EARTHQUAKE!!!

First thing's first...Jacob and I are 100% a-okay! Sapporo got quite the shakedown, but we have no structural damage and absolutely nothing compared to what the folks down south of us are going through!

Today at work, all of a sudden I felt a little drunk, then started to see things move, then started hearing everyone say "earthquake!" Earthquakes aren't uncommon here in Japan, they happen almost everyday, though mostly they go unnoticed and usually last less than 10 seconds. "Big ones" are especially rare up here on our northern island of Hokkaido. But, when this one started picking up strength with doors, windows, and things on the wall moving and shaking for more than TWO MINUTES, it was pretty scary! It never got bad enough here that we had to evacuate, though I was most definitely planning which snow bank I was going to jump into out of our second-story windows!!

Turns out, the epicenter was close to Sendai, which is located in northern Honshu (Honshu is the biggest island) close to Hokkaido (our island) and it was an 8.9!!!!! Definitely the biggest earthquake I've ever been through, so feeling so fortunate to have no damage or anything up here in Sapporo! A 6-10 meter tsunami was warned for the Pacific coast of Japan, but Sapporo is on the other side, so we will not be affected!

As I type this, we are experiencing quite a few strong aftershocks that make me sooooo happy we're not closer to the source. I called Jacob to swap "where were you and what did you do stories," as he was on his way to work at the time. The phone lines seem to be jammed for those trying to reach loved ones down on Honshu, however, and I can't help but feel for them.

The rest of work today was spent watching the news and actually seeing LIVE the first tsunami hitting shore and enveloping farms and house like a rapid, thick cloud of smoke. Don't know what the outcome of this will be, but I'm afraid it's not going to be very pretty...