Office safety in Japan
Here in Japan, we are always warned to have bookshelves properly attached to walls so they don't fall down during an earthquake. On Monday morning we had a large earthquake (c. 6.1 magnitude) in Osska.
The epicenter was almost directly under the museum where I work (physical home of the Research Cooperative).
I was fortunately not yet in my office, so was not struck down as the computer flew off the desk, and as books (like blocks of wood) were ejected at high velocity from the bookshelves on both sides of the desk. The entire office is now blocked by mountains of books and papers (see photo).
It will take me a couple of days to clear a path to my desk, and possibly months for our museum to open to the public again. Our large museum library (four levels) was also thrown onto the floor.
.
Update: today we had our the first staff meeting after the June 21, 2018, earthquake in Osaka.
Although 66% of volumes in our museum library remained on the shelves, the remaining 33% is still a huge number:
200,000 volumes that have to be picked up, checked for damage, and reshelved.
It may take months for the library to get through this work. Our Director wonders if we can put out a call for volunteers to help put books back on their shelves.