Correction: Apparently I was just seeing news of a relatively mild aftershock. The quake was 6.1. This is just on the cusp of being dangerous, but usually the kind of quake that just causes everyone to crap their pants barring some weird accident.
My criticism of the Japanese news still stands, however, as a general comment.
To be fair, the quake that just hit Tokyo was incredibly deep and lasted a very long time. While as a rule of thumb, a strong quake is followed by only weak aftershocks, in recent history a few strong quakes have actually triggered much stronger quakes sometimes hours later.
So despite the overall assholery of the Japanese press, this is something that needs to be watched.
@John_Scotus Looking at the location of the 6.1, if it *is* a foreshock then it's the foreshock to the much-feared Nankai Trough megaquake? But, of course, that's an if. One that leaves some really interesting questions about risk and risk psychology to me? "There's a small quantifiable chance of a historic disaster in the near but unknown future" is a wild thing to think about!
@ShinyBat I was just discussing with my soon-to-be-ex-wife on the phone what we do if it this was a foreshock of the big one. I've already got my safe places identified.