Japan has an interesting mix of religions, mainly Shintoist and Buddhist and all their sects. Whoever has been here knows Temples are everywhere, and one can even get tired of them… But some of them have something special, like this one in Kamakura, a small coast town, holding a huge Buddha…
Yokohama is the second biggest city in Japan, but you do not notice it, as it is next to Tokyo. In fact, I work in Yokohama, but I live in Tokyo. The main touristic area is the harbour and surroundings, called Minato Mirai.
And as it is usual in Japan, you can find the contrast of an old sailing boat, next to the most modern buildings you can imagine.
Finally, after more than 2 months in this earthquake country, I finally managed to feel one earthquake. It was a small one, just a couple of seconds, enough to realize everything is moving (laterally), then everybody makes a couple of comments (“It was pretty big”, “Not really”, “First earthquake, then?”) and back to work.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has a complete website with weather and typhoon forecast, earthquake information, etc. So, after feeling one, you can check how big it was, where the epicentre was, etc. The one I felt is this one.
My office is very near from one of the “3” spots. So, I felt an earthquake of magnitude 3, according to the japanese seismic intensity scale, which use the shindo as a unit.
The Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale is a measure used in Japan and Taiwan to indicate the strength of earthquakes. It is measured in units of shindo (震度, shindo? seismic intensity, literally “degree of shaking”). Unlike the Richter magnitude scale (which measures the total magnitude of the earthquake, and represents the size of the earthquake with a single number) the JMA scale describes the degree of shaking at a point on the Earth’s surface. As a result, the measure of the earthquake varies from place to place, and a given quake may be described as “shindo 4 in Tokyo, shindo 3 in Yokohama, shindo 2 in Shizuoka”.
From Wikipedia.
Looking forward to feeling the next one… A bit more is ok, as long as it is not the Big One everybody is expecting here… Even the JMA.
