Turning Japanesa

Yes I’m turning Japanesa, I really think so. Ok enough bad music puns now but Tokyo has been great, frustraations and all. Even though I speak no Japanese and have had bugger all luck the last day or so it has been great. After my day spent exploring Tokyo with Rumi it was time to explore on my own but I had booked one thing, a Tsukiji Fish Markets tour. I had found a reccomendation online from one of the blogs I read and the price wasn’t bad for a guided tour through the market to areas you really shouldnt be able to access and also a maximum group of 6.

The down side.. meeting at 4am so that you get to experience the Tuna auctions. Now thankfully I had been living on coffee, adrenalin or some combination of the two over the last month or so as I only had like 3.5 hours sleep before getting up roughly 230am so that I could get an expensive cab ride to the meeting point. Thank god for convience stores selling giant bottles of coffee at 4 in the morning. The tour was great and our group of 4 including the guide got to see heaps in the markets and experience so much. The tuna auction was unbelievable. It was like a song and I got some video along with dozens of photos.

After the auction unfortunately our guide had left so he could make his normal job but the market was now in full on crazy mode as the auctions were closing down and the selling was about to begin. Since I couldnt really enter the other areas and didn’t feel like getting run over by the bikes, automatic trolleys or dozens of trucks I high tailed it towards the restaurants. Our guide had pointed out what he thought was the best in the market for sushi. 3500 yen for a set and it was worth every yen. It was amazingly fresh and delicious. No soy or wasabi needed unless already on it. This was I think the best sushi I have ever eaten and thats a big call after Tojos (sorry Cory).

After my breakfast of fish, rice and green tea I moved on to the stalls around the market area that sold the other goods to the shoppers etc full of fruit, veg, random assortments hell even some souveneirs. I picked up a tshirt (cause i can) and also some fantastic looking Japanese peaches which were more like nectarines but they were the size of a softball and cheap to, 125 yen each. With this it was time to brave the rush hour subway rides back to the hotel but I did not spot a push man 🙁

Pretty much the next two days was spent exploring random areas of Tokyo including most of Shinjuku, Ginza, shopping for plastic foods in the area where all the restaurants shop, Shibuya, Harajuku and Ameyoka. Some highlights include spending 45 minutes trying to pick a bento box for lunch in Shibuya for lunch, eating random foods at dinner in Shinjuku and walking through Harajuku all the way to Shibuya seeing the transition from cheap youth clothing and craziness to the high end brands like Louis Vuitton etc within 100m.

There has been some frustrations though. The language barrier is massive, but I knew that coming into Japan. I have barely spoken as most people just don’t understand me so I just point, nod and gesture, usually works the best. I also seem to have broken my ipod so will have to pick up a temporary replacement to get me by as this one can be fixed under warranty (thankfully).

All in all I have enjoyed Tokyo. I will be back so that I can see more of the parts I missed like the Ueno Zoo, Akihabara at night, the Imperial Palace and the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku.

Today though was an utterly random day. I planned to visit Yokohama on my way to Kyoto for purely one real reason. The Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum. This place is totally random. A museum dedicated to Ramen. The people in Yokohama love their ramen so why not dedicate a museum to it. The ramen was good with different kinds from all over Japan. I had two types (thankfully you can buy half bowls) so I had a bowl of Tonkotsu and also Miso ramen. Both were unbelievably good. It’s a bit of a toss up which one I like better. I must have more to experiment 😉

Pretty much I realized though, Yokohama really is pretty boring other than that. But what was not boring for me today was riding the Shinkansen. I had two journeys on it today and it was a child hood dream come true. You can read more about it in my trip report in a few days time after I put all the journeys together in one easy post, but seriously loved every minute of it!

Current Location: Citadines Kyoto Karasuma Gojo