Another strong quake for Northeastern Japan

[Rekka Alexiel]

After class today when I was entering students' grades into my record book and talking with another teacher, our building started shaking. We had just been talking about the earthquake earlier this morning (which woke me up at 5:30am, it was centered over in Chiba, M4.5) when the earthquake began. At first it wasn't all that bad, but it kept going and then about 30 seconds in got pretty strong. A teacher got on the PA to let everyone know that it was a strong quake (like we couldn't tell!) and to take cover. I was with a couple of the other foreign teachers in the English department when one of my coworkers was like "Okay, this is bad--let's go!" ^^; This was actually the strongest quake I had experienced in the area since I moved from Nagoya, so she totally freaked me out and I grabbed my stuff and followed her out. On the way I stopped to check on some of my junior high students who were still under their desks. Everybody seemed to be okay. I stuck around in the hallway next to some of the classrooms until the shaking stopped and then I went down to the main teachers' office. They had the NHK news on and the guy was telling people near to the ocean to take cover because of tsunami warnings ("If you are in these areas, hurry and run away!"). ^^;

This quake was M7.3, its epicenter was off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, near where the mega quake in March of 2011 was (often referred to as "3/11"). It was followed by a M6.2 aftershock. What people are kinda worried about now is that this pattern of quakes matches what happened with the 3/11 and that maybe the intensity of these quakes will continue to to climb. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

My school is just outside of Tokyo, about 35 minutes from Shinjuku. I heard there was a little damage to the same building where the English Department is. It's much older than the main building with the kids' classrooms. The two separate buildings are joined together on the 2nd and 3rd floors and I heard there was some buckling near joints where the two buildings meet. I heard there was also a portion of a ledge on the 4th floor that partially came loose that will probably need to be repaired. I'm not sure about the details, though; I left with my other teacher friend shortly after watching a bit of the news with all the other teachers. :p

But anyway, everything seems to be okay right now. If you catch the news and read about the big quake in Japan, don't worry too much. It was a bit shocking and reminiscent of 3/11 but overall I think we're all okay.

[sensei]

We're glad you're OK along with your students and coworkers in your area! Thanks for letting us know: that was scary, and I pray it's not followed by another tsunami or more serious tremor.

[pixie_princess]

I'm glad to read that everyone is ok. It must have been a bit disconcerting given what happened in March

[ReiTheJelly]

Glad to hear you're okay! That must have been very scary, especially after what happened last year...

[BuraddoRun]

I'll be praying that a repeat of 3/11 doesn't happen. Glad it wasn't too bad this time.

[Rekka Alexiel]

Thanks, everybody. I was still in the Nagoya area during 3/11 last year, so my experience was very different from all my coworkers and students here, on the outskirts of Tokyo. It was unnerving for me because I hadn't experienced the level of shaking that we had yesterday but it must have been worse for everyone else, wondering if this might be another 3/11 or that another one may be coming. Very, very grateful that nothing much happened with this latest quake (I heard trains up in Saitama were only stopped for a few minutes, same with my subway in Yokohama). It was as though nothing happened. Will keep you all posted on any further updates.