This paper selects several sites intended to represent relatively undistorted rock motions just inland from the faulting in the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. Sites were selected for relatively high values of VS30 and for absence of strong site resonances. At these sites, ground motions at the surface were moderate, with peak accelerations of up to ~330 cm/s2 and peak velocities up to ~45 cm/s. Although moderate, these records imply that the strong motion generating area of the Tohoku earthquake was as much as ten times more energetic than the 1985 Michoacan earthquake, for which ground motions on rock were recorded above a strong motion generating area. These results suggest that a wide range of source parameters can occur in subduction zone earthquakes.