Yesterday, just as I walked into the main hall at school, everything started shaking. The wind had been strong, so at first I thought it was the wind, but then I heard everyone in the office getting excited and going under desks. It was a somewhat large earthquake, 5.4 under the land, and it shook for about 15 seconds, so I knew it wasn't too bad. I could feel the wall I was touching continue to sway slowly round and round for quite a time, though.
Near the epicenter, there was some damage, such as fallen ceiling tiles and things knocked off shelves. Several people were injured by falling objects and trains were shut down to do safety checks. But it wasn't bad.
The interesting thing is that the Japan Meteorological Agency has been saying for a couple of weeks to be prepared for larger earthquakes due to a slow slip off Chiba under the ocean. So a lot of places had protective measures in place (the home center near me had put up new chains to keep displays from tipping over and falling on people), and stores were selling emergency products, such as toilet paper, bottled water and packets of pre-cooked rice.
The ironic thing is that even though this was a strong earthquake, it was not in the place they were anticipating. Instead, it was under the land in Ibaraki Prefecture, in an area that is known as an "earthquake nest" because it produces so many. It had been having earthquake swarms since the day before, but very small quakes.
Whatever else you can say about Tokyo, we have enough good building regulations and public awareness to handle medium-sized quakes well.