Day Four in Tokyo
For my second to last day in Tokyo, I woke up bright and early to go see the Tsujiki fish market in action. I was groggy as I left my hotel at 6:30 am, but psyched to see one of Tokyo's most raved about sights: the total insanity of the largest fish market in one of the most fish-crazy nations in the world. I was told to get there right at 7 am, which is just after the wholesale market finishes up and the general market starts, which is when the restaurant buyers go around picking up the fish they'll need for that day. The maps I had were a little vague, but it wasn't a problem and I got to the entrance to the market at just about 7 am exactly. I pulled out my camera to have it ready and headed through the gate leading to the entrance... and... uh, well, I saw I big empty parking lot and a lot of unoccupied open air warehouse space. It basically looked like a deserted commercial market, sort of like how haymarket looks after everyone is gone, except that it was 100 times larger and there was this huge open air warehouse with a corrugated roof and steel framing, but no walls on the sides, and inside the many structures were lanes between little shops containing stainless fish preparation tables, sinks, and cabinets presumably containing various cutting tools for preparing the fish. I could tell that this would be pretty neat in action, but for some reason no one was there... except that there were a number of other tourists (both foreign and Japanese) wandering around with confused expressions. So I went back to the entrance gate and though everything was in Japanese, there was a calendar, and both today and the next day were in red, whereas almost every other day that month was in black (including the days on most other weekends). From this I deduced that I arrived on a holiday of some sort. The possibility of this occuring was not mentioned in either of my guide books (just one more reason why I was disappointed with both of them, and will be looking for alternatives if I go back to Japan). I later discovered (in a post on an online travel website) that one can find out the schedule at one of the Tourist Information Offices in Tokyo. Anyway, since I was leaving the next day, I was, as the saying goes, SOL. I wandered around a while and tried to imagine what it was like, though.
I was pretty pissed about this, and decided to cheer myself up by finding the nearest McDonalds (which did not, sadly, take me very long) and eat two Egg McMuffins. Now I generally think it's lame when tourists from the states go abroad and then eat at McDonalds. At the same time, people say the experience is different in other countries, so I was at least curious. However, I don't eat McDonalds at home (I think the hamburgers are disgusting), so going there in Japan struck me a stupid. However, I do eat Egg McMuffins, which are in my humble opinion the single greatest fast food product in existence. Since I'm almost never passing by a McDonalds at breakfast time at home, I rarely have them, so getting them in Japan actually seemed like a good idea after all. They were great; however, they were literally identical to the ones I have at home, so the experience wasn't any different, which was a little disappointing. The ordering process was also the same, and the store itself was essentially the same type of dingy hole in the wall you find in cities all across in the U.S. So much for a different experience.
At this point I has gotten myself into Ginza (at one time the premier chic shopping district, but now just one of many fashionable shopping areas). I had eaten my breakfast in a park on one edge of Ginza (Hibiya-koen), and navigated to the other side of the neighborhood to the Kabuki-za, the city's main Kabuki theater. I arrived 10 minutes before the afternoon performance started (which put it at roughly 10:50 am), and bought a standing room ticket for the first two acts. This cost me $9, and gave me a chance to see about 2 hours of the performance. I was kind of far from the stage, but there was no difficulty seeing everything. I also bought the English earphone guide, which you put in one ear. It took a little getting used to, but was really helpful, and I enjoyed the performance.
After the show, it was time to go get some lunch, and I went to New Torigin and had their speciality, kamameshi, which is a rice dish in which rice and various toppings (mushrooms, meat, veggies, etc...) are mixed together and baked. It was pretty good, and cheap, so I left happy. (They had an english menu with the romanized food names, so I could actually say what I wanted, which I really liked.) For the afternoon, I first went to the Sony store, which sucked big time. I guess I don't relaly like Sony products in the first place, but the store, which is designed like a big showroom, was really boring and lame. Maybe if I wanted a camera, it would have been more fun, but there weren't any really innovative or exciting things on display. I couldn't even find one of their crazy robot dogs to play with! Anyway, I decided to properly sate my geeky electronics fix by heading over to Akihabara, the big electronics (and now anime/manga) district in the city. I was not disappointed. The main street on which most of the shops are located was closed off to vehicles, and people were milling about in a huge mass while they drifted from one blinking, neon-lit storefront to another, while amusingly over the top salespeople (who were often using loud speakers) tried to get each passersby to buy whatever they were selling. I thought it was all pretty cool to see, though actually buying something in that madhouse didn't seem wise. I walked through some of the manga/anime shops, and it being a weekend day, found they were packed to bursting with customers ranging from school kids to middle aged men. I also went to one of the over 18 floors, and was a little weirded out, but I've never been a hentai fan, so I'm not surprised by my reaction. I found a cosplay section on the top floor of one of the stores, and that was funny: lots of lacy maid outfits for the girls along side the obligatory naruto uniform for the guys. I suppose there is some social commentary about gender issues in Japan in the types of products they were selling, but seeing how cosplay is a fringe activity even in Japan, I'm not going to bother.
