Being from the North Eastern United States I’ve never felt a real earthquake before. I’ve read that the North East gets them rarely, but they are so weak no one notices. So maybe it would be more accurate to say I’ve never noticed feeling an earthquake before.
Japan changed all that. As of this morning I’ve felt two big-ish earthquakes. Both times I was in bed. The neat part is that Japan has got the system down. I got out of bed a minute after the earthquake and typed “earthquake Japan” into Google. Sure enough, a Japanese government website already had the info.
Take a look (I’m in the light orange part - Fukushima Ken 福島県). 
It might also help to know that a 4 is not a 4 on the Richter scale, but a 4 on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale. The scale goes from 0 to 7. According to wikipedia during a 4 “Many people are frightened. Some people try to escape from danger. Most sleeping people awake.” I was a sleeping person. I did wake. They’re right on the money!
