Asakusa

Cammie and I packed up and moved to a different hotel or hostel today located in Asakusa.  This is a cute part of Tokyo and said to be the old part of town.  We took a stoll through the Senso-ji temple in which the little shops surrounding the outside is more fun than the actual temple.  The mainly sell souvenirs and food.   

This guy is making fresh rice crackers.  Yum yum.  I've never tried rice crackers freshly made and they were so delish!

I was fascinated with this orange tree on the temple grounds.  Seriously, look at the size and perfection of those oranges.  Its not like we're in California where there is sun a plenty! 

Me in front of Senso-ji Temple.

I didn't know what these were, but they looked delicious.  Each lolly-pop has a piece of fruit in the middle and they are wrapped in some sort of gel or sugar and kept on a block of ice. 

The temple grounds were packed full of people.  You never really get used to how little space you don't have. Everyone is running into you at all times and you shuffle your feet everywhere you go because the crowd doesn't move fast enough.  We made a visit to Shibuya Crossing tonight which is said to be the busiest pedestrian crossing road in the world.  When the green light hits you can walk across the street in any direction you choose, even diagonal.  

What is Pachinko?  I have been seeing Pachinko all over the place and truely don't understand this game.  There are a bunch of little metal balls falling down and its ten times louder than walking through the slot machines in Vegas.  When the doors open to walk into the pachinko parlor, a cloud of smoke bellows out and the noise sounds only like a bunch of racket, not good.  On Wikipedia it says that because gambling is illegal in Japan, the metal balls that you win are exchanged for tokens which can be exchanged for cash outside the parlor at places that are usually associated with organized crime. 

We were highly amused with the photo booths in which you take a photo and have the opportunity to decorate your picture on the computer screen with a pen all the while children's music is playing.

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The Tsukiji Fish Market

Getting up at the crack of dawn to experience the largest fish market in the world is definitely worth the pain.  I wouldn't really say that this is the place for any tourist to be, considering the danger of getting ran over by a forklift (or auto carts) while workers with big knives and table saws are slicing the morning's catch, but it is an experience not to be missed.

The market was just so very busy.  Some workers were very happy and welcoming to us tourists, but others were the "bah-hum-bug" type who were annoyed at the fact that we were there solely to take pictures and not to purchase anything.  Of course who's to blame them?  Never the less, I snapped a ton of photos of the interesting seafood that is the staple of Japanese cuisine. 

I always wondered what scallops looked like, I've only seen them on my plate at restaurants. These are the biggest of them all...

This has got to be the biggest tuna I've ever seen in my life.

I don't know I thought they were kinda cute.

There was a small fruits and vegetables quarter with produce that looked like the wax kind you would buy for the kitchen table.  They were so perfect and fresh looking.  And so big! Apples, tomatoes, strawberries, and many other products were individually wrapped.

These asparagus were the biggest ones I have ever seen in my life!

The best part about the Tsukiji Fish Market are the places to eat where they will serve you the seafood you just went to look at.  For this traditional Japanese breakfast, you have to get to the food shops before 7:30 am or the waiting line to eat will be wrapped around the sidewalk.  There are many shops to choose from and they are all decently priced with essentially the same thing: sashimi, shrimp, scallops, uni, rice, miso soup, and hot ocha (tea).   (We went for round two the next day because the fish was so fresh and nothing like you have ever tasted before.)  

This is the line to the shop we ate at. You can see the pictures of all the order choices displayed on the window. 

The shops are very small and only tend to seat about 10 people seated around a bar.    

The rest of the day we walked around Tokyo exploring all the weird and wacky things to love about the city.  Namja Town home of Gyoza Stadium and Ice Cream City was an interesting adventure with an ice cream cup museum and over 20 different ways to eat gyoza.  Cheese gyoza is definitely something I'm going to try to cook when I get home.

The one thing about the Japanese I noticed right away is their need for presentation.  Ice cream cones are not just ice cream cones, as Cammie displays her's here...

This was the photo op of the day: At Ropponggi Hills

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Back to my Roots!

It is Tuesday morning, and it is my first day in Tokyo.  I arrived yesterday somewhat disorientated since I was up for almost 2 days straight.  I failed to sleep much on the place due to the fact that the cabin temperature was an exhausting 80 degrees.  I was looking around to see if any of the other passengers seemed to notice the heat, but the ladies and gentlemen were wearing long sleeved shirts and looked perfectly comfortable.  This would never fly in America.

I am staying at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel.  Nice cozy room.  I have to laugh when I get a toilet that has a heated seat and more features on it than any appliance in my home.  When you sit down, the seat is always heated and it makes electronic sounds of water running.  I guess I will save people from knowing when I take a poo.
 

Well I'm off for my first exciting day.... I'll post tonight some pictures....

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