A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

I kind of like earthquakes. You suddenly hear a loud thump and feel a jolt like a car hit the house, then everything starts rattling and swaying like you're on a boat. I like how alive my body feels in that instant when you realize it's an earthquake and you sharpen your senses, trying to judge if it's a big one worth worrying about or just a mild tremor.

But the past 24 hours have just been nerve-racking. In the last day we've had 28 earthquakes all originating right here in Oita. Five were lvl 3, and five were lvl 4 on the Japanese Earthquake scale. I've given up picking up stuff that's fallen over because they'll just get knocked over again. (While typing the previous sentence we just had another one #29... I'm guessing lvl 2. I'm getting pretty good at judging how strong they are).

The biggest one I felt so far was this afternoon while I was at the high school helping a student prepare for a national exam. At about 5:30 a huge jolt rocked the school (I heard some girls screaming from somewhere). An image of being crushed by blocks of concrete flashed through my mind, but the student seemed pretty calm and wanted to continue studying. She figured that the school is a lot stronger than most homes and we were safer there than anywhere else. Unfortunately an announcement was made telling everyone to evacuate the school and go home - I guess it might cause problems if the school did fall apart and someone got hurt.

I'm telling myself that there really is nothing to worry about. Having so many earthquakes means that the pressure is escaping little by little, preventing a single massive shake that'll destroy us all. Here's to hoping. If this is my last entry, you'll know what happened.