I think it's partly due to the fact that the Japanese have had to weather so much before, that it's just another hurdle they have to go through. They've had devastating earthquakes before, and they've picked themselves up. They'll do it again.

When I was talking to my mother, she didn't seem concerned at all; she's going to Nagoya next Monday but her response was "it's up in the North and everything will be fine by next week".

I spoke with my cousin, and while she's south of Tokyo, she said it was the most horrifying thing she's ever experienced, that the aftershocks kept swaying her building enough for her to feel motion sickness.

Now, living in an earthquake zone that is sorely overdue for a "big one", I think we'll have a much harder time grappling with it and picking ourselves up because we've never had to deal with anything to that level before.