The Earthquake Phenomena Observation System, located inside the Japan Meteorological Agency in Tokyo's central Otemachi district, is usually operated by five teams of seven who work in rotating shifts that span every minute of the year. But at 2:46 p.m. on March 11 this year, all that changed. In an atmosphere that even one of Japan's famously reserved bureaucrats — an agency staffer — admitted was "extremely intense," everyone who physically could report for duty did, and some didn't go home for the next 72 hours.