My very personal earthquake weekend IV: A night out...

Walking past Harajuku, I'm still trying to call my friend Julia, but the connection always fails. 

If she and her friends still wanted to go out, I would have preferred to stay in Shibuya right away (instead of taking that 2 hours walk to Waseda and then walk back to Shibuya). 

Finally I get her on the phone and she tells me that they were still going to Shibuya.

The two of us meet up in Harajuku (she took the bicycle) and try to find some dinner (some shops are open, but in the end it's not that easy to find an open place that would also have some vegetarian options). We go to a Hawaiian place. As we sit down over dinner and tell each other our earthquake adventures, it becomes obvious that we are exhausted over the events of the day. 

I ordered something that turned to be a very small dish, so when we get out, I look for a convenient store to get an Onigiri (tasty rice balls I got addicted to). In the first one I enter, all the Onigiris seem to be sold out, so I try to get some in another one. 

Also in the second convenient store I don't find any and it occurs to me that people have been panic shopping (I know even people across the ocean have learned about this on the news, but I hadn't watched any so far and had to find out the hard way...)

So, no Onigiri for me. We still don't know whether our friends are coming to Shibuya or whether Beat Café (the Bar we go to) will open. In contrast to the many people in the bigger streets, Shibuya is strangely empty for a friday night.

for comparison: Even on any other rainy friday night it would be more crowded:

In order to give our friends and Beat Café more time, we decide to get a coffee somewhere. And again: it's not that easy. There are tons of coffee shops in Shibuya, but even if there are people inside and it seems to be open, it turns out it's the clerks sitting in there chatting because they can't go home but the shop is closed. Even McDonald's is not open. 

Finally we find an open coffee shop and get coffee. The atmosphere around us is not exactly thrilling, though. The place is packed, most people seem to be stranded, some try to sleep. The woman next to us tries to make some calls, but it doesn't seem to work. On the one hand, there are people waiting for a free table, on the other hand, the ones who are seated don't want to give up theirs. 

Julia checks the news on her Iphone...

... doesn't make our mood better.

We get out of the coffee shop and decide to give Beat Café one more chance. But really, we get used to the thought that we would just walk home and have a good night's rest.

We get to our favorite bar and find out that it had just opened! We are the first customers, but we don't mind. A nice Gin Tonic seems to be the better option next to a 2 hours walk! 

So there we sit, still feeling the after shocks as we lean against the wall, watching the place fill with more people, mostly Gaijins, seeking a good night out after this eventful day. Our friends also drop in one by one and the night seems to turn into a good one...

It's a very human thing to make jokes about things you really don't know how to deal with. This particular human attribute makes this night especially fun. Having had a couple of drinks, feeling another aftershock and getting aware of the fact that this building doesn't seem to be the safest, even "at least we die in Beat Café" seems to be hilarious. 

Another good one: Playing Earthquake Jenga...