Fish & Electronics

We are in the ryokan room taking a little afternoon break. I thought I'd blog a little while Michael is showering.

This morning we checked out the Tsukiji fish market. We hopped on the Yamanote line as usual and got off near the Ginza area. Ginza reminds me very much of midtown Manhattan. Wide boulevards and many luxury stores.

The Tsukiji fish market was huge! 56 acres! To get to the actual buildings, you have to manage to get through the chaotic traffic of men driving these weird little motorized carts, little trucks, pedestrians, and bicyclists. I joked to Mike that a video game could be designed on the premise of the tourists trying to get to the fish market without getting killed by a guy on a motorized cart. We missed the auction, but that was fine since we read in the guidebooks that tourists are not exactly welcome. However, we did get to walk through the labyrinth of stalls and check out all the marine life for sale. There was so many varieties of sea guys up for sale- squid, octopus, clams, huge tuna, you name it. If it swims, it's for sale. The floor was covered with blood and water. I saw several live fish get beheaded and heard a lot of band saws cutting up fish flesh. It was pretty intense. We also visited the vegetable market next door. It seemed so sedate and hushed after the loud bloody chaos of the fish market.

We decided to have a sushi breakfast in the neighborhood. After all, this was the freshest and best place in the world to have sushi. We found a nice place and took a seat at the counter. Michael had a couple varieties of tuna and salmon and a cucumber maki roll (which was more like a cone.) I had tuna, sea snapper, amberjack, and a sea eel and cucumber maki roll. The snapper tasted like sweet cream and the sea eel had a warm almost sesame like taste. It was a breakfast we will never forget.

We had a little stroll in Ueno Park and visited the Tosho-gu Shrine. It was austere and beautiful.

Next, we visited the Akihabara electronics district. More than 600 multi-level shops, stores, and stalls in a single area selling anything electronic you can imagine- from vintage to the latest. I noticed this district seemed to be cater very much to men. We saw a lot of adult DVD and hentai anime and manga. There were also quite a few maid cafes. These are places where otaku can be served by attractive young females dressed up like maids.

I am going to log off now and shower. We're going to Shinjuku soon! More later...