If it swims

Thursday morning, Tsukiji fish market! We made it by 5:30, in time the watch the last half hour or so of the frozen tuna auction (not my video). We made it to the visitor's entrance by following a pretty Japanese woman (Chris's favorite navigation method) who had just asked for directions through the floor, dodging fast driving fork lifts. Now, I love tuna, and I've seen them swimming around at Monterey Bay Aquarium, but it was still a shock to see the size of these beasts. Probably the smallest one we saw on the auction floor was well over two hundred pounds (the ones in this picture are probably closer to 500 lbs). Everywhere on the floor there were wholesalers lifting chunks of flesh near the tail to check for quality. The snowy insides of the tuna were visible through the gaping spaces where the gills used to be. There was a fresh tuna section in the next warehouse, but I am not sure what the difference in provenance or usage is of these.


Between the forklifts, saws, hooks and knives, Tsukiji is a dangerous place, so we only played frogger a little while before heading to the outer market to feast on the obligatory sushi breakfast. On the way to finding a place, a very drunk, very friendly, and very expressive Japanese man accosted us to impart some of his personal life stories ("I am Japanese Marlon Brando, supercomputer brain") and eating advice. By 6:30 we were perched on a stool in a tiny sushi place eating uni, maguro, toro, hamachi, anago, tamago, and some maki. A bit much, perhaps, but Tsukiji is so worth a visit.


Between Shinjuku the night before and Tsukiji in the morning, I was operating on 4 hours of sleep, so I decided to take it easy and head for Odaiba. This was a mistake. Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, featuring weird, futuristic buildings. Like Brasilia and Dubai City, Odaiba seems to be unsustainable environmentally and socially, and for this reason I found it to have an oppressive and depressing atmosphere. The first stop was the hilariously named Tokyo Big Sight (basically looks as though an Egyptian pyramid fell to earth upside down), where I visited the 35th International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition. Now, if you've ever experienced a Japanese toilet, you know that Japanese love electronics. The exhibition featured all manner of devices to assist in the care of aging or disabled population, including a machine to wash wheelchairs, beds adjustable to any configuration, strangely padded hats (for casualty prevention), portable electronic urinals, and nutritional packaged puddings. I left to spend a couple hours at the Oedo Onsen (basically a Disney-like onsen with an ultra-kitschy old Edo theme) -- so different from the Ginza one which was basically a YMCA for bathing.


Exhausted from the early morning outing and Odaiba, I slept until Chris came back from work. We went to dinner at the izakaya where I had my first meal. By this time, Chris knows the chefs since his cohorts lunch there often. Eating haimish (what's the Japanese word for this?) food prepared with care by friendly folks was the perfect antidote to Odaiba. For dinner: salmon carpaccio, a fantastic bowl of steamed clams, and raw egg yolk poured over grilled ground chicken with shiso on a stick.

Friday: Michiba. Can't wait.