Shake n' Quake

Awoke this morning to hear that two earthquakes rocked Japan overnight. That the events occurred just days after the anniversary of the March 11 2011 quake and tsunami must have made the news even more unsettling. 

Funny that while I was in Japan in January, the thought of being caught in the aftermath of an earthquake only briefly crossed my mind. It was at least three days into the trip before I asked Yoriko what I should do in such a case. Of course, if we were together, I would simply follow her lead. If in my hotel room, she instructed me to try to wiggle under the desk, hang on, and wait until the shaking stopped. If out on my own in the city, I should just follow the crowd. I had Yoriko's cell number and the phone number at her parent's house, if the phone service was still functioning, so I could always tell someone nearby where I was and how I was doing. Other than that, there isn't much I could have done. Really.

I did feel one small tremor while in Tokyo. Yoriko told me of another, but I didn't feel it at all. 

Suppose part of the reason for not dwelling on thoughts of being swept up in a disaster like that experienced in north east Japan last March might be that earthquakes are not outside my realm of experience. Living in Vancouver, quakes are common enough even when we don't feel them (interestingly I felt more and stronger quakes while living in Ottawa). Anyone in doubt need only log onto the Internet to find where the earth is rumbling and how much the area residents might feel the earth move. Here are a couple of informative (and seemingly reliable) sites worth checking:

http://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/index-eng.php?tpl_region=west

http://www.myforecast.com/bin/earthquake.m?city=54366&metric=false


Suppose this is as good a time as any to also respond to comments some have made re the radiation I might have encountered during my recent travels.

Perhaps I'm simply naive, but I suspect I have had more radiation exposure in the last four years than most residents of Japan experience in a lifetime. That radiation has been an integral part of my cancer treatment hasn't filled me with any noticeable dread of further exposure. In fact, now that the disease has spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes into the spleen, both lungs, and trachea, perhaps full body radiation treatment could be a benefit? Not that I'm in any hurry to find out. As for eating possibly contaminated food (especially seafood and produce), there is no reliable source of information re the danger of anything I consumed while away, just as there isn't any reliable information source regarding what I put into my mouth while closer to home. Like everyone else in Tokyo, Kyoto, and the other places I visited, I simply ate what was available. Suspect I might feel different about all of this if I had been closer to the Fukushima Prefecture. But that would be a very different story - in more ways than one.