How often do you feel Earthquakes in Tokyo?

24 comments

1. It’s not common but it’s also not a big deal. Welcome to one of the most seismically active parts of the world. FWIW I didn’t get woken up by the morning quake so you can get familiar enough to tune out minor shaking.

2. I was told many, many years ago, “Did anything even fall off of something? What are you worried about then?”

   Sideways is fine. It’s when they’re up and down you should worry.

   The quake this morning was a Shindo 1 in Tokyo. Absolutely nothing to worry about. While scary, nothing to worry about until you get into the Shindo 5 and above.

3. I don’t know, I don’t pay attention to it and just keep doing what I was doing. 

4. I think it depends where in Tokyo you are. I felt damn near everything in Edogawa. In Nishitama, it has to be a larger one for me to notice. 

5. I know they’re completely random and unpredictable, but I’d love it if they could happen *after* 8am at the very least. It’s been at least 3 times in the last two weeks that I’ve been woken by them before 7am.

   But seriously, (at least in Tokyo) they’ve been pretty mild thankfully. I usually wake up, check on my daughter (who sleeps through them 100% of the time. She was born in California, not a stranger to earthquakes), then go right back to sleep.

6. They do tend to come in groups because quakes can trigger more quakes. So twice a week can be considered normal following a particularly large quake or rare if there hasn’t been one. A perceivable earthquake for me is more like a once a month occurrence (yesterday’s was barely perceivable)

7. About once every 1.5-2 years there is one strong enough to set everyone’s phone alarms off (Gov early warning system) – that alarm is usually scarier than the earthquake. Obvs they are all much less pleasant is you are a) on the Metro underground b) Up a very high tower

8. When I first moved here, we had a cluster of them happen over a few months. Maybe 15 or so in that time. Every single one jolted me from my seat or bed, and I started wondering if I was gonna be able to survive the shock to my nerves every few days. It settled down after that to a more manageable one or two every few months. After a few years, I didn’t even wake up if it was less than a 4. You’ll get used to it. But as other posters mentioned, the first one that goes up and down will freak you out, even if you’re fairly accustomed to them. The initial jolt feels like hitting a small pothole, and then the whole world shakes like a sonofabitch for a minute or so, often knocking shit over and making you think “I really need to update my will.”

9. In a year, west Tokyo Prefecture, I felt about 4. One of them was the shindo 5 under Chiba in may, at 4:30 am, it was the only scary one.

   All the others were minor. One I was outside, one just got out of bed. The last one happened while I was taking a shit lol, kinda funny

10. I live in Chiba right now and there was something in the news about a slow slipping phenomena off the coast of Chiba that is causing this recent quakes. They are warning everybody to be vigilant because this happened before and there is a possibility of a strong one later. Just be prepared. Read the news and have some safety measures such as flash lights and food.

11. not sure why people are saying it’s not common, because it is. it’s more common than other places, at least. us japanese people have just gotten used to it.

12. Was there an earthquake today morning?? I thought I felt it too!! But I can’t find anything on the internet about today.

13. It’s just the Shinto gods reminding you they’re watching. Nothing to worry about.

14. I keep reading about these quakes but not a sausage in my end of town… Weird.

15. you will get used to it

16. Moved here (this time) in Jan 2022 and I’ve felt maybe four or five since my arrival, and I have been told of a couple I didn’t feel. They are common enough to not cause alarm. I was sitting in a 17th floor restaurant in Yokohama once back in the 90s when one hit. The building, being so tall, was really swaying back and forth, and when I looked outside, I could see that traffic had stopped and people were out of their cars on the highway. However, the people in the restaurant all just kind of stopped eating, many of them in a kind of fork almost to the mouth frozen position, and I heard the word, “jishin” being uttered here and there around the room. After the swaying stopped, everyone just went back to eating as if nothing had happened.

17. I mean, I know my phone would scream if we were actually in danger. But yeah, it is annoying to be woken up by those and actually have to use your brain a bit to understand whether you are in danger or not.

    But to answer your question. Been here for 2 weeks and felt 2 earthquakes. So I guess once a week for now?

    All in all. I saw nothing on the internet both times, so I thought maybe I was going crazy. Glad to see I am not.

18. once every 3 months or so

19. First year I was here, I felt one pretty much at least once a month. Gradually the smaller ones stopped really being “felt”. Granted, we’ve recently had larger ones more often than in the previous few years.

20. It’s Japan. We have earthquakes.

    Most are fine.

21. Unless they’re big enough to make things fall off my shelf or cause a tsunami somewhere. I rarely care about it and continue doing the usual.
    It’s honestly not a big deal and easily forgettable unless it shakes hard.

22. I felt one in my two week trip in October of 2022 it was a 5.2 I barely felt it. I’m also freaked out by earthquakes but it wasn’t too bad.

23. After a while you get a “feel”. Sort of like this: Oh, that was a little long. Heard that coming for a second before I felt it. That one rattled things. This was a shake, rattle, and roll. This was a shake, rattle. (no roll) Then you can post suitably vague updates anywhere you feel like it and watch people try to figure out what you mean. Heehee

24. I lived in Tokyo for a year, felt four in the time I was there. Two were decent size. Things swinging and falling. You would definitely know it was an earthquake. The other two were smaller and if you never felt an earthquake, you might not realize that is what it was.