back

we're now safely back in singapore. what a relief, for us and our parents and family. we slept the whole of thursday away, exhausted in part by not being able to sleep properly on monday and tuesday - i was quite scared by potentially larger quakes and we were on the 13th storey of our hotel - and the whole of wednesday in haneda airport, for more than 12 hours waiting for our flight.

it's amazing how the japanese were still being polite and nice in their usual fashion - maybe not being in the frenzy international media helped. we were really unsure about leaving on monday; if not for the nuclear situation i think we might have stayed on. but then again maybe not. i'm really not accustomed to even those aftershocks.

despite the japanese people being nice and friendly and that in tokyo itself there was still food and some small shops were opened but it wasn't like the normal tokyo you see or what we remembered of it with all the lights out and shops closed. omotesando was relatively quiet for a normal afternoon and all the flagship brand boutiques were closed, some with notices saying they are closed till yesterday but i doubt they're opened today. the staff at the hotel and airport were still so polite and accommodating - i can imagine the irritation and frustration local service staff will most probably render in such uncertain situations.

i thank God for many things - that haneda was opened last year. i'm sure it eased a lot of the crowds that thronged narita; for the fact that we changed our flight early, on monday to come back - even then we couldn't get flights out till wed night; that we didn't manage to get jack johnson tickets for tokyo, on the 15th i think - i read on the jack johnson website that they were in osaka when the earthquake happened and they were bound for sendai next. he is donating all the earnings from his japan tour so far to the relief efforts.

my only regret is that i did not go to see the house i was suppose to write about but under such circumstances, that's the least important thing to worry about. maybe i should have gone in the afternoon on tuesday instead of omotesando, but i was a little unsure about the trains so was unsure about venturing further to setagaya.

it's good that i have a few days of rest before i resume work. my mind and soul is too cluttered now to start writing immediately.