I was just cycling home, later than usual, in the dark, with a new 100 yen shop light. Pheasants were crying out in the agricultural field next to me, which was extremely uncommon. All of them at once, as if they were in a great panic. However, a truck wanted to pass me in the dark, so I paid it no mind, and turned a corner. They had stopped crying. The houses next to me however, started to rattle. Extremely loud. Only then did I notice the earthquake. It was so intense I decided it was better to stop cycling. Past the houses, on the opposite side of the road where the power lines weren't swinging and dancing.
It was only shindou 4 in Tsukuba. Shindou 4 is described as "People outside can notice the tremor" Today I learned it means "Nearly fall off bicycle even after stopping". After a minute of moving up and down from primary waves, the secondary waves came. Distant city lights remained on, so I figured it was best to continue homewards and see what was up. Only 3 things had toppled over from a shelf. 10 out of 12 free access tv channels are showing tsunami warnings.
JMA posted a tsunami warning:
| ***********About Tsunami Forecast************ Tsunami height is expected to be up to 2 meters. Caution advised. Tsunami height is expected to be about 0.5 meters. Attention advised.
| ||||||||||||||
NHK TV channel says 'people must evacuate' in those areas, in different languages, repeating every 3 minutes. I'm guessing all tsunami by now have already reached the shore. Several towns are reporting observed tsunami heights. Some flights are delayed due to inspection of the runway. There are no real issues. All that is left is to hope this isn't followed by a magnitude 9 earthquake in three days...
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