Have you experienced an earthquake?

That was the question posed to us when we stepped into the Honjo Bosai-kan Earthquake Museum, run by the Tokyo Fire Department.

A couple of us have. Jack Ginsburg, who grew up near San Francisco, experienced his fair share of temblors in his day, including a quake that reached 5.0 on the Richter scale. And he heard stories of his mother’s experience as a news reporter during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake: She was supposed to go out onto the Bay Bridge for an assignment but was called back to the newsroom before the earthquake started and the bridge collapsed.

When he and a few other brave souls stepped onto the platform for the first earthquake simulation, even he wasn’t prepared.

First, our museum guide, Yoshi Furuhashi, demonstrated the right way to take cover under the table. We should hold onto a leg of the table to keep it upright and we should cover our heads, preferably with a cushion in case the ceiling collapsed, he said. Afterward, we should turn off the water heater to stop any gas leaks, and open the entrance door and keep it open, to avoid being trapped inside.

Now, we were ready. Four of us stood waiting on the platform. It was designed like a house, complete with a kitchen table, a door, a window and cabinets made of cushions.

The platform rose ominously. Then, the tremors began. Sounds of the earth rumbling pumped out of the sound system. The house started bucking and the students, almost losing their balance, dove under the table and hung on for dear life. The cabinets bounced off the wall and scattered across the floor. The window wobbled. The table shook back and forth, threatening to flop over.

Then, it stopped. Everyone who had been on the platform slowly rose to their feet. Everyone was alive and accounted for.

“The earthquake was stronger than anything I felt in California by far,” said Ginsburg, the earthquake veteran. “I think it shook harder than anyone thought it was going to.”

Ryan Wozniak, who has never experienced an earthquake in real life, marveled at the experience.

“It was weird how the motion kept going,” he said. “(When you think of) earthquakes, they happen for a few seconds. This went on for a full minute.”

Even Andrea Bruce, who professed a perhaps morbid love for earthquakes, said “it was really intense.”

Rehana Asmi said the simulator was “cool,” because she knew what was going to happen. But, if it happened in real life? “Turning off the water heater would not be my first thought.”

Furuhashi, our Virgil for the earthquake simulator, could only laugh at the students.

This lighthearted scene was a stark reminder of Japan’s history of earthquakes, which has been both tragic and tremendous.

In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake lasted between four and 10 minutes (according to different accounts) and reached a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale. It leveled Tokyo and caused a fire tornado that killed 38,000 people.

The more recent example, and the one most on our minds during the earthquake simulator, was the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, which took place on March 11, 2011. It reached a magnitude of 9, resulting in nearly 16,000 deaths, damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings and disrupting the lives of countless.

The simulator, which could only reach a magnitude of 7, could only give us a taste of what that earthquake was like.