Tokyo Earthquake Simulator
The other morning, we woke at 4am to the gentle, but disturbing, rocking of our apartment in a small earthquake. Actually, "we" is an exaggeration - Kathleen felt it; I would have slept right through had she not woken me up. It's not that I'm unconcerned about earthquakes, it's just that it was 4am! Slight ones are pretty cool - just a nice, gentle swaying - and we've had two or three since we've been here.
In Nishigahara, northwest Tokyo, there is an Earthquake Simulation Centre, and we went there today. We arrived just as the tourguide was giving his introductory speech to the apprehensive Japanese families sitting in the simulator, mocked up to resemble a basic Japanese apartment.
As the tourguide turned the dial on his little control panel to 1, we felt that familiar rocking. The kids laughed happily, as one set of parents grimly tried to grab onto the floor. Cockily, I have the thumbs up to the two or three people looking in through the front door. No worries.
The dial was turned to 2, then to 3, and the rocking was more urgent. At 4, it was no longer fun. 5 and 6 saw us literally bouncing up and down in the air - even the 10 year old boy next to us looked a little cowed. The people looking in were now laughing at me, since I had lost my cocky grin. 7 on the Richter Scale was just frightening! The dulcet tones of the guide, as he explained the effects of each level, didn't change - obviously doing this every day has had dulled the effects for him somewhat.
A brief respite, then we recreated the experience of the 1923 Kanto and 1995 Kobe earthquakes, thankfully minus the death and destruction. Leaving the simulator takes you past a chart with the size and range of all measured quakes in Japan, and some photos of the devastation in Kobe.
The most frightening bit was hearing how Kanto is due for a major quake! That's it - we're heading home on the next plane! Are you happy now, Kathleen?!
