Strong mag. 5.9 earthquake hit Ichihara City, 14km south of Chiba, Japan last night. Chiba City where the tournament course is located was also under big effect. Many of the player of this week's field was staying in the hotels nearby. 11th year professional Naoto Nakanishi was in the sauna at his hotel's public bath facility with Yuwa Kosaihira.

"I was out of the sauna and was putting my clothes on. Yuwa was still in the sauna. I started to feel dizzy, then it shook so big, and I noticed that it was an earthquake. I got change really quickly and Yuwa and I ran outside. We stayed out for a while since we were afraid of another attack. After a while I went back to my room, but I had TV on until I slept. I was pretty terrified, but I think I fell asleep after midnight."

Naoto says, he woke up feeling terrible, but his score got better and better as the holes went by and eventually, he made 8 birdies and a bogey to score 64. But he doesn't feel secured yet, since he was at 5T on 2R of the Panasonic Open 2 weeks ago, but his back ache erupted and finished 39T after all.

Naoto believed that his back ache got better after 3 days, but it relapsed again at last week's Vantelin Tokai Classic, and he missed the cutline. This week, he asked coach Keita Uemura to carry his bag and support him both physically and technically.
"I went back to basics and now my body and golf are much better."

As he stated, he moved up to 10T with 6 under total going into the weekends.
"I was really terrified about the earthquake, but I am glad that I was able to get my confidence back this week."