Saturday, 5:33am

Sunny Saturday morning, an earthquake woke me up. My son was jumped up by quake alarm from his cell phone. I thought I had a bad dream of earthquake in 18 years ago, but it was real.

18 years ago..., Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake was occurred at 5:46am. It was cold and dark morning in January. No electricity, no water, and gas leaking. Phone line was available only midnight. My place did not have big damages since the apartment building was still new. So my husband and I did not evacuate, decided to stay our home. Electricity was back on the day, and we finally knew what was happened. There was no transportation to the office, but at the time, I did not know the office building I worked had collapsed. All I had to do everyday started by queuing up - shopping, water supply, laundry, etc. I had spent for 3weeks without tap water and gas supply. Yes, it was hard life...even I did not lose our home or family member(s).

Yesterday, first I checked electricity, gas, and water supply. I was relieved all the lifelines were working. Nothing was broken, TV was not jumped, too :-). From the TV breaking news, the epicenter was in Awaji Island, almost same place as the earthquake of 18 year ago. The intensity of the quake of my place was not so strong as before, but still it was the strongest one in this 18 years.

My teenage boy was going to go to his school for volleyball games on the day. But all train lines had safety check, stopped their services. A while later, Hankyu line re-started their services, and I drove to a station for him. I was a bit nervous if he had troubles on the way to his school. But he fixed up by himself, and had some games at school. Just a few schools canceled the games.

I again, feel how ordinaries of life are so precious!