Japan, Day 2
Hotel Yanagibasi was about what you might expect from a Japanese hotel - a tiny room (relative to the US, anyway), basic amenities like a desk, clock, and wired internet, the essential air conditioner, and a futuristic toilet. I didn't get much time to enjoy it, though - our plans for Monday called for a ridiculously early start, and I had to get up around 4 AM.
The reason for the early start was to see Tsukiji fish market, where tuna are auctioned off to wholesalers. There's also a nearby market, mostly restaurants and small shops. The tuna auction begins before the subways are running, so we had to take a taxi to get there. Fortunately, due to timezone differences, getting up at 4 AM was easy.
Taxis in Japan are weird. The cabbies are dressed nicely (ours had a suit and gloves, though I would later see this was an extreme) and the passenger door automatically opens and closes. And of course, like every other car in Japan, the driver and passenger are switched - E tried going around to the "passenger" side and we laughed as he found an unexpected steering wheel.
The tuna auction has strict attendance limits - only 120 visitors are allowed in per day, and we were pretty close - I was 106, and some latecomers were turned away. Waiting in line was not only a little boring, it was uncomfortable - mosquitoes munched on my left leg (and oddly, only *my* *left* leg - my right leg was fine, as was everyone else). Travel tip of the day: Have insect repellent!
Eventually, we got our neon-green visitor vests and got to observe the auction. Maybe I had a wrong sense of scale from seeing pictures beforehand, but I was expecting something like a semicircular lecture-room style auction house, maybe with an overhead viewing corridor. Instead, the auction we got to see was in a warehouse, with buyers moving among giant frozen tuna, and occasionally gathering around an auctioneer who noisily rattled off the fish. (What I assume were) tissue samples were laid out on a table for buyers to inspect.
After time was up and we were shooed out of the auction area, we headed over to Sushi Dai for breakfast. Sushi Dai is one of the small restaurants in the fish market, with a seating capacity of only maybe 10-15 people. Along the way, we had to dodge numerous carts zipping around the market, some laden with fish or boxes, others just getting their riders from place to place. The carts had an interesting construction - the engine, front wheel, and any other interesting bits were contained in a large cylinder at the front of the cart, and this cylinder was rotated to steer. The rest of the cart was simply a cargo area and two wheels.
The line for Sushi Dai was insanely long; we ended up waiting over two and a half hours. We alternated waiting in line and exploring the surrounding market, but I didn't see anything super interesting to a tourist; it was mostly practical stuff like cooking utensils and packaging/serving materials, and many small restaurants.
The sushi itself was excellent. At about $50 per person for the chef's special, it better be; this was our splurge meal of the trip. Everything just melted in my mouth, the miso soup had fish (and bones) in it, and the clam(?) was served with a neat (disturbing?) trick. Just before placing it in front of you, the chef slapped the clam and painted it with some sort of sauce (I assume that caused the tissue to contract) so that it slowly curled up a bit over the course of about 2 seconds, giving the illusion that it was still alive. Other pieces included tuna, saury, snapper, sea urchin, roe, eel, and a bunch I don't remember the name of. Most of the meal is whatever the chef selects, but the last piece you get to choose - I went with Japanese salmon, which hadn't been part of the set. It was good too, but I think I would have preferred the (currently in season) saury.
Although Sushi Dai was really good and filling, I don't know if it was worth the incredibly long wait (also remember it was uncomfortably humid, and eventually warm). Most of the neighboring restaurants had no line at all, and slightly more reasonable prices, so I would have been curious to see how they stack up. If you do go, be sure to bring something to keep yourself occupied.
It was about 10 at this point, and although most of the time had been waiting in lines, we felt like we had already finished an entire day's worth of sightseeing. Still, we carried on to Shibuya for a picture with the statue of Hachiko and then to Harujuku for some window shopping. I picked up some small rubber animal miniatures for possible use as game pieces.
E and B subscribe to the belief that vacations are for eating large amounts of food. Around noon, we stopped for lunch at Coco Ichibanya, a curry chain with a customizable menu. You specify an amount of rice (from 200g to 600g), type of sauce (pork/beef), toppings, and spice level. I was still stuffed from breakfast and only barely finished a small order, but surprisingly, E was still hungry and easily polished off his order.
After that was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, where we went up to the 45th floor, got to see a nice view of Tokyo, and rested for a bit.
