When we lived in Japan we had earthquake tremors on an almost weekly basis.
Any earthquake is a scary and unsettling event when you feel it. Plenty of ex-pats would tell me you'll get used to it.
To be honest, that's BS no-one ever really gets used to it.
All of my Japanese friends would say the same. There's quite a difference between getting used to it and accepting that it's going to happen.
Japan is very unfortunately located on a very unstable point of the earth's crust as it sits directly on top of three tectonic plates (Pacific, Eurasion and Phillipine Plate's). These are positioned so that when one plate moves the other two get pushed up or down
Where we lived in Yokohama, most of the daily earthquakes were just not big enough to be physically felt, but there are plenty that do get felt and that's when you notice everyone just holding their breath and thinking how to prepared for whatever might happen next. Everyone is mentally attuned to quakes in Japan.
I've experienced earthquakes in many parts of the world, including the 1989 San Francisco earthquake ( 6.9 ) and the Kobe earthquake of 1995 (7.2).
I've never yet experienced one in the Philippines, and hope I never do.
I have no idea what kind of quakes they get, but I can say that no-one ever gets used to them and everyone is scared.
BTW, I've always had a feeling that most of the houses there would do rather well considering the concrete beam construction and amount of rebar they use.
