Day 13: Tokyo + Yokohama

I was quite saddened to read that they had closed off the early morning Tsukiji auctions to tourists starting from just a few months ago. Being the good tourists that we are, we didn't act against the officially posted info. I wonder if maybe we could have just pretended we didn't know. "Well, the guidebook said..." The 'off-limits' probably just reduces the crowd because there are good tourists like us. I bet if we went... no no, must be good tourist. Stupid bad tourists... touching the fish, some even hugging them or sitting on them (??!??)... kills it for the rest of us.

Anyways, we did wake up extra early though. No auctions, but 5:30am wake-up to get to Tsukiji at 6:40am to see the surrounding morning craziness. Lots of trucks zipping by here and there, carrying boxes and boxes of fish.

People going about their daily business. Wet floors. Lots of seafood, mostly fish. It was interesting to see the contrast with Busan's Jagalchi fish market.

Some sawing of huge tuna every now and then...


We were going to meet H at 7:30 for morning tuna. The meeting point was "next to the bridge to the market, on the market side" (my words after reading about Tsukiji layout), but when we actually got there, I confused the entrances. After a while, we figured we were waiting at the wrong place, but what to do? A guy talking on his cellphone gave me the idea to ask him to borrow his cell. But when I finally figured out how I was going to ask in Japanese, he had left. Grrr. I ended up asking someone else, who graciously let me put a quick call to H. After thanking him profusely and him continuing on his merry way, I realized 'hmmm... was that an international call?' (He was Caucasian.) Oh well. H came and met us ^o^

H took us to a small one-man sushi shop with yummy yummy tuna. There was even a cooked tuna dish for K (^o^). One thing I didn't expect... food vending machine (!), especially perfect for a small place like this =) After the meal, we parted with H, with a possible chance of moving to his place for part of our Tokyo stay ^o^ (if our hotel lets us checkout early).

Back at the hotel, we ask about checking out early and they say we have to give two days notice, so we'll be staying at H's starting Sunday night ^o^


Ueno park. We totally didn't expect the pond to be so green. It's just the leaves now, but I imagine it must be gorgeous in spring/summer!


Shibuya. The busiest intersection of the world. When the movies show Tokyo with all these people crossing the street, this is the intersection they show.

We were actually here to visit T at the G-Tokyo office. Totally unexpectedly, four other engineers from the MV office [who K knows] are here today!

The lunch food was pretty good (but I generally like G-food hehe). A major highlight [for me] was the snacks and drinks! Japanese snacks and drinks! Free, of course. And since this is Japan, the free drinks are in vending machines, of course.

Train to Yokohama. Cool surpise for us -- Pokemon isn't dead in Japan! And so many Pokemon we didn't even recognize! The store was awesome, selling just about everything you can think of, including food.



It wasn't just the store either... there was a big Pokemon balloon hanging in the mall! Makes me wonder what Neopets goodies would be here if they'd been based in Japan.


Pokemon's Japanese, but Snoopy? Too cute!

Yokohama Chinatown. They even have sample Chinese food. Ah, Japan. The food here was kind of expensive though, that is, in terms of how much one expects to pay for Chinese food based on prices in the States (~$10 for 3 buns? Cute, but still...). We were planning to go to the Ramen Museum, so we didn't eat anything in Chinatown. K said this Chinatown was even cleaner than the one in Singapore. I still think Singapore is the cleanest one I've seen, but Yokohama is certainly a very close runner-up.

Ramen Museum. The exhibit was in Japanese, so we couldn't trace the history of ramen. K got a spicy ramen; I got a more mild one. I guess it's nice to visit once, but actually, ramen's everywhere in Tokyo. The ramen was yummy, but according to one of T's co-workers (a ramen fan), the best ramen is elsewhere in Tokyo.