She says: It is so quiet in Tokyo. Almost eerily so. We are right now on the crowded 5:20 pm subway after an insanely busy day and you could, quite literally, hear a pin drop. I wish I had one to prove my point.

We visited several different Tokyo neighborhoods today and it is remarkable how strikingly different each of them is, they each serve a function and the people within each neighborhood are dressed to fit their niches. It's unlike any other city I've seen. It's like several smaller cities in one. Actually, it's more like an amusement park with all the different "lands" and the characters dressed in costume.

We wandered around cartoonish Shibuya last night. Today, we saw the girls dressed as maids and living up to every Japanese stereotype as they invited us in to their Maid Cafes in the nerd's heaven of Akihabara. We saw the sporty types taking their daily runs around the Imperial Palace grounds and spotted some true Japanese man butt cheek peeking out of the shortest running shorts you can imagine. We watched the efficiency of the government's guards and groundskeepers as they defended and trimmed the plants around the federal government buildings. We saw the poshest of the posh in Ginza shopping in the swankiest multileveled shopping mall. We saw businessmen and
businesswomen in tailored suits in the multiple business districts. Then, we mixed with them all on the half dozen or so subway rides we took to explore all the neighborhoods.

We met up with an old CISV friend who I hadn't seen in at least ten years. Steph Parent has been living in Tokyo with his wife and baby and was a gracious guide to us for the day. He showed us a ton of things from our "must do" list, gave us confidence on the complicated Tokyo transportation system and even got Matt to eat some real Japanese food.

Our mothers will be horrified to hear that moments after we arrived to the panoramic view on the 45th floor of a government building, Steph and Matt looked at each other and said, "Do you feel that?". Steph pulled out his iphone's catfish app and told us we were experiencing a magnitude 5.7 earthquake. Compared to how terribly Ottawa's buildings withstood a quake of the same magnitude, we were amazed how little we actually felt this. Most people didn't react at all. The elevators were shut down for five minutes, but other than that, business as usual. We thanked Steph for really planning well and giving us the full Japanese experience.

Our other most exciting moment of the day was in "Electric City" in Akihabara. Matt, my little gambling leprechaun, read about Pachinko, a Japanese slot machine game and wanted to try it out. We found a promising Pachinko Parlour called "Big Apple" and headed in. Supposedly, people do this to relax. I'm not sure how. It's just about the noisiest place I've ever heard. There are slot machines with multiple buttons, a video screen playing a cartoon with sexy ladies and a stats screen at the top. Nothing is in English, of course. Matt went straight to work, with the help of his "Pachinko Angel", a man sitting next to him who pointed to Burton's in sequence and whispered Japanese-English instructions in his ear. The 1000 yen Matt initially invested were pretty quickly used up when suddenly, all the screens came to life, more noises started, more lights flashed and tokens started pouring out. For three chaotic minutes, the Pachinko Angel led Matt in an elaborate ritual that led to hundreds of tokens pouring out of the machine. Finally, spent and out of breath, we were approached by a "Pit Boss" type character who helped scoop the winnings into a pink plastic tray and led us to the cash out area, more confused than ever. We kept asking each other, "Is this the jackpot!? Did we win Pachinko?"Ultimately, Matt was given a receipt and pointed toward the prize desk to redeem his points (we thought we'd be getting cash. Alas, only prizes). The prizes were a hilarious collection of cigarettes, snacks and housewares. When we looked suitably perplexed, the manager came over and whispered instructions in Matt's ear. Nodding along like he understood, I thought Matt knew what to do now. Turns out the instructions were all in Japanese. Of course. Finally, Matt started pointing at treats and his winnings pile began to build up. To our shock and surprise (and running through the patience of two staff), Matt eventually selected 14 containers of "Chip Star" (Japanese Pringles), two bags of chewy chocolate chip cookies, a giant tube of toothpaste, five bottles of water, a package of pink gummies, a pack of marshmallow cookies, two off brand cokes (suggested by the manager). All this filled two giant plastic bags. Matt, who was feeling flush and particularly charitable, gave away more than half the Chip Star packs, making a group of teenage boys very happy and shocking a huge smile onto the face of a Subway worker. We couldn't get over our good fortune. And now we have snacks for tomorrow's trip to Hakone.

-Shauna