Time for a geography lesson

Sweet Kati, being her usual concerned self, sent me a email yesterday expressing distress about the earthquake that struck Japan.

Minutes before Kati's email, I heard a short report on the radio that a earthquake and small tsunami happened in Japan. So I Googled the report and found this article on Time magazine's Web site:

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit northern Japan on Thursday morning, triggering a small tsunami that apparently caused no damage, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The agency said the quake hit at 9:21 a.m. off the eastern coast Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island at a depth of about 12.4 miles.

A 4-inch tsunami rippled at the shore about 35 minutes after the quake.

A warning had been issued for a tsunami of up to 20 inches along the eastern coast of Hokkaido and the northeastern coast of Japan's main island of Honshu. Authorities ordered people to stay away from beaches.

National broadcaster NHK showed footage of the coastal area, but there did not appear to be any damage. The report said the force of the quake had not broken windows or knocked items from shelves.

So just to recap, this earthquake was on the most northern island of Japan and we live on the southern most island of Japan. We are more than a 3-hour airplane flight from Tokyo (to the disappointment of many of my friends and family that thought a visit with the V-Team would mean shopping and drinking in Tokyo). It's basically like asking a New Yorker how they are after a earthquake hits San Francisco. It's quite a distance away.

We do get earthquakes here, but there are small and hardly noticeable. I'm usually the only person who wakes up to the doors rattling.

So to recap, we are OK and fine. No worries, Kati.