I'm sure the guys on this board who live in Japan go through so many earthquakes (jishin) big and small, that it is a non-event for them.

I, on the other hand, have experienced only one earthquake in my life so far and coincidentally, it was in Tokyo some years back. Maybe 6 years ago.

We were staying at the ANA hotel in the Ark Hills area, you know, near the US Embassy. My wife and kids were in our room 21 floors up and I had gone down to buy something. As I was walking back, in the lobby, for a split-second it seemed that the horizon shifted/tilted. I am talking of more a sense than anything visceral. It just didn't seem right, one of those "did I just see what I just saw" moments. It was soon followed by a big bang, not sure from where or what, and some lady screaming.

(I later found out an earthquake of Richter scale 6+ had just hit Tokyo, a bigger one than in recent memory. JR trains were out of service for 3 hours and that itself makes a statement)

Of course, I soon heard hotel staff running around saying "Jishin jishin" and I knew what it was then. I was kind of smiling because I had just gone through my very first earthquake, having missed many many ones in the past despite my travels to earthquake-prone areas.

I snapped out of it soon though. My wife and kids were in the hotel room and I had no way of knowing if they were safe. The phone system in the hotel was out and these were the days before they had 3G so I had no phone on me, none that worked in Japan anyways. Elevators was also out.

At last we got to the 21st floor and we both rushed to my room. I opened the door and my son, who was still in bed said, "Is it time for dinner daddy?"

(On a more serious note, I seem to escape natural disasters. I was in Tokyo when the big Kansai earthquake hit in 1995. I was in Bangkok the morning of the Phuket tsunami, having tried several days earlier to get a ticket to Phuket but everything was sold out.)