By Kazuo Arai, Rotary Club of Shimodate, Japan, past governor of District 2820, and a member of the district’s emergency disaster relief team
As I finished my New Year’s rituals and listened to elegant gagaku music (traditional Japanese court music) at my home in Ibaraki Prefecture, drinking a glass of fine sake given to me by a friend in Kyoto, tremors began gently and become more intense. It was 4:10 p.m. on 1 January that the earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa, Japan.
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