What I felt in Tokyo

I did not notice the shaking when I walked out of the stationary store. But, the second my mother followed me out of the shop we both stopped. The side to side motion was very minor and earthquakes were really frequent at the time. This one was different. For the first time, I felt an earthquake get much stronger than I could ever imagine and the up and down motion was almost like an amusement park ride. The massive Chuo Highway that was above us slowly swayed back and forth just waiting for the right moment to come crashing down on us. Luckily it didn't. I remember the walk home clearly. I stuck close to my mother as we walked passed giant cracks in the solid buildings that lined the street. To be honest, I do not remember what I was thinking at the time but, I do remember that my heart was beating a lot faster than it normally does. I got home and was relieved to see that my father was safe. A couple of figures in my room had fallen off shelves and broke but, the overall damage to our house was minimal. The one thing I found the craziest was when I found out that the center of the earthquake was not in Tokyo. The fact that what I felt was just a ripple that came off of a bigger earthquake was insane. I could not even begin to imagine how much the earth shook in Tohoku. For now, this is all...