A magnitude 7 earthquake off the coast of Ishikawa today at around 16:15. Our place was moving and we're all the way in Tokyo so you know it was a big one. Tsunamis around 1 meter have been hitting the west coast still and it's been three hours after the first quake. The aftershocks seem to be slowing down but there were aftershocks around every 10-15 minutes for a while. Things look pretty beat up there on the TV news. On a day where people are normally partying with their families, everyone had to evacuate to higher ground to wait things out.

Hope everyone is hanging in there on the west coast of Japan.

避難(ひなん)する = to take refuge