Will the earth move for us?

Our tickets are booked and we’re off to the UK for a few weeks at the tail end of July.  On the return leg I’ve arranged for another two weeks stop off in Japan.  The Land of the Rising Sun.  Plus earthquakes, tsunami and the odd radiation hot-spot.  Jenna and Jason are flying in a few days behind us and truly looking forward to the trip.

The only time Klara and I stopped in Japan was for an overnighter:  Japan Airlines, while moving us from Sydney to London, did so via a 12 hour stopover and provided a hotel as part of the package.  We flew separately as I had to return to tidy up some work affairs.  Neither of us saw anything of the beauty of Japan: only the dreary, sodden-grey trip from the hotel back to Narita airport.

Looking at the newspapers and advice from various travel agencies it would appear misguided to visit Japan.  I don’t think so.  Annually, and I do mean every year, Japan receives the full brunt of one fifth of the world’s most serious earthquakes.  Every year.  In the large cities tall buildings are designed to withstand major shocks, swaying like treetops in the wind.  Although you may never get me up there to confirm this swaying I feel far safer in the knowledge Japan knows a bit about managing the effects of natural disasters.  “But what do I know?” he ask's, rhetorically.

I do know until two years ago I’d never experienced an earthquake and while Australia has some minor tremors rarely do they cause loss of life or significant damage.  However while sitting relaxing during a lunchtime break at our farm there was a distant rumble.  Rather like a rumble of distant thunder.  Where it differed from thunder was it wasn’t 'directional', was far more visceral in it’s effect and went on for far longer.  An humbling feeling considering the paltry 3.6 richter scale at almost 100 kilometers away.

In August, we aren't there as some eathquake-chasing, vampiric tourists.  We’ll have statistically a good (or bad?) chance to experience tremors or aftershocks but as Japan's situated on the convergence of four tectonic plates that's understandable.  In fact, Tokyo has been waiting another big one for years and it’s overdue by a few years now.  Last time, 140,000 people perished in the area back in 1923: an event commemorated by September 1^st being designated Disaster Prevention Day.  It’s the day we fly back out of Tokyo to Sydney.  Well, that’s the plan but more of plans later.