The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 brought death and destruction on an horrific scale to a vast area of the northeastern Tohoku region.

Some 300 km to the south, Tokyo also experienced a long and violent shake at 2:46 p.m., but it was almost entirely spared any serious consequences. Nonetheless, almost all its public transport ceased operating along with most people's mobile phones — while road traffic was soon jammed solid.

Finding themselves plunged into this alarming new reality, around 2.6 million people in the capital opted to spend the night at work or wherever else they were, while some 6 million others decided to head for home on foot or by bicycle, often taking hours to get there, according to the findings of a survey by the Mitsubishi Research Institute.