Gaijin in Tokyo

今のちょっと前、午前３時４６ごろ、地震があった。起こされた。震度３だった。日本に来てからたたまに夢の中で地震あったが今回は本物だ。日本には他の国と比べると色んな心配（治安）があまりないのにそういう心配があるねと考えられた。

ザ・ビッグ・ワン（非常に大地震）はいつ起こるかという心配している。

また地震だ！Again up near Miyagi-ken (宮城県) and out under the ocean. They have been getting so many sizeable ones up there recently. Up there it was shindo 4, down where we are living in Tokyo it was shindo 1. They’ve been having a lot of earthquakes up there. This one was at 3:32 am (!) and was one of the first ones during the middle of the night that we have felt.

http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/2005-12-17-03-32.html

We were watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tonight on television. It’s probably the third time we’ve seen it. My wife was studying for her French exam tomorrow while watching (well, half studying). All was well until… the shaking starts. It seems to be just slightly perceptible at first and it often makes me wonder whether or not I just imagined it. But then I see the flowers on top of the television shake and I know it’s an earthquake. Next is apprehension as we wait to see whether or not the shaking becomes more intense.

Fortunately the earthquakes* were both small tonight. * Yes, earthquakes. There were two earthquakes tonight, almost back-to-back, within 19 minutes of one another. The first was pretty close, but deep below the ground (magnitude 4.3). The shaking was very slight and it lasted only a few short seconds. The second was actually more powerful (6.4) and the shaking lasted a bit longer. However, the epicenter was much farther away, to the Northeast and below the ocean, so it was not felt so strongly where we are. I guess that the second wasn’t an aftershock and it wasn’t caused by the first because the epicenter was so far away from the first; it probably was a coincidence that it happened soon after the first. Interestingly enough the first was actually a shindo 2 and the second a shido 1 here in Bunkyo-ku, even though the second felt stronger.

今夜「ハリーポターと秘密の部屋」の放送がテレビでやっていた。今度見たのは三回目だろう。奥さんはフランス語の試験を勉強しながら見ていた。問題はなかった瞬間にあっとい間に揺れ始めた。始めた時感じたのは気のせいかと思う。だが、テレビに置いた花こそ揺れを見ると「地震だ」と言うことが判る。それから揺れの振幅が大きくなるかを懸念しながら待つ。。。

幸運にも、今夜の二つの地震はそんなに大きくならなかった。二つ！今夜地震が二つ発生したよ。地震が１９分で分けられた。一つ目の中心は近かったけど深かった。ゆらゆら揺れてすぐ終わった。二つ番目の方はマグニチュードが強くて（６．４）永くゆらゆら揺れた。だが、中心は北東の方に遠くて海の下だった。だからマグニチュードは強くても遠くてややゆらゆらした。ひとつ番目から離れて二番目の引っ掛けは関係ないと思って、偶然の一でしょう。文京区にして二番目の感じた揺れの方が強い気がしたのに一番目のは震度２で二番目のは震度１だった。

technorati tags: earthquake

There was a noticeable earthquake (jishin) this morning at 6:39. It woke us up just before we were about to get up this morning. The bed shook sideways slightly for about 20 seconds or so.

The earthquake was apparently magnitude 7.2 but was more than 500 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, out over the ocean. It caused some small (30 cm or less) tsunamis to hit the coast. Here in Tokyo it registered as a level 2 (shindo 2) on the scale that the Japanese use. The shindo scale measures the intensity of an earthquake at any given location, rather than at the epicenter. The measurement is based upon the local acceleration of the ground, according to the wikipedia entry. I actually didn’t know the specific criteria before, as it seemed that the criteria was based upon more subjective criteria of how the earthquake “feels” to humans.

I usually check yahoo Japan’s website for earthquake information, as they have a nice map of the earthquake and affected regions: http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/earthquake/

また日本語は準備中。。。我慢してね。