japan:"day 3 update tokyo"

...4^th email from my friend Stella, who went to japan with her husband for her son's graduation...sent 13 march at  6:35pm

"as i write this it is day 4 after the earthquake in tokyo: 8am

yesterday daniel and i walked to the akihabara area.  taxis are now avail but still no trains or subways. we are told they may be up by tomorrow. 

it's sunday, the streets are a bit more populated but not by much.   food is not an issue for us as long as we eat at the hotel but out on the streets all if not most restaurants are closed.  we do find a lil spot that is open and i do mean lil, to eat.  it has a counter and 4 stools.  they have pictures on the wall of the food with numbers next to them. you pick your number, then you step one step over to a vending machine that you insert your money, push the number and a ticket with your number is spit out.  you then take yet another step over and hand it to a lil old lady (and i do mean lil 4'9 maybe and 80 years old).  she then proceeds to cook your food for you.  you then just turn around again one step and sit on a stool.  can i just tell you that it was THE BEST JAPANESE FOOD we have eaten since we got here! shrimp, clams, veggies, noddles, rice and miso soup!  all for 800 yen (under 10 bucks) for both of us! after eating we bussed our plates and left. 

again out to an empty street.  it all feels very surreal.  as if i'm in a dream.  the more we walk, we start to see more people.  most stores are closed but we do get to a dept store that is open and OPEN it is!  

it's like the new york stock exchange in there!  it's HUGE.  with 8 floors and all of them a buzz.  so this is where all the people of tokyo are!  everyone is moving, store clerks are yelling and waving flyers or papers above there heads.  we walk pass by one and he hands me a flyer, i take it and look down on it.  it's not a flyer but a pack of tissues with ichiro the japanese baseball player on the packaging.  how odd, but my son has told me that this is how japan does there advertising, with tissue packs.  so i take it and move on to the escalators. each floor has depts with EVERYTHING YOU WILL EVER NEED! the first floor has electronics. stereos, tv's, computers...you get the picture. every floor is as big as a walmart.  so we climb up and up the escalators till we get to the 6th floor, toys!  omg...needless to say an hour and a half later and with three very large bags we get out of the 6th floor.  we now exit the building and look for a cab.  

as we are riding back to our hotel i feel for the first time since the earthquake as if we truly are on vacation.  for that hour and a half we were surrounded by people shopping, talking, laughing...it was nice".

stella