Our plans had included a low-priority todo of finding a Uniqlo store, which carries a range of quick drying (and suitable for local weather) clothes. This had already been on our list of things to do if we happened across one, but finding one was bumped up the priority list due to the humidity. I'm not sure about what E and B packed, but I only had one pair of shorts and I'd rather wear it for 8 days in a row than try to get though a day in Japan wearing the cargos which made up the majority of my packed pants.
Anyway, we had to ask for directions at a koban. The officer spoke little English, and didn't know where Uniqlo was, but instead of dismissing us, he actually called somewhere (the main office? an operator?), got directions, and showed us on a map. They're super helpful.
Unfortunately, Uniqlo failed to have anything appropriate, as most of the stock seemed oriented towards the upcoming colder fall weather.
Dinner was at 5 at a small ramen shop, Fuunji. A line assembles before opening, but we knew this would happen and wanted to avoid the morning's wait (which easily seemed like yesterday by now), and got there early enough to barely get in the initial seating. Like the previous dinner, Fuunji had a meal ticket vending machine, though with only 4 choices. The catch was that there was no English menu we could see and there was a line waiting behind us. Pattern matching suggested that whatever 2 and 4 were was similar to 1 and 3, respectively; the price difference suggested it was a combo or deluxe version. Most people before us had gotten #3, which E and B went with; I got #1 for variety and because my meager Japanese knowledge suggested it was simply ramen.
The chefs asked us something about big vs small, but didn't speak English so it wasn't clear exactly what they were asking. Unthinkingly, we all chose big; in retrospect, this was probably a poor choice - we were still pretty full from earlier. The resulting orders were pretty big, and we struggled through all the food. One thing to keep in mind about Fuunji is that it's about the same size as Sushi Dai, only seating about 15 people. However, instead of having the line wait outside, here the waiting people stood behind the diners, literally watching over our shoulders. The pressure to finish eating and clear space was mounting, especially as the other people in the first seating batch finished and left, making the choice for big whatever doubly dubious. In all, I think that was one of the fastest dinners I've eaten at a restaurant.
E and B were done for the day, but I had a little more I wanted to do. I went back to Akihabara to soak up the atmosphere a bit more and look around, but had only finished walking through a few stores when I noticed they were closing. Apparently around 8-9 PM is a common closing time, much earlier than I would have expected. Sadly, no new manga that day.
The reason for the early start was to see Tsukiji fish market, where tuna are auctioned off to wholesalers. There's also a nearby market, mostly restaurants and small shops. The tuna auction begins before the subways are running, so we had to take a taxi to get there. Fortunately, due to timezone differences, getting up at 4 AM was easy.
Taxis in Japan are weird. The cabbies are dressed nicely (ours had a suit and gloves, though I would later see this was an extreme) and the passenger door automatically opens and closes. And of course, like every other car in Japan, the driver and passenger are switched - E tried going around to the "passenger" side and we laughed as he found an unexpected steering wheel.
The tuna auction has strict attendance limits - only 120 visitors are allowed in per day, and we were pretty close - I was 106, and some latecomers were turned away. Waiting in line was not only a little boring, it was uncomfortable - mosquitoes munched on my left leg (and oddly, only *my* *left* leg - my right leg was fine, as was everyone else). Travel tip of the day: Have insect repellent!
Eventually, we got our neon-green visitor vests and got to observe the auction. Maybe I had a wrong sense of scale from seeing pictures beforehand, but I was expecting something like a semicircular lecture-room style auction house, maybe with an overhead viewing corridor. Instead, the auction we got to see was in a warehouse, with buyers moving among giant frozen tuna, and occasionally gathering around an auctioneer who noisily rattled off the fish. (What I assume were) tissue samples were laid out on a table for buyers to inspect.
After time was up and we were shooed out of the auction area, we headed over to Sushi Dai for breakfast. Sushi Dai is one of the small restaurants in the fish market, with a seating capacity of only maybe 10-15 people. Along the way, we had to dodge numerous carts zipping around the market, some laden with fish or boxes, others just getting their riders from place to place. The carts had an interesting construction - the engine, front wheel, and any other interesting bits were contained in a large cylinder at the front of the cart, and this cylinder was rotated to steer. The rest of the cart was simply a cargo area and two wheels.
