like they're feeling the same thing. I hope the other ALTs are OK and I hope that the earthquake here doesn't mean somewhere else got a worse one. Being only 1 1/2 hours from Kobe, and having seen pictures of what happened there in '95, I feel a little nervous. My head is spinning, and I just try to stay near the teachers (though after seeing their initial reaction, I might be better off on my own).

Update: Wednesday

According to the paper, the magnitude of the quake was 7.3 in Tottori and we had a 4-point something here. It did alot of damage but not many people were killed thank goodness. As of Tuesday afternoon, the aftershock count was 613. That's one about every 15 minutes for the past five days! Last night we had a 1 here and I felt the floor jolt under me. I was at Samantha's and I yelled out "Saaaam!" She had it even worse. She was using the bathroom at the time! Even now, I feel little jolts like someone's pulling on my chair. Yikes. Scary stuff. But I figured a way around Friday the 13th! When it's the 13th here, it's still the 12th in the States. So I'll just say I'm on States time. Then when it's the 13th in the States, I'll jump back to Japan time, completely avoiding my foolish superstition. I'm spending the night at Sam's Friday cuz they're showing scary American movies that night and I don't want to be alone. (Especially with these little earthquakes!) And guess what? In one more week I become an official foreign resident of Japan! That's right, my three-month anniversary is coming up! Wow! I just doesn't seem that long...I'll write more in a week!