I've been watching the coverage of the earthquake and it is very bad up north of us along the coast. But in the area we live (which is half way between Tokyo and Yokohama), there is little or no damage and things are running along pretty much as normal. It is the areas affected by the tsunami that have been hardest hit. That is a sliver along the coastline about 150 miles north and east of Tokyo. In Tokyo itself, the earthquake caused minor damage to some buildings and there were some outages of electricity in some scattered areas just after the quake. Most of that has now been restored. Train service was down for about 15 hours and that caused the biggest headaches since it was a workday and millions of commuters had to find a way back to their homes in the suburbs, or they had to find some accommodation downtown. Needless to say that was a mess. But train service has been restored here, stores are fully stocked with food and supplies, and far as I can tell, there things are back to normal in Tokyo and where we live.
The issue with the nuclear reactors is a big concern. It is hard to assess risk because the government isn't really good about telling the real state of affairs, but rather tend to downplay everything. When living in an area with such a large population, by the time they admit they have a serious problem, it would be too late to get out of the area. So, we watch it closely. We've stocked up on food and protective items just in case.
When the quake struck, I was on the train coming home from Shinjuku (downtown Tokyo). My train had just come up from the underground portion of its route and I was about 7 miles from home when it struck. The conductor stopped the train (they were warned of the earthquake by radio). The train stopped and we all rode it out on the tracks. The train shook for about a minute and we all realized this was a big one. The trains remained stopped between stations for about 90 minutes and there was a second quake during that time that was not as long but seemed about as powerful. Everyone took out their electronic devices (cell phones, iPads, etc.) and watched the news. We became aware of fires but realized that major damage to buildings had been avoided and the Tokyo area had avoided deaths and injuries. Most worrying at that time was that I couldn't contact my family because phone service was overloaded. The tsunami hadn't happened yet. After 90 minutes sitting on the tracks, the train continued a few hundred meters to the next station and we all got off the train. I assumed the trains wouldn't be running for a long time so walked and hitchhiked my way home. A very kind lady with two kids in the back of the car, stopped to pick up this foreigner who stuck out his thumb for a ride. She took me a few miles closer to my home and as we talked she told me she'd been in the Hanshin earthquake in Kobe. She was really kind. Took a couple hours to walk home from where I was dropped off. Everyone was home when I got back.
My daughter was at school and my wife was at home when the quake struck. They said the shaking was pretty bad but still nothing toppled in the house. Bookshelves stayed upright and nothing fell off shelves. My daughter was very scared because she was on the 4th floor of the school. Fortunately, building codes are pretty strict here so buildings all stayed upright and undamaged. The got a pretty good stress test though. Again, there was little or no structural damage. My son was outside jogging so he didn't actually notice much.
I think work and school in the area will be back to normal Monday.
So, bottom line, we're all safe and sound... things are pretty much back to normal in the area, but the people north of Tokyo near Sendai have got it bad. That is where you see the reports of damages and death, and that is mostly from the tsunami. We are far enough away from there that we are largely unaffected.
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