The Land of the Rising sun shakes

OK... Something that i didn't really intend on doing in this blog was talking about serious/ tragic issues or events but in this case its impossible not to as it means an awful lot to me.

Japan, home of  'Drift' and birthplace of all of my favourite cars was today at 05:46 GMT local time struck by a Magnitude 8.9 earthquake which Epicentre occurred off the coast in the middle of the sea. This unfortunately was still close enough to the main land to send shock waves for hundreds of miles including all the way to Tokyo 402km' from the Epicentre. As with any Earthquake after the main event aftershocks rocked the land. One of which registering as high as a 7 on the Richter scale.

Here is an imagine where you can see the tectonic plates that would have collided causing the huge earthquake.

Unfortunately Japans history is littered with major earthquakes the highest recorded of these was in Hokkaido and recorded an 8.2 on the Richter scale. In this case over 700 people were injured and there was only 1 reported death. Although that was the Biggest recorded it was not the most devastating. This occurred in 1923 when a huge earthquake hit the Kanto Plain around Tokyo killing over 100,000 people.

As of now the worst hit region was Sendai at the North East of the country, it was the first hit and possibly the worst hit. As of now the death toll here is reported at about 300 but judging by the video i shall post below it scares me to think what the number could be. Most of this destruction undoubtedly caused by the huge Tsunamis triggered by the Quake at sea.

Here is a video of the city of Sendai.

Sendai Earthquake

I know a hand full of people over there who through Facebook iv realised are safe and sound thank god but for totally different reasons I'm still sad as some of the 'Drift' worlds most famous teams and tracks have been left devastated. Ebisu being the track in question and Powervehicles and Team Orange the teams i know of now.

Again here are some of the pics of the devastation.

As of now i or anyone else doesn't know the full extent of the damage and it will probably be weeks if not months before we find out the toll all i can do is offer my best wishes and support to this great land.

最高の願いは、強力なご神にある可能性があります。

(i hope googletranslate got the above message correct)

I know Tidal waves are currently making there way towards Hawaii, California etc. and i shall be praying for you guys. Especially my good friend Broddah Jay in Hawaii, God be with you, your family and friends bro.

STAY STRONG JAPAN!