40 days and 40 nights. . .

Don't mean to harp on the weather in Tokyo this summer, but I read that it's been one of the hottest on record. In fact, for 40 straight days, the temperature was over 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Add to that the misery of high humidity, and you can understand why people are fed up with summer. There's talk that the high temperatures will continue into September or posssibly October, but I'm hoping that's not true. Enough is enough!

I feel the earth move under my feet. . .

This time the quake woke me out of a sound sleep at 3:25am. At first I thought my guesthouse had been hit by a truck or other large object, but in a split second, I knew that it was another earthquake.

It was different from the last two earthquakes which felt more like gently rolling waves. This one didn't roll at all, it was just a short, very hard shake. As soon as I realized what was happening, I bolted off my futon and leapt into the relative safety of the doorway to my room. My heart pounded wildly. I felt no aftershocks and, after a few minutes, got back on my futon and wondered if it had been a dream.

The next day I found out that this one was measured at 4.9 by the Japan Meteorological Agency.