On Saturday, July 23rd, there was a fairly large earthquake here in Chiba. It was the biggest one this area has had in 13 years, apparently. It didn't do any real damage, though, and I don't think anyone was hurt in it. We certainly felt it, though! My purse fell off the top of the refrigerator, but that was the most drama we had in our apartment. Anyway, we had planned to attend a festival in a nearby city, but all the trains stopped running so they could check the rails and make sure there was no damage. So, on our way back to the station, we discovered that right in our backyard, literally, another festival was taking place. So we spent a couple hours eating food and watching the dancers.