I'm an Environmental Science major, and we've been following these events in my classes extensively.

Japan holds a special place in my heart, and if anyone has the engineering capacity and will to get through this it's the Japanese.

Stay safe bansama.

Tsunami warnings now lifted. No current verified information on whether a Tsunami did or did not actually occur.

Here in Osaka, we felt it magnitude 1 or 2. In fact, I was the one realizing it, because I saw lamps moving. My wife (japanese) didn't feel it (and to be honest, me neither). So we turned on the TV and saw the magnitude and the tsunami alert.

I think what needs to be emphasized here is that :
- no tsunami hit Japan
- "only" 200 people were injured, most of them lightly (broken arm, broken leg, etc. due to a fall)
- it happened in an area which buildings were already weakened by the march 11 earthquakes, still no major destruction has been reported so far.

So I guess that, if I really have to experience earthquakes, I better be in Japan because even weakened buildings can resist a strong earthquake. ^_^

Only when built to code. And given that some architects, etc., have caused scandals in the past for cutting corners, there's still no real certainty that weakened buildings will always survive a subsequent strong quake =S

hey hey, Thursday night surprise.

was too tired yesterday to write anything here.
A sound 5.5 in Tokyo about a minute long. horizontal shaking.
Glad no one was killed.
Since the epicenter was really close to the land, they had a 1m Tsunami warning.
But as bansama said, there never seemed to be a confirmation about it actually occurred.

It´s funny instead of running for shelter I was thinking about posting on GOG. :)

PS: same aread had another 5 quakes L3 since last night..

PPS: I don´t know if that link already got around but this is official:
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/

True. And it also doesn't address the problem of old houses which have never been "upgraded" to the last norms.

That too, but unless the government is going to start forcing people to rebuild their houses (and thus have to pay for such rebuilding) that's a problem that won't go away for a long time yet. And could you imagine the uproar if the government did try to enforce such rules? Not to mention the tax hikes required to fund it...

People are still voting for that cunt? Dammit. Mind you, given the other candidates who were running, I'm not surprised. One would have taken his censorship crusade to worse extremes (although that's still likely to happen), another doesn't even have a clue of what's going on. He didn't even know about that censorship bill for example, and made a fool of himself when asked about it.

Lets face it, unless younger people with more modern interests and hobbies start taking an interest in politics, Tokyo, etc., is fucking screwed. Of course, what with the ever increasing number of neets, I won't keep my hopes up.

To bad us foreigners aren't allowed a say at all.

Oh well, expect more stupidity to fly from Ishihara's mouth tomorrow as it'll be the one month "anniversary" (for want of a better word) since the 9.0 quake struck.

Yeah, dyscode, my wife saw the news and thought "what the fck are Tokyo citizens thinking about???" I think that shows perfectly that no one really care about politics in Japan...

Apparently looking at some of the break downs of voters, the problem is that the majority who turned out were over 70. So they're voting for the guy in the same age bracket.

Of course, the younger voters seem to be far too apathetic to actually getting off their arse and voting.

Wonderful =(

The good news is, TEPCO have announced that they are (in principle) ceasing rolling blackouts. However, they may yet return in the summer.

People are just crazy with the power usage now that the rolling blackout has been canceled. How quickly they forget, eh? Guess that's why a certain old guy won a 4th term?

Yeah, generally, in a society that is apathetic politically-wise, only the elders and the extremists care enough to go vote, so sometimes you have bad surprises like that... I won't throw Japan the first stone, though, being aware of the situation in France... ^_^

Just had another strong 6 quake. Not sure of the magnitude. But probably strong seeing as it knocked over stuff in our house again. Including my dinner which is now on the floor =/

Just like last time, a warning for a potential 1 m (initial) Tsunami issued.

Ok, apparently it was another magnitude 7.1.