Earthquake!

I was in the video store on Sunday afternoon, when suddenly I felt a bit of a tremor. The first thing one does in this situation is to freeze, and look around to see if anyone else is feeling it too. Everyone else was doing the same thing, so I knew an earthquake was coming. It got stronger and within a few seconds, the building was shaking. Suddenly, it peaked and videos started tumbling off the shelves; a woman screamed; the windows rattled; a display fell over, scattering videos across the floor. I could see dust falling from the ceiling and the lights swinging. I suddenly became very conscious of the fact that (a) there was a roof over me and (b) I was on the second floor of the building. A woman ran out of the building with her baby in her arms and suddenly I was wondering if I should be running out, too; everyone else was just standing there trying to look cool and for a moment I thought, "Wouldn't it be ironic if we all died in this building just because we were all too cool to get the hell out?" At that moment, the entire second floor gave two "heaves" which were accompanied by enormous booms each time. Then it was over.

That was definitely the scariest quake I've ever experienced, even though it only lasted 10 seconds. It wasn't even very intense but the noise and the scene of the falling videos everywhere added to the impression. I found out later that it had its epicentre around here but it affected trains all around the Tokyo area. It was only a magnitude 5.1 or something, but I think the fact that we were at the epicentre made it very different than other quakes I've felt.