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Hotel view
The view of the river area from our hotel window, early in the morning Today we started bright and early in order to get to the Tsukiji Fish Market. First up breakfast, which was included in our hotel rate. Once we sat down in the restaurant, a bad feeling washed over me- we were getting a traditional Japanese breakfast. Sure enough, out came the miso soup, rice, pickles, tofu, breaded pork, and a variety of other non-breakfast items. At 7am, the last thing I would be able to stomach is pickles and soup, so after eating as much rice as we could so not to insult the waiter, we ran over to the 7-11 across the street and picked up croissants and juice.
The Tsukiji Fish Market is the central wholesale market for fish and specializes in giant slabs of tuna ( or “maguro” which is even better raw, sashimi style) which are hauled in everyday from as far away as New Zealand and the North Atlantic. According to my hand guide book, Japan consumes 30% of the global tuna catch annually, and eats 80% of it raw (like I had today for lunch. I hate fish in general, so if I’m eating it voluntarily, then it must be good!). Every morning there is
Tsukiji Fish Market
A view of the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is only a portion of the market area. We climbed some stairs to avoid getting run over. a tuna auction from about 5am to 10am. We made it around 8:20am in time to see the fishermen running around and large slabs of fish everywhere.
I have never seen so many people moving at such a frantic place and I have never felt so in the way of people going about their daily business. The market itself is in a huge hangar with motor carts driving in and out of the alleys. Chaos doesn’t describe it. It is an organized chaos, but it is so overwhelming. The people are very tolerable of tourists, so they just work around the handfuls of us who had shown up in the morning (some areas are blocked off during the early, hectic morning hours). Fish were being sliced and piled on big slabs of ice, left and right. I saw varieties of things I had never seen before. I also learned that perhaps flip flops are not the best footwear to wear in a fish market as I was getting splashed by fish water from stepping gin the puddles of melting ice.
The market is also home to a fruit and vegetable market. Goods were being packed up into boxes,
MMMMMMMM
It's far too early for raw fish. ready to be shipped around Japan. We were able to climb a staircase to get a vantage point of the busiest part of the fish market. Once out of Tsukiji, we decided that something with a little slower pace was in order.
We arrived at the grounds of the Imperial Palace to walk around in the outer gardens. By now, the sun was out and it was HOT. And, since I seem to have bad timing (like the time I showed up at the Vatican and it was closed. On a Sunday) the East Gardens of the Palace were closed, which are one of the not-to-miss sites. We decided to walk along the inner moat of the castle to the famous landmark, the Nijubashi Bridge.
The Emperor lives in the Western part of the grounds, so the castle is not open to the public on a daily basis. The castle opens twice a year- on the Emperor’s birthday and on New Year’s. The castle was begun in 1590 but had to be rebuilt after its destruction in WWII. The Nijubashi Bridge is a double arch bridge made of stone and it is here that you get one of
the best views of the grounds, proved by the many postcards that use this exact same shot. The bridge was completed in 1888 and spans the moat. In the moat itself we were able to see fish, swans, cormorants, and turtles. We walked around to the large gated entrance and caught a glimpse of the Diet Building, home of the Japanese legislature.
Next on our itinerary was Shibuya crossing, the busiest intersection in the world. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, so the crossing wasn’t as busy as the last time I was here in the evening. We managed to get great seats along the window at Starbucks, overlooking the intersection, and I was able to sneak photos of the area, despite the “No Photos Allowed” signs posted everywhere. And who would have thought, but I managed to find one of the greatest Mexican restaurants (so good that I ended up here again, too). After lunch, we ran into our second glitch of the day: there was a problem on the Ginza subway line, the only line connecting us directly to our hotel on the opposite end of the city. Of course, I assume there was a
problem since all the announcements were in Japanese and then people started leaving the platform.
With some creative change of plans, I managed to figure out an alternative route, via a boat cruise up the Sumida River from the Hama Detached Palace Gardens to Asakusa. The gardens themselves left a bit to be desired, but we were able to catch the last boat up the river. From the river we were able to see the Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower, Daiba across Tokyo Bay and the Fuji TV building as well as planes landing and taking off near-by. Most of the river cruise provided us with views of skyscrapers and differently coloured bridges as we made our way up to Asakusa. We were able to get a view of the Asahi Beer building, with its giant gold flame and golden skyscraper to represent a mug of frothy beer.
Back in Asakusa, it was time to hit the Senso-ji Temple. What a difference this visit was compared to my last. Last time, early in the morning, I was one of only a handful of people present. Today, it was packed with tourists. Nakamise dori, the main road leading up to
Imperial Palace
Me, in a typical Japanese pose in front of the fountains in the Imperial Palace grounds the temple was full of souvenir stands (one of the few places you can find souvenirs) and people. We hung out in the area until dinner and called it a night to prepare for our day trip to Nikko the next day.
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