Double Whammy

Today at 12pm, there was an earthquake in Mie Prefecture, which isn't too far from me. I didn't feel it because I wasn't in my apartment - I was out enjoying the sunshine and getting jewelry at the monthly temple fair. I guess I didn't feel it because I was out and moving about; the temple fair was so crowded today because it was a Sunday and it was warm, so there was a double whammy concerning the spike in attendance at the temple fair today.

But the double whammy that made me somewhat nervous was that a few minutes ago, just as I was sitting down to dinner...

shake,
SHAKE...

BOOM.

It was like someone was climbing up a flight of stairs carrying something so heavy that you could feel the vibrations, then that person dropping it so suddenly that you felt those sudden vibrations as well. It was as if it was creeping up on you - in a quick panic, I unplugged the oven, my laptop, put my shoes on and prepared to run out the door with my wallet and my organizer (both has my important stuff in it).

And then, it was over. I still kept my shoes on (and still have them on as I type this, breaking all the rules about taking off your shoes indoors in Japan) and went to the Japanese Meterological Agencys website. It still had the information from the earhtquake this afternoon, but when I refreshed the page: It was registered as a 3 in Shiga Prefecture. Kyoto Prefecture is just to the left of the yellow-shaded Shiga. The earthquake that was in Mie Prefecture was a little farther and thus it was just faded rumblings, but with Shiga right next door, those fading rumblings were quite amplified.

Number of earthquakes felt: 3.