The line for Sushi Dai was insanely long; we ended up waiting over two and a half hours. We alternated waiting in line and exploring the surrounding market, but I didn't see anything super interesting to a tourist; it was mostly practical stuff like cooking utensils and packaging/serving materials, and many small restaurants.
The sushi itself was excellent. At about $50 per person for the chef's special, it better be; this was our splurge meal of the trip. Everything just melted in my mouth, the miso soup had fish (and bones) in it, and the clam(?) was served with a neat (disturbing?) trick. Just before placing it in front of you, the chef slapped the clam and painted it with some sort of sauce (I assume that caused the tissue to contract) so that it slowly curled up a bit over the course of about 2 seconds, giving the illusion that it was still alive. Other pieces included tuna, saury, snapper, sea urchin, roe, eel, and a bunch I don't remember the name of. Most of the meal is whatever the chef selects, but the last piece you get to choose - I went with Japanese salmon, which hadn't been part of the set. It was good too, but I think I would have preferred the (currently in season) saury.
Although Sushi Dai was really good and filling, I don't know if it was worth the incredibly long wait (also remember it was uncomfortably humid, and eventually warm). Most of the neighboring restaurants had no line at all, and slightly more reasonable prices, so I would have been curious to see how they stack up. If you do go, be sure to bring something to keep yourself occupied.
It was about 10 at this point, and although most of the time had been waiting in lines, we felt like we had already finished an entire day's worth of sightseeing. Still, we carried on to Shibuya for a picture with the statue of Hachiko and then to Harujuku for some window shopping. I picked up some small rubber animal miniatures for possible use as game pieces.
E and B subscribe to the belief that vacations are for eating large amounts of food. Around noon, we stopped for lunch at Coco Ichibanya, a curry chain with a customizable menu. You specify an amount of rice (from 200g to 600g), type of sauce (pork/beef), toppings, and spice level. I was still stuffed from breakfast and only barely finished a small order, but surprisingly, E was still hungry and easily polished off his order.
After that was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, where we went up to the 45th floor, got to see a nice view of Tokyo, and rested for a bit.
Our plans had included a low-priority todo of finding a Uniqlo store, which carries a range of quick drying (and suitable for local weather) clothes. This had already been on our list of things to do if we happened across one, but finding one was bumped up the priority list due to the humidity. I'm not sure about what E and B packed, but I only had one pair of shorts and I'd rather wear it for 8 days in a row than try to get though a day in Japan wearing the cargos which made up the majority of my packed pants.
Anyway, we had to ask for directions at a koban. The officer spoke little English, and didn't know where Uniqlo was, but instead of dismissing us, he actually called somewhere (the main office? an operator?), got directions, and showed us on a map. They're super helpful.
Unfortunately, Uniqlo failed to have anything appropriate, as most of the stock seemed oriented towards the upcoming colder fall weather.
Dinner was at 5 at a small ramen shop, Fuunji. A line assembles before opening, but we knew this would happen and wanted to avoid the morning's wait (which easily seemed like yesterday by now), and got there early enough to barely get in the initial seating. Like the previous dinner, Fuunji had a meal ticket vending machine, though with only 4 choices. The catch was that there was no English menu we could see and there was a line waiting behind us. Pattern matching suggested that whatever 2 and 4 were was similar to 1 and 3, respectively; the price difference suggested it was a combo or deluxe version. Most people before us had gotten #3, which E and B went with; I got #1 for variety and because my meager Japanese knowledge suggested it was simply ramen.
The chefs asked us something about big vs small, but didn't speak English so it wasn't clear exactly what they were asking. Unthinkingly, we all chose big; in retrospect, this was probably a poor choice - we were still pretty full from earlier. The resulting orders were pretty big, and we struggled through all the food. One thing to keep in mind about Fuunji is that it's about the same size as Sushi Dai, only seating about 15 people. However, instead of having the line wait outside, here the waiting people stood behind the diners, literally watching over our shoulders. The pressure to finish eating and clear space was mounting, especially as the other people in the first seating batch finished and left, making the choice for big whatever doubly dubious. In all, I think that was one of the fastest dinners I've eaten at a restaurant.
E and B were done for the day, but I had a little more I wanted to do. I went back to Akihabara to soak up the atmosphere a bit more and look around, but had only finished walking through a few stores when I noticed they were closing. Apparently around 8-9 PM is a common closing time, much earlier than I would have expected. Sadly, no new manga that day.