Day 4 in Tokyo: It's fishy!

Day 4 in Tokyo:

Although it was cloudy today, there was no rain, so up I got at the crack of dawn and headed to Tsukiji. The place was huge (think about twice the size of a large Target or Wal-mart, but twice as crowded and with fish!) and had row upon row upon row of all things that grow in the sea. Probably the coolest thing was the live octopi, the second coolest thing the bivalves that were about the size of dinner plates, and third coolest thing the half-tunas that I saw being butchered (if they come in frozen the butcher uses a jigsaw to cut it apart). Other things I saw, in no particular order: clams the size of my thumbnail, crabs with spikes, sea urchins, red snappers, flounder, eels, live and dead, baby octopi, squid, shrimp the length of my hand, dried shrimp less than a centimeter long, little normal crabs, live scallops, giant oysters, a mountain of Styrofoam, frozen fish large and small, a guy going at the fish with a pickaxe, tuna coffins (the boxes tuna are shipped in), and that’s the highlights of Tsukiji. If you want more info on it, I would recommend Prof. Bestor’s book aptly titled Tsukiji. He’s the world’s foremost academic expert on the place.

After the market I went to grab a sushi breakfast, which was fun. I somehow ended up at another empty place, but ordered the chef’s plate. I was watching the sushi chef prepare my fish when all of a sudden a plate was put in front of me. It was uni, but not the short, brown eel on rice that you get at American places. No no, this was a normal sized piece of sushi rice with an 8-inch fillet placed on top with sauce. It was sooo good. I learned you shouldn’t eat sushi with your hands, no matter what the New York Times suggests (one of the chefs made a face when he saw me starting to eat one piece with my hands) and that I really dislike sea urchin. Raw scallop doesn’t taste like much, I would stick with the cooked scallop, and with fresh sushi you can really tell how each fish tastes different.

So by the time I finished with all this I had been up for about four hours and had a killer headache. I noticed a hospital was nearby and so found a pharmacy and used my guidebook phrase "watashi wa kozu ga arimasu" or, "I have a headache". I then asked for asupurin, and the lady said something which I didn’t understand and asked me to stand there and wait (or something like that, I don’t really know, but the point was I stood and waited). A few minutes later someone else came by who spoke English, and she showed me the choice of medicines. One was acetaminophen, and the other two were mysteries. I picked the one with the name that sounded closest to ibuprofen (I think it was Borufen or something like that) and followed the instructions to take two. Well I really don’t know what was in there, but either I was really happy to be rid of the headache or the meds made me really giddy.

So by the time I got to my next stop, the imperial palace, I was cheerful and energetic again. Of course, per my luck, the east imperial gardens are closed on Fridays, so I needed something else to do. I decided to head to Akihabara, or the electric city, just to check it out as it was the closest thing on the map and I didn’t want to do more subway riding.

However on the way over I got pretty tired, so I stopped in a Starbucks for a java-chip frap and to have a seat and just chill for a little. This was in the middle of the financial district of Tokyo and at lunchtime. What I noticed was in the comfy chairs next to me suit-toting men would have half their drink and then tilt their heads back for a ten or fifteen minute shut-eye. When in Rome, I said, and so after finishing my drink (I didn’t want it to melt) I took myself a good fifteen minute nap. When I came to I was feeling much refreshed, and headed over to Akihabara.

Akihabara is a lot like Zhongguancun in Beijing, just shop after shop after shop filled with all things electronic. The Tsukiji of computer geeks, if I may. I picked up a pair of headphones and a few presents for people (all non-electronic related, actually), and was unabashedly hit on by a salesman. This guy was from Africa and began hitting on me the instant I entered the store. He then stopped me to have a conversation, and twenty minutes later somehow found he during his break for a drink. We sat and made small talk for an hour, he couldn’t believe that in Tokyo I would want to spend a lot of time at museums instead of discos, and gave me his number for me to call tomorrow night if I want to go out. I doubt I will, but thanks anyway.

Other than that I grabbed tempura for dinner and a crepe with custard filling for desert, and came back to the hotel. Somehow that managed to fill up a 12 hour day, but I’m okay with that as I don’t have much left that I really want to do in Tokyo. Tomorrow I hope to go to one more temple and attend the Asakusa Samba festival, because how often are you in Japan the same weekend as an international Samba festival? I figured why not. If that falls through I may try to get out to the Tokyo countryside for the day, but we’ll see. Tomorrow is my last day, however, and then Sunday I spend a whole lot of time getting back to America. That is not going to be a fun trip.