I found this fascinating animated graphic which shows the date and the magnitude of each and every earthquake that was felt across Japan last year. It’s all fairly unremarkable right up until around March 9 when a few big ones hit off the north east coast, and then the big one hits on March 11 which triggers the massive tsunami and thousands of aftershocks that continue for the entire year.

Midori and I visited Fukushima in July and pretty soon after arriving felt a major quake (magnitude 7.2 from memory). You can see that hit on July 10 on this animation. We were pretty spooked by it, especially when the NHK News reported that a tsunami warning had been issued. Luckily only a very small tsunami hit a couple of towns and no further damage was caused. I remember tweeting about it so friends and family back home would know we were ok.

In other Japan related news, I recently added some photos of last Novembers tsunami fundraising exhibition, including shots from Opening Night taken by Hobart based photographer, Mr Manabu Kondo. The event was a great success and we are proud to announce over $4290 was raised over the course of the week. Thanks very much for your generosity, Hobart.