(We live in Misawa, which is in that unlabeled section in the north eastern part of the country).
We did experience a 4 minute 9.1 magnitude earthquake, followed without an hour by two aftershocks of 7.5 and 7.2 respectively. I was at home when they happened, and after sitting in a bathroom door frame for a minute or two, stayed outside across the street with some neighbours waiting for the house to stop moving. Travis was at work, his first day back after being in Korea for two weeks.
We immediately lost all power and gas. This meant no lights, no heat, no cooking. About an hour or two after the quake we also lost cellphone and 3G services. We were notified that tap water was no longer potable (bottled water only), and that we should not take showers. (Without a water heater we weren't that tempted anyway... just washing our hands it felt like their were icicles stabbing us.) This lasted for about 50 hours. Late on Sunday night we got power back, and on Monday morning phone and 3G was back up and running. It wasn't a fun experience, but both Travis and I count ourselves extremely lucky. We had bottled water, crackers, granola bars, and other food that didn't have to be refrigerated or heated. We were safe, and had lots of blankets to keep us warm. Travis was even able to get a message out to family (from work) that we were safe.
Even now we have aftershocks pretty much daily. It's sad that we've begun to ignore them really. I have a barometer. Unless the bar opens and pop cans start rolling across my living room floor again, or the books fall out of the bookcase, the earthquake isn't worth worrying about.
Everything seems to be working its way back to normal now, and we're even planning on traveling next weekend! Hopefully we can make it up to Hirosaki for their cherry blossom festival. That sounds like a much better thing to experience while in Japan!
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