Raining Buckets in Tokyo

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Geo: 35.67, 139.77

Of course, our one full day to explore Tokyo, it's raining buckets nearly the entire day. This ended up being the second longest day this trip, starting at 4am and ending shortly after midnight.

I was a little worried about getting around so early in the morning- the trains and subways don't start up again until 5am. But we needed to be out and about earlier than that for our sushi quest at Tsukiji fish market. I tried to book a taxi ahead of time online but that didn't pan out. Our Airbnb host assured us taxis would be readily on hand, even at 4:30am. And he was totally right. We walked out to the major street right outside our house and within a minute two taxis were approaching. We hailed them both and head for Tsukiji.

Getting out of the taxi near the market you could immediately smell fish. The scent was everywhere. :D I like fish so I thought it was great. I could see it bothering people, though. A quick walk and we found our sushi restaurant- Sushi Dai. The line was already long. Looking at it, it doesn't seem too bad but you have to consider the place only seats about 14 people at time, and each meal takes 45min or so. So being #60 in line could literally mean over a 3hr wait. We were hardcore determined to get this sushi. A lot of people online had amazing things to say about it. I know this means its likely a tourist trap but its not like we had much else to go on. Without a local to show you the secret good places, what can you do? So even when it started storming on us at 530am, we stuck it out. We took turns standing in line and wandering the outer market for snacks, coffee and bathroom breaks. At one point, Mai, Michelle and I wandered into a tiny hole in the wall coffee shop run by an elderly Japanese couple. We didn't speak Japanese, and they only knew a few words of English. They gave us hot towels to warm and wipe our freezing hands. Then they served us cups of coffee with cream and sugar. I was in coffee heaven :D On another one of our outer market wanderings, we came across the best mochi I've ever had in my entire life. The filling was red bean and an actual fresh strawberry. Holy hell was it good. I bought one and immediately ran to Chris to give him some.

The market was a crazy place in the morning. There were tons of cars and little machines zipping about everywhere all around you on the narrow streets. I think I nearly got run over s half dozen times. Our first bathroom trip we had trouble finding one. Michelle approached an elderly Japanese man who was working on moving stuff with one of the wheeled machines. This is a testament to how polite, kind and eager the Japanese are to help, even when you're a foreigner with a massive language barrier. He jumped off his machine, and literally ran ahead of leading us to the nearest bathroom. We ran after him- he must have had to get back to work fast, and I was impressed he still stopped to help us if he was in that much of a hurry. I think any average American would have just pointed in the direction of the bathroom.

In all it took 4.5hrs to get into Sushi Dai. We started the line about 5:15am (they open at 5am; people line up as early as 3am) and were seated at about 9:45am. There were three chefs and we all chose omakase, which is the "chef's choice". They served us 12 pieces of sushi and miso soup. We also ordered sake 'cause why not? I managed to snag pictures of all of them. My absolute favorite was the semi-fatty tuna- it had a buttery flavor that melted in your mouth. Omg amazing. My second favorite was the octopus- I loved the chewy texture. I wasn't sure I'd like uni but it was also good. So was it worth the wait? That's the question people keep asking us. It stands as the best sushi I've ever had. Until I have better sushi, if I ever do, I'd say absolutely worth the wait. 😊

After sushi breakfast it was time to meet up with the rest of the group. Eric and Beth aren't sushi fans and wanted to sleep in. Monica and Alex also slept in. We walked to the Imperial Palace from the fish market in the pouring rain. Even with my waterproof jacket and umbrella, I was 100% soaked toes to waist. I absolutely did not care. Lol. I can deal with a lot of inconvenience when I'm traveling. Cause I'm on an adventure, and no matter how well planned, you can't control the weather.

We had to walk around the whole Palace grounds and then into the middle of it before we finally found Eric and Beth. It really still is a massive Marco Polo game we're playing. We took lots of pretty pictures and then headed to nearby Tokyo Central Station so the rest of us could activate our rail passes, and then all make Shinkansen reservations for our longer train trips over the next week.

