Okay, so I officially survived the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history. Last night was probably the craziest thing that has ever happened to me. I was at school on the 5th floor around 3:00 when the quake itself hit and we had to be evacuated into the street for half an hour. We were allowed back inside in JUST ENOUGH TIME for the first major aftershock, and we've been feeling rumbles and tremors ever since. Public transportation totally shut down, as did most food service, so we had to get snacks and blankets from the Elementary School down the street, which had been converted into a temporary emergency shelter. A few friends and I slept on benches near the admissions office on the first floor, but some brave people spent all night walking home. My roommate, in fact, trudged four and a half hours to get back to our apartment. I managed to cobble together a few functioning bus routes and find a running train line that did eventually bring me back to the nearby station.
Luckily nothing important of mine was broken and nobody I know was hurt, but we're holed up at home now waiting for news of the nuclear power plant malfunction north of here. We aren't in the red zone for a meltdown, but tap water and rain could be contaminated if the radiation leak becomes substantial.
Watch BBC news for the most accurate goings-on, and PLEASE do what you can for the cities north of Tokyo, through Red Cross or any other means. Many towns were literally leveled to the ground, others were burned and flooded, over a thousand people are reported dead, a number which will rise substantially as relief efforts continue.