After a while I decided to head back to my hotel and check to see if Nancy had sent me an email. She had not, so I figured on a relatively tame evening, since I didn't think it was a good idea to go drinking and clubbing on my own in an unfamiliar city where I didn't speak the langauge. I guess I'll have to save that for next time. I headed to a restaurant close by called Kushinobo, which speacializes in Kushi-Katsu, which is various foods (e.g. vegetables, fish, and meat) in small morsels on a stick, coated in Japanese breadcrumbs and fried. It was a bit expensive (and surprisingly hard to find), but very good. After dinner, I walked around a bit, and it was amazing how much quieter Akasaka was on a Saturday night compared with a Friday night. When I went back to my hotel, I was ready to fall right asleep and get rested up for my long travel day home.
I was pretty pissed about this, and decided to cheer myself up by finding the nearest McDonalds (which did not, sadly, take me very long) and eat two Egg McMuffins. Now I generally think it's lame when tourists from the states go abroad and then eat at McDonalds. At the same time, people say the experience is different in other countries, so I was at least curious. However, I don't eat McDonalds at home (I think the hamburgers are disgusting), so going there in Japan struck me a stupid. However, I do eat Egg McMuffins, which are in my humble opinion the single greatest fast food product in existence. Since I'm almost never passing by a McDonalds at breakfast time at home, I rarely have them, so getting them in Japan actually seemed like a good idea after all. They were great; however, they were literally identical to the ones I have at home, so the experience wasn't any different, which was a little disappointing. The ordering process was also the same, and the store itself was essentially the same type of dingy hole in the wall you find in cities all across in the U.S. So much for a different experience.
At this point I has gotten myself into Ginza (at one time the premier chic shopping district, but now just one of many fashionable shopping areas). I had eaten my breakfast in a park on one edge of Ginza (Hibiya-koen), and navigated to the other side of the neighborhood to the Kabuki-za, the city's main Kabuki theater. I arrived 10 minutes before the afternoon performance started (which put it at roughly 10:50 am), and bought a standing room ticket for the first two acts. This cost me $9, and gave me a chance to see about 2 hours of the performance. I was kind of far from the stage, but there was no difficulty seeing everything. I also bought the English earphone guide, which you put in one ear. It took a little getting used to, but was really helpful, and I enjoyed the performance.
After the show, it was time to go get some lunch, and I went to New Torigin and had their speciality, kamameshi, which is a rice dish in which rice and various toppings (mushrooms, meat, veggies, etc...) are mixed together and baked. It was pretty good, and cheap, so I left happy. (They had an english menu with the romanized food names, so I could actually say what I wanted, which I really liked.) For the afternoon, I first went to the Sony store, which sucked big time. I guess I don't relaly like Sony products in the first place, but the store, which is designed like a big showroom, was really boring and lame. Maybe if I wanted a camera, it would have been more fun, but there weren't any really innovative or exciting things on display. I couldn't even find one of their crazy robot dogs to play with! Anyway, I decided to properly sate my geeky electronics fix by heading over to Akihabara, the big electronics (and now anime/manga) district in the city. I was not disappointed. The main street on which most of the shops are located was closed off to vehicles, and people were milling about in a huge mass while they drifted from one blinking, neon-lit storefront to another, while amusingly over the top salespeople (who were often using loud speakers) tried to get each passersby to buy whatever they were selling. I thought it was all pretty cool to see, though actually buying something in that madhouse didn't seem wise. I walked through some of the manga/anime shops, and it being a weekend day, found they were packed to bursting with customers ranging from school kids to middle aged men. I also went to one of the over 18 floors, and was a little weirded out, but I've never been a hentai fan, so I'm not surprised by my reaction. I found a cosplay section on the top floor of one of the stores, and that was funny: lots of lacy maid outfits for the girls along side the obligatory naruto uniform for the guys. I suppose there is some social commentary about gender issues in Japan in the types of products they were selling, but seeing how cosplay is a fringe activity even in Japan, I'm not going to bother.
After a while I decided to head back to my hotel and check to see if Nancy had sent me an email. She had not, so I figured on a relatively tame evening, since I didn't think it was a good idea to go drinking and clubbing on my own in an unfamiliar city where I didn't speak the langauge. I guess I'll have to save that for next time. I headed to a restaurant close by called Kushinobo, which speacializes in Kushi-Katsu, which is various foods (e.g. vegetables, fish, and meat) in small morsels on a stick, coated in Japanese breadcrumbs and fried. It was a bit expensive (and surprisingly hard to find), but very good. After dinner, I walked around a bit, and it was amazing how much quieter Akasaka was on a Saturday night compared with a Friday night. When I went back to my hotel, I was ready to fall right asleep and get rested up for my long travel day home.
posted by Conor at 1:46 AM
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