I'm no expert, but I think you should be okay if you're on high ground. :) One thing I must say is that Japanese buildings are really built to withstand these sorts of things (schools especially). My apartment shakes a lot when there's an earthquake, but nothing really falls and there was no significant damage.

Back on the subject of pranks, I think the worst I managed to pull was when we sent some of my friends on a "Snipe Hunt". I wasn't the instigator, but since I knew the whole thing was BS and people looked to me as the voice of reason, I convinced everyone that Snipes were real. XD