With the clock ticking round toward midnight, nearly four weeks after the March 11 disaster, and no major alarms at the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for many a day, most Tokyoites were settling down on a quiet, pleasant spring night Thursday.
At 11:32 p.m. local time, though, things changed in an instant. The magnitude 7.4 earthquake that shook the coast off Miyagi prefecture began to slowly rattle central Tokyo buildings and residents once again, growing to a silent, growling intensity stretching into minutes in the biggest tremor the capital has felt since the cycle of scores of quakes began. (The U.S. Geological Survey later downgraded Thursdays quake to 7.1.) The menace was real, and all too familiar, the tension that haunted the city in the early hours and days after March 11 snapping back immediately, as if it never left.
Some TV channels quickly shifted to by now expected earthquake programming: footage of newsrooms shaking vigorously, concerned workers holding on to desks, monitors and papers, cutting away to long shots from remote, high-placed cameras in distant towns rocking violently.
With tsunami warnings issued, but for waves much smaller than those that hit March 11, other channels opted to stick with regular broadcasts mostly game shows or light-hearted comedy programs at this time of the evening but with a map of the affected area super-imposed on screen.
Still, Twitter again buzzed with messages from and for concerned Tokyoites. State broadcaster NHK swiftly reinstated the English-language programming it ran for many days after the 9.0 March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
With the shaking tapered off, thoughts turned to memories of what happened after the 2:46 p.m. March 11 earthquake. Tsunamis? Despite the warning, none were reported in the first hour after Thursdays late-night shake, and the warning was eventually lifted. Trouble at nuclear plants? Early official reports suggested no new problems at Fukushima Daiichi. But at another nuclear plant in Onagawa, north of Fukushima, officials reported some problems in cooling systems, in yet another unwelcome March 11 echo.
In Tokyo, many turned in as the wee hours beckoned. Few expected a good nights sleep.
