EARTHQUAKEEEEEEEEE!!!

Fun fact: I live basically directly on top of a fault line, and travel to a place that is also directly on top of a fault line, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I experienced an earthquake of some sort....

I grew up in the mountains of Colorado. Basically the only natural disaster I ever had to worry about was a blizzard..... While kids in schools had drills for earthquakes and tornadoes, we had fire drills... that was about it. Surprisingly, we did have a forest fire next to the high school, but it was after school hours when we were evacuated, so the whole fire drill thing was never exactly put to real life use.... Anyways, I digress, point being I never was taught what to do in a disaster.

In college, the first time I heard the tornado sirens, I had zero clue what they meant... So while everyone else was taking cover, I was waltzing around outside casually making my way to class. Since then, I've learned a few things. Like not to go outside during a tornado... Earthquakes were still outside my realm of reasoning considering I had never experienced one.... Until last week....

I was hanging out in my hotel room in Tokyo getting ready for my flight back to the US of A, blow drying my hair when I heard things start to move. Well, in my jet-lagged state, I initially thought someone was breaking down the door to my hotel room until I realized everything was moving. My second thought was that I wasn't on a plane so it clearly wasn't turbulence... and the third thought was that I wasn't drunk, so after all that, I realized that naturally, it must be an earthquake. I happened to be texting my sister at the time, so I lovingly interrupted our riveting conversation about me shredding two pairs of pantyhose to terrify her by texting "Holy Cow! EARTHQUAKE! What do I do???" Because panicking by yourself is never fun, so texting others while in a foreign country to make them worry about you is always better. (Sorry Jill...)

Well, the man who got on the PA system at the hotel was also panicked. While he was shouting instructions in Japanese and then English, you could hear people yelling in the background also panicking. Overall, definitely a good way to calm people down... My mother's reaction was to send me instructions on what to do in case of an earthquake... two days later...

So, I survived a 5.6 earthquake in the center of Tokyo. Hopefully, it's not a repeat experience, but I now have the official recommendations from the CDC on what to do just in case. (Thanks Mom...)

Love, Alison