[Nyororin]

We felt it here... It was enough to wake me up from napping. The cats came screaming for me to open the bedroom door - I did - and they came in and refused to leave my side... Then it started shaking.
It wasn`t bad enough here to cause any real damage, but it was definitely a LONG quake. We`re still feeling most of the aftershocks that are over 5.

It was a huge quake... BUT - don`t confuse the 8 something at the epicenter with the actual shaking in populated areas (high 6 ~ low 7 at it`s worst). The quake itself isn`t the biggest issue. It`s the wide spread of the quaking - a 6 or 7 wouldn`t be a big deal in one spot with most of it dissipated before spreading too far. This one was a very shallow quake with a huge radius of impact. Not to mention the tsunamis. But the biggest is that it shook Tokyo quite a bit.

I do think that there won`t be THAT many casualties as the area being hardest hit by the tsunamis was already on alert. There was an earthquake of close scale earlier this week (the 9th?) that was warned to possibly be a "pre" quake.

Right now they`re saying 14 confirmed deaths and 20 or so missing people, which is pretty low (in my opinion) for something this wide spread.

As for the washed away cars and ships - most are empty. Fishing close to the coast will bring you home by noon. Ships further out won`t suffer much, if at all. The ships being overturned, etc, are ships in port.