Felt it a little in Osaka too. Degree 1 but still made the lamps move. Actually noticed it because the sleeve of the shirt hanged next to my computer started to move a little. And I'm living on the 3rd floor (japanese style, second floor french style) only... Glad I'm not living on the 15th floor of our mansion!

What's fkin insane is that each time there's an earthquake, I keep on feeling everything moving for a long time. I know it's purely psychosomatic (in my mind) but it's giving me a hard time... Never felt that way before March 11th megaquake, leading me to wonder if I can deal with that feeling and stay in Japan. I'm no coward, but it's pzsychologically very tiring... and I'm not even living close to the heavily hit area!!!

Our house was violently shaking a good minute before the early warning app I use on the iPhone issued the warning =/

My room is once again a mess. The figures I didn't pack away after the initial quake fell over, along with some books, DVDs and most importantly my dinner >_<

Bad timing there!

Hopefully unlike the 7.1 quake a few days ago, this one won't have caused additional fatalities.
I do too. But I'm not convinced it's in my mind as I still see a few things in my room shaking at the same time.

Although, when I try to go to sleep these days, I could swear I feel quakes and tremors when there aren't any.

Argh. Another tremor as I write this >_>

Saw on the Japan meteorological agency that the area got 3 or 4 quakes in a row... Scary!

Frankly, I also feel tremors when there aren't any. So I immediately check with the lamps and the small charms hanged on the wall. If they move, I'm not imagining it. ^_^

Yup, I check with the light cord, headphones I have hanging on the wall, etc.

We've had probably another 10 to 15 smaller quakes this evening following that 7.1 one. 3 or four are weak five or higher. At this rate, I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight unless the activity dies down =S
Also, not sure if it was posted in this thread yet already:

http://www.japanquakemap.com/

Yeah, I know the website. In fact my mother used it in her biology/geology classes in high school. ^^

I am inclined to say this is getting boring but I don´t.
Because then the ride really starts,

Apparently, the disaster level for the Fukushima plant has now been raised to 7. The same level as that for Chernobyl. Although the amount of radiation emitted at Chernobyl was far greater.

Roughly a tenth of Chernobyl from my understanding. Scaremongering IMO

"May the water you find not shine at you in the dark!"

And some goodnight earthquakes to rock you to sleep.

so good night and good luck!

I get the impression it could be due to pressure from external sources. The government/TEPCO have seemingly been playing this down for a little too long, after all. Perhaps this is how the Japanese government can bring in some competent help while also removing the highly incompetent TEPCO? Highly doubtful, but one can hope I guess.

Perhaps one of the other Japan regulars here has more information, as I've been pretty much avoiding most news concerning the plant due to the probability of it being scaremongering and TEPCO's constant mistakes such as their string of erroneous readings.

Of course, I am 300+ km away and if fallout has gotten in the food/water supplies, there's pretty much not a lot we can do about it anyhow, so why get all worked up over it?

The report on CNN about the level being raised from 5 to 7 looked doctored to me.

Like bansama said, for what I could see on TV or on internet, the level 7 seems purely motivated by a will to say "look, we take that seriously, we are in charge!!" from the japanese government, accused to tone the whole affair down.

In addition, this level 7 is about the radiations of the potential leaks, not about the risks to see the power plant to suddenly explode chernobyl-style.

But I'd say it's also a way to prepare the public to the fact it will take a loooong time for the power plant to be totally harmless (ie stopped) and that maybe the people who were evacuated from the 30-km safety area won't be able to go back home for a couple of years. The government knows that such a decision wouldn't be very popular, to say the least, so that might be a discreet first step...

I feel sorry for the techs working on the plant, from what i understand they signed a potential death warrent

They're heroes

The "event level" has absolutely no meaning whatsoever. Its 4 nuclear power plants that are spewing more or less radioactivity and that are nowhere near under control, and at least 3 years from "contained". Whether its being called a level 5 or 7 catastrophe doesn't change this. Maybe they are indeed preparing their population for the really unpopular bits, namely that 30km around that thing is now exclusion zone number 2. (I am guessing here that they didn't want to go to 30km because thats the same as the Chernobyl exclusion zone ....) And to go to 30km they had to raise it to a "Chernobyl level" of catastrophe.

I had to giggle when some Tepco drone said that "disasters of such nature could not have been predicted" ... thats right, unless you read a history book that goes farther back than 80 years.

Makes me sad. I hope the Japanese people will manage to get "by" somehow, hope full reconstruction efforts start soon as well.