The morning shakes

One day last week I woke up and my first thought was that I hadn't felt an earthquake, not even a tremor, in quite some time. In my half-sleep the thought drifted to the destruction of the tsunami of a year and a half ago. Seconds later, the tatami began to vibrate, waking me completely, and the objects in the room began to jiggle and shake. Luckily, the quake never intensified and after grumbling for 30-40 seconds, abated.

Last night, shortly before going to bed, I wearily read the accounts of Kim Jong-il's missiles dropping into the Sea of Japan.

This morning, a violent, though fortunately short quake, roughly awakened me, and for an intense, brief second gave me cause to think Nuclear war had started.