After being in Japan for 6 months, I finally felt my first earthquake. This is by no means the first one I’ve been through, but I’ve been asleep the other times.

10 km +/- 11 km east of Sendai, we felt some wobble while watching a movie. At first I thought it might have been someone jumping around on the floor above me, but then it happened again. I gave my friend a high-five, as it was the first one he was awake for, too.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a website on which you can see earthquake information within half an hour of one anywhere in the world. After the movie finished, we hopped onto the site, and looked ours up. (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007auay.php)

They even provide a service that e-mails you when earthquakes happen in regions you say you have an interest in. I might sign up for Japan’s, just so I can get emails equivalent to “Hello, you just had an earthquake.”