Vernon

A Vernon woman teaching in Japan says she feels fortunate she was far enough away from an 8.9 magnitude earthquake which hit the nation Friday.

Melanie Peter and her friend Tracey Craigon of Winnipeg live in Ikoma, Nara, far enough away from the quake.

"I was on the way to work when the Earthquake happened, but I didn't feel a thing. "I live in Ikoma, Nara, and was travelling to Izumi Fuchi near Osaka's Kansai airport."," Peter told Castanet.net in an email earlier this morning.

"My boyfriend however was in Osaka and was on the 23rd floor of a building when the earthquake hit and he said the building swayed back and forth for more than a minute. Tokyo and Sendai were cities that were hit much harder than us."

The exact death toll is not immediately known, however, local media in Japan say it could reach 1,000.

This is the largest magnitude quake to ever hit Japan.

An 8.3 magnitude quake hit Kanto in 1923 killing 143,000.