First of all folks, yes, I and my family are all ok.

As most of you know, I called Kobe, Japan home for 10 years and my wife is from Osaka. We were starting our summer holiday in Japan. We just flew in from Beijing.

We landed in Osaka the evening before the Osaka Earthquake. After landing at Kansai Airport we took a bus to Kobe, Japan where I used to live. We checked into a hotel in Sannomiya for the evening since our Airbnb wouldn’t be ready until the following day.

We were exhausted and simply all showered and crashed.

Yesterday morning we awoke before 7:00am. I went to a Family Mart next door to get breakfast for my family.

Just before 8:00 am (7:58 to be exact), my wife yelled, “Earthquake”!

She is from Osaka and has experienced many more than I have and senses them much faster than I do.

Without missing a beat, she grabbed our daughter and I grabbed our son. We huddled in the center of the room.

We heard some loud cracking noises and the building swayed and shook. We were on the 7^th floor. It was the strongest quake I had felt in years. My son was oblivious to what was happening.

When it was done the TV started showing the news. It was a Shindo 6 in Osaka. My wife immediately was able to contact her parents who live near Umeda and we were relieved to find they were safe and there was no damage to their house.

 

My mother-in-law was supposed to meet us that morning, but all trains were shut down for the day.

As the day progressed we learned that Osaka was hit quite hard and sadly, 4 people lost their lives, including a 9-year-old girl crushed by a wall as she walked to school.

That evening I was contacted by James Reynolds over at Earth Uncut TV (He’s an extreme weather guy who has been on the podcast before) contacted me that The Weather Channel wanted to interview me for their podcast about the earthquake. You can check out that interview here (they refer to me as a reporter).

Long story short…

We are safe and thank you to everyone who was concerned!

 

 

 

The writer:

Kevin O’Shea is the host of the Just Japan Podcast. He is also the guy behind JustJapanStuff.com. Kevin is a Canadian educator who lives in Beijing, China with his family. Kevin called Kobe, Japan home for 10 years. 

Follow him on Twitter: @madformaple

Instagram: @jlandkev

Facebook: Facebook.com/justjapanstuff

Email: justjapanpodcast@gmail.com