One of our group bucket list items for this trip was to have a Hanami party. The weather conspired against us but we didn't give a damn. One of the many reasons I absolutely love my friends. We have no shame in doing rather absurd activities like picnics in the rain. :D A Hanami party is like a picnic and can be a huge deal for Japanese during the cherry blossom season. All you need is a picnic spot under the blossoms (which I heard some locals stake out for hours ahead of time), a blanket, a bento box, a drink (can be wine, sake or beer) and a cute dessert. Ueno station had everything we needed, aside from a blanket. We ran around to the shops loading up on bento boxes, fried meats, wine (which is conveniently sold in a plastic wine cup), and too many adorable desserts. Chris approached me at another vendor- "what are you buying now??" Me, "I couldn't help it!! It was TOO CUTE!!" It being chocolate and custard filled pastries shaped like fish.

Then we headed across the street to Ueno Park where we were blessed with a break in the weather. We sat under the cherry blossom trees and feasted. We took lots of pictures, and a camera cf crew even approached Michelle and Billy to interview them on our Hanami party in the wet. I guess they thought it was odd but understood when they explained it was our only day in Tokyo lol. I wish we'd had more time to explore the park but there was more we wanted to see.

We took a brief trip out to Shibuya to take pictures of Hachiko and Shibuya Crossing (which wasn't as crazy because of the rain). I got coffee at Starbucks, though. I'm starting to realize Japanese really like a lot of milk in their lattes. Which I totally appreciate. 😊

We had two more hours before our scheduled walking tour in Shinjuku, so we decided to hit up one of the famed Maid Cafes. They're cafes with young, "shy" girls dressed up in maid cosplay. Patrons aren't allowed to touch or photograph them. For fees, they provide food and drinks that they decorate in various cute ways, they will call a man "master" or a female "princess", they sing and dance and generally do lots of sing-song routines when they interact with you. There definitely a few creepy men in the cafe for sure lol. I didn't feel uncomfortable but I think I would have been if the men had been inappropriate. Also they gave us fuzzy animal ears to wear. :D It was another one of those crazy Tokyo experiences I'm glad we got around to doing.

At 8pm, we met up with our tour guide and her assistant outside Shinjuku station. From there she took us through the maze of streets in the entertainment (for adults) of Shinjuku. We passed through the smoky Omoide Yokocho alley full of tiny room-sized vendors selling hot food. I really wanted to head back there later to try out street food. She walked us past strip clubs of all kinds and told us about the prostitution there. She must have overheard us talking about wanting to try takoyaki, or "octopus balls", so I was pretty stoked we stopped by a vendor. Its basically dough that's harder on the outside and liquid on the inside with bits of octopus. There's some kind of sauce and crunchy stuff on top. Despite how it looks, I thought it tasted good. But after a few, my stomach disagreed for some reason lol. She also took us to an arcade where we took pictures in a photo booth and modified our faces. I think its called purikura.

Finally around 9pm, we arrived at the destination for the tour: the Golden Gai. Its basically a shanty town-like place of tiny one room bars. Most only cater to locals and regulars but quite a few will allow foreigners in, too. A lot of the bars have crazy themes they decorate to, like scary movies and even a medical theme where the bartender dresses as a nurse lol. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures in that area so I only snapped a few when I could discreetly get away with it. However, both bartenders of the bars we went inside gave me permission to take photos inside. 😊

Our first bar was a little whiskey bar that barely fit the 9 of us and 2 other guests packed in like sardines. The bartender even gave us snacks. The second bar was my favorite, though. Our proprietress, Alesha, was fabulous. We spent an hour and a half in her little bar drinking sake and soju, and having a long conversation. She was so easy to talk with! She also gave us snacks and then she made us a basic soup of broth, pork belly, tofu and bamboo shoots. I swear that pork belly melted in my mouth. It was damned good. So the experience really reminded me of tapas bars in Spain- buy a drink, get a snack free and chat with the bartender. 😊

All in all, an amazing very long full day in Tokyo! We headed home about midnight just in time to catch the last train.

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