And yes, it did shake my building.

Stateside press reports indicate that there was little damage and few injuries.

At first, there was some sort of upthrust motion, like someone was trying to heave the building upward. That was followed by a swaying motion, like a boat on a lake, that intensified briefly. The whole event lasted at least a minute. After that, someone turned on the TV in the office, and we found out that the epicenter was in roughly the same place it had been during last year's Big One. There were big banners on the TV image warning people in a major part of last year's tsunami disaster area to evacuate. While the estimate was for a maximum tsunami height of 1 meter, no one was taking any chances.

Fortunately, the tsunami was not a catastrophic one. Also, the greatest seismic intensity on land was only a 5- on the Japanese scale, meaning that things could have fallen off shelves, with maybe a few windows broken here and there. So, yes, there was little physical damage, although it undoubtedly shook up a lot of people emotionally, especially in last year's disaster area.

7.3 would be about one fiftieth.

Here in Chiba Prefecture, where I am visiting. It lasted quite awhile, thought it would never stop, kind of rolling.........Definitely the biggest earthquake I have been in, but nothing fell off the shelves or anything. It was way out to sea, so I doubt if there was much damage. This place is east of Tokyo, on a sort of peninsula. This is the second earthquake I have felt since I have been here (three weeks).

I'm in a neighboring prefecture. I've been here for a long time, and have probably experienced 1000 earthquakes or more. They can be rather disquieting, especially after what happened last year.