Areas of Tokyo usually packed with office workers like sushi restaurants and noodle shops were eerily¹ quiet. Many schools were closed. Companies allowed workers to stay home. Long queues formed at airports.

在东京，往日挤满上班族的寿司店和面馆如今静得可怕。许多学校都关闭了，公司允许员工们待在家里，机场排起了长龙。

People shop for food from almost empty shelves at a big-box supermarket in Tokyo March 16, 2011.
As Japanese authorities struggled to avert² disaster at an earthquake-battered nuclear complex 240 km (150 miles) to the north, parts of Tokyo resembled a ghost town.

Many stocked up（存储） on food and stayed indoors or simply left, transforming one of the world's biggest and densely³ populated cities into a shell of its usual self.

"Look, it's like Sunday -- no cars in town," said Kazushi Arisawa, a 62-year-old taxi driver, as he waited for more than an hour outside an office tower where he usually finds customers within minutes. "I can't make money today."

Radiation in Tokyo has been negligible, briefly⁴ touching⁵ three times the normal rate Tuesday, smaller than a dental x-ray. Wednesday, winds over the Fukushima nuclear-power plant gusted⁶（阵风） out to sea, keeping levels close to normal.

But that does little to allay⁷ public anxiety about an ailing⁸ 40-year-old nuclear complex with three reactors⁹ in partial meltdown and a fourth with spent atomic fuel exposed to the atmosphere after last Friday's earthquake and tsunami¹⁰.

"Radiation moves faster than we do," said Steven Swanson, a 43-year-old American who moved to Tokyo in December with his Japanese wife to help with her family business.

He is staying indoors but is tempted¹¹ to leave. "It's scary. It's a triple threat with the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear radiation leaks. It makes you wonder what's next."

A number of major events have been canceled, including the World Figure Skating Championships, Japan Fashion Week and the Tokyo International Anime Fair whose organizers cited "extreme circumstances."

Some foreign bankers, flush with（因……而兴奋） money, are fleeing fast, some on private jets. BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered and Morgan Stanley were among banks whose staff have left since Friday, according to industry sources.

Thousands of people have inundated¹²（淹没） private jet companies with requests for evacuation flights, sending prices surging.

Electronics shops are selling out of small, portable Geiger counters（盖革计数器） that measure radiation. Strawberry Linux, a Tokyo-based company, is out of stock, said its owner, Masahiro Ochiai.