There was a 5.6 quake (Richter scale) off the coast of Izu a few minutes ago, at 6:24pm. It was pretty strong here where I am (south central Tokyo). Hi-net is calling it a 4.9, but I believe the 5.6 reports from Tenki.jp–that felt pretty darn strong. Rolling more than jolting, here. Apparently it originated very close to Oshima Island. No danger of tsunami, so they say. It was about 80km south of where I am, but it was strong enough to be instantly noticeable, making the curtains sway and so on. Not nearly enough to throw stuff off of shelves, but still it was among the top ten, and maybe the top five earthquakes I’ve felt in the past decade. You might think that’s not much of a distinction, but there are lots of quakes here. I’ve chronicled 21 quakes on this blog, not including aftershocks, the first one being almost exactly 3 years ago. That’s about seven per year, and those are just the ones I’ve felt and could blog on quickly. For example, one hit about a week ago soon after I fell asleep one night, and so I didn’t note that one in this journal. I’m supposing that there may be as many as a dozen quakes a year that you can really feel, should you be awake (or get shaken awake) when they hit.