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| Osaka is the red area, and Hyogo (where Kobe is) is the bright yellow [5 lower] area to the left of the red |
Some people have been asking me what it feels like, or how I knew an earthquake was happening, so I'll try to explain as best as I can. As for how I knew, well it was a combination of the shaking as well as the loud alert coming off of my phone. If you don't know, pretty much all mobile phones in Japan are equipped with an emergency alert system, which is supposed to let you know (ideally in advance) of any impending disasters. It overrides all other active functions on your phone and is extremely loud. In the case of this particular earthquake, I received the alert at the exact time that the earthquake started. I did hear from others that they had about 1-5 seconds notice this time.
As for the earthquake itself...in my experience, the first thing that happens is there is a loud crack or boom...kind of like thunder, but a little different. Next you feel a downwards jolt, and then the ground feels like it's shaking horizontally.
Since the earthquake happened around 8am, it caused a lot of transportation problems, and many people were stuck on the train for hours. I was actually texting with a friend as this was happening, and he said that the train started shaking, and many people on the train got quite upset, and were crying.
Also, since it was a rather large earthquake, everyone expected there to be some occurrences of aftershocks, and there were...both on Monday and Tuesday there were apparently a few aftershocks ranging from a magnitude of 3.5-4. Here in Kobe, I only felt one around 12:30am, but a friend who lives closer to Osaka told me that she felt quite a few.
Also as a result of these earthquakes, my school cancelled classes, although I did go in on Tuesday and got quite a bit of work done.
The other thing that I've heard a lot of curiosity about was whether or not my apartment was affected. In previous earthquakes I may have had an item or two drop, but nothing overly significant. This time, however, was very different. I came home to a MESS!! Things had fallen out of my cupboards, dishes fell off the shelves, into the sink and onto the floor, things in my bathroom fell into the tub, clothes/baskets in my closet fell down, and then there was my wall (see picture below). It took some time to clean everything up, and it definitely wasn't what I wanted to come home to, but I suppose it could've been much worse. Everyone was quite surprised when they heard about my apartment trouble though since I'm in Kobe, and the tremors weren't as strong here...
Apparently they're still expecting further aftershocks, or another earthquake, but so far so good. Keep safe everyone!
