2024 is the year of the dragon on the Chinese calendar, which we follow in Japan. And it started off with a bang. On January 1 at 4:10 PM a magnitude-7.6 quake struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. 13 people have been confirmed dead at the time I'm writing this.

Now, to answer the obvious questions I get when anything happens in Japan.

Where is Ishikawa Prefecture?
I'll Google that for you. See the map. Ishikawa Prefecture is the peninsula that sticks out, and I've labeled it ISHIKAWA PREFECTURE. Tokyo is on the bottom right. We're not even close to where the earthquake happened.

How far is it from Tokyo?
I'll Google that for you, too.
463 km.

How many miles is that?
I'll Google that for you, too.
287.695 miles.

If you have family that lives overseas, and there's a natural disaster or some sort of incident in the country where they are living, check Google. That's what I'm doing when I field those questions.