Bad Breakfast ...
... though our Tokyo hotel included breakfast vouchers for Jonathan's, a Denny's-like restaurant on the second floor, we skipped it the first couple of days so that we could do sushi breakfasts at Tsukiji - this turned out to be a brilliant move, as it was pretty atrocious here! The Japanese option included some dry, tasteless fish, a bowl of rice, and a soft-boiled egg. Mixing the egg yolk with the rice actually wasn't too terrible, but we decided not to finish, so that we could grab some ramen instead.
In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Fol... ... read more 
