Little earthquake(s)

We know, of course, that Japan is famous for its earthquakes; something like 40 percent of the world's quakes happen here because this is where the Pacific tectonic plate dives under the Eurasian plate. Somehow I didn't expect to experience this reality of Japanese life so quickly.

But at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning (about 36 hours into our stay here) the house started to shake. I was sleeping in Arno's room while Blaine handled Arno's pre-dawn, jet-lagged wakefulness. It was so weird: it felt like someone, or something, had picked up the bed and was jerking it back and forth, It lasted for a few seconds, if that, and I leaped out of bed expecting to hear Lucinda and Arno crying out.

Instead, there was total silence in our little house, Blaine, Lucinda and Arno had slept through it. I wasn't sure if I'd dreamed it, until I read a short news story the next day.