Tsukiji, Ginza, Tokyo National Museum, Asakusa, Monja-Yaki

I've heard a lot about the fish market in Tsukiji, so I was determined to visit it during this trip. I have apparently been to Tsukiji when I was younger, but don't really have any memory of it. Here is what Bourdain says about the market (from A Cook's Tour):

I've written about Tsukiji in the past, and used up most of the superlatives I can think of. Just take my word for it: It's the Taj Majal, the Colosseum, the Great Pyramid of seafood. All that unbelievable bounty, spread across acres and acres of concrete, wriggling and spitting from tanks, laid out in brightly colored rows, carefully arranged like dominoes in boxes ... I am inadequate to the task of saying more. There is nowhere else. Believe me.

My parents have been going there for years -- before it became popular with tourists, even.

Anyway, we woke up early, had a quick bite to eat and then took the JR to the nearest station, and then a cab to the market. Like an utter fool, I decided not to bring my Hasselblad. The film I had (velvia 100) doesn't perform all that well under fluorescent lights, and Tsukiji has been heavily photographed before, but still... it would have been fun! Nothing, not even Bourdain's excellent description, can really prepare you for the shock-and-awe nuclear assault on all your senses. It's also pretty dangerous for the unwary outsider, what with the motorized go cart things speeding around in all directions and especially through very narrow alleyways. It really woke us up in a hurry to have to look in all directions every few seconds to avoid getting flattened.

Some ice:

squid:

???

tuna

shellfish

tuuuuunaaaaa


>


You might have noticed that most of the fish are packed in styrofoam containers. What happens to the containers? They are put into the foamcontainerator2000


We had sushi at a restaurant right next to Tsukiji -- almost in it, actually, and it was fantastic: some of the best hamachi and mirugai I have ever eaten.


After the sushi, Chloe got a dreamy look on her face which lasted for several hours afterwards and was accompanied by her periodically mumbling things like "that was really good hamachi"

We continued on to see the Ginza district: Here's Kenji dancing across the street:

me in front of the mac store:

a woman in a kimono


From here, we went to the Tokyo National Museum and saw all kinds of interesting things, like the ceramics displays, a mini-display on the Ainu, many scrolls and some Harunobu ukiyo-e. They were doing a workshop on how people sealed letters back in the Shogunate days, which Chloe and Kenji participated in. Now they know how to send letters to their disciples and foot warriors in style!


After lunch at the museum restaurant and more museuming, our family friends picked us up and took us to the ningyo-cho neighborhood, where we bought 250¥ rice bowls and some cool wooden chopstick rests. Here's the chopstick rest store:
We also went to several of the stores that sell the wax and plastic displays which Japanese restaurants typically have in front of them (go to Japan town in San Francisco if you haven't seen them before). They're extremely expensive, but usually amazingly real looking. Here are some selections:









From here it was a trip to the overrun but interesting Asakusa district and Sensoji temple.

They sold pudding along the way in a format that I haven't seen before:


Chloe got a headache at this point, and unfortunately we had to cut our dinner short at a monja-yaki place in Tsukushima, which was a shame, because we were about to get yaki-Ramen when Chloe got REALLY sick.



After Chloe was dropped off at the hotel, I headed out with Kozo to Shinjuku to check out the prices on a camera I had been eyeing to replace our Sony T3. Yodobashi had it for $50 cheaper than in the states, so I picked one up, and it will probably be where most of the shots on this blog come from, from now on. So far the blog has been produced on two digital cameras: the Canon Powershot G2 and the T3. The camera (Canon powershot 640) has so far been wonderful, and it's hard to beat 10 mexapixels and a lot of nice manual controls for less than $300.