So my guide Izumi (another man) met me at 8:00 a.m. sharp to take me to a few sites I had not seen in Tokyo. (Yes, there are thousands of sites to see in Tokyo, but my list started with top sites). Anyway, first up was the Tsukiji Market, which used to be the main fish market in Tokyo, but has since moved to a larger location. Today, the Tsukiji Market is now filled with vendors selling every kind of food you can imagine, including seafood. In addition, and across from the main market is a smaller commercial fish market where chefs go to buy their seafood for the day.
So we took the subway to the market and walked up and down more stairs than I could count, before reaching our destination at just about 8:30. There were four main alleys in the market going north and south and a couple of alleys cutting across the north and south alleys. Obviously, we were not going to cover the whole market, but I wanted to see at least one market in Tokyo so here I was.
We started out by wandering down the second primary alley where we saw lots of vendors selling strawberries (although I did not see any of the tiny strawberries like I saw the day before). We then encountered something I had not seen before: vegetables pickled in rice mold. Yes, you read that right. (The Japanese love, love, love their pickled foods.). Apparently, the mold is introduced to the rice, which changes the character of the rice and is used to initiate fermentation. Sounds like a health hazard to me, but Izumi assured me it was perfectly safe. OK then.
As we walked, we passed lots of wagu beef stands as well as numerous seafood stalls with all the vendors ready to cook up any selection for your morning breakfast. We then passed a produce stand that was selling raw wasabi root and another vendor selling rice balls covered in a sweetened soy sauced (they appeared to be very popular).
After reaching the end of the alley, we crossed the street and entered the Tsukiji Nippon Fish Market, which is where the old tuna auctions used to be held prior to moving to a large space. The site is now used for smaller commercial sales and as we walked around, we saw a number of chefs touching and smelling the seafood.
Once we left the building, we crossed the street and stopped at the tiny Yaminoke Inari Shrine, which is a shrine worshipped by the locals in Tsukiji for safe voyage, averting misfortune and achieving good luck. Now the cool thing about this shrine is that they have an annual festival in which lions’ heads are paraded through the streets. Two lions heads dating to 1848 still exist and were on display at the shrine. Best part of the shrine for me.
After the quick stop at the shrine, we moved on back through one of the diagonal alleys in Tsukiji Market (now running into crowds of folks), but the most interesting thing I saw as we walked was one of those conveyor belt sushi restaurants. Izumi said they make the sushi early, put the sushi on the conveyor belt before opening and that is why the sushi is sold at cheap prices (i.e. not the freshest). I wasn’t planning to eat there, but it was interesting.
Anyway, we made our way out of the market and back onto the subway headed for Asakusa and the Sensoji Temple. The temple is one of the top three religious sites in Tokyo. Legend has it that in 628 two brothers found at statute of Kannon, the goddess of mercy in the Sumida River. They kept putting the statute back in the river, but it always returned. As a result, the original Sensoji Temple was built as a dedication to the goddess Kannon in 645 and has been reconstructed numerous times.
The temple consists of an outer gate called the Thunder Gate, which is followed by what I can only describe as one huge tourist trap, Nakamise Street, at 200 meters long selling every kind of made in China trinket you can imagine (although there were, what appeared to be some good food vendors). The shopping area has apparently been there for centuries.
At the end of Nakamise Street was Hozomon Gate and then behind this second gate was the temple’s main hall and a a five storied pagoda. We had bypassed Nakamise Street entering the temple are through a side street and then under the Hozmonon Gate to the front of the pagoda and the temple’s main hall. The pagoda was gorgeous, but the front of the main hall was packed with tourists and an awful lot of incense burning (made me cough).
Now just as we arrived inside the main hall, the head monk was starting mid morning prayers, which included a lot of chanting, bell ringing and reciting the Sutra (a prayer). And while this was fine and all, I was more consumed by the gorgeous ceiling, which featured fabulous paintings, including a dragon.
Izumi and I hung around for a bit in the main hall and then called it good. We then walked down the stairs and took in a couple of old statutes on the grounds, including a 1761 miniature pagoda before paying 100 yen to have my fortunate told to me (I will have good fortune). We then passed by the Sensoji Shrine (dedicated to the two men who found the Kammon statute) before exciting the site.
We then, sadly, walked amongst the throngs down Nakamise Street. Now for some reason Izumi thought this would interest me … it did not and despite me showing zero interest, Izumi kept pointing out every little food shop, fan store, t-shirt shop, cat statute and on and on. He finally caught on that this was of zero interest to me so we cut down a street, walked multiple blocks to the subway and headed to the Imperial Palace where we were going to take in the Imperial Palace East Garden. Problem was when we reached the palace garden entrance, the line was a mile long as they were checking every bag on every person.
Izumi suggested we walk to the north gate and enter from the back side so ten minutes later and zero line, we were strolling through the gate to the gardens and past the enormous palace stone walls. Now the gardens were lovely, but I wouldn’t describe them as spectacular. There was a beautiful tea house and a grove of “in full bloom” azaleas in multiple colours, a koi pond (of course) and lots and lots of pine trees (which are believed to promote longevity). However, there was nothing here that really said “hey this is the residence of the emperor, how do you like my fabulous gardens”.
Anyway, it was now approaching noon so we wrapped up the walk through the gardens and walked about ten minutes down the street to my hotel. I had just enough time to clean up and rush downstairs to meet Mr. & Mrs. Nagasaka, folks I have known for 30 plus years who live in Tokyo. Mr. Nagasaka was involved in some business ventures with friends back home and we travelled to Mexico with the Nagasakas on a few occasions.
And, of course, right at 12:30 the Nagasakas appear, and of course brought me gifts to take home to everyone. Fortunately, I had picked up some chocolate in Australia that I intended to give to Mr. & Mrs. Nagasaka so I was prepared.
After hugs and some discussion (Mrs. Nagasaka speaks limited English and while Mr. Nagasaka understands English, he rarely, if ever speaks it), we set out in a cab for Ginza. Ten minutes later we were walking down the street and Mrs. Nagasaka was pointing out a building that Mr. Nagasaka was in charge of constructing. It was awesome to see.
We took a quick walk through the building and then headed down the street to another high rise. (Mr. Nagasaka had some health issues over the past couple years, but I had to almost run to keep up with him as he walked down the street.). Once at the second building, we took the elevator to the ninth floor and then up the escalator a number of floors to a tempura restaurant, where we proceeded to have a chef stand in front of us and make us the most fabulous meal including salad, miso soup, tempura seafood, tempura vegetables, radish root shavings (actually very good) and of course, sake (although Mr. & Mrs. Nagasaka had a beer) and then green tea.
Throughout the lunch, we caught up. Mrs. Nagasaka brought out old pictures from our trips to Mexico, including the massive marlin that was caught on one of the trips. I brought Mrs. & Mrs. Nagasaka up to speed on everyone back home (Denice, Tim, Rik, Sandra, Donelle, Mike, Nick, Brooklyn) and I heard all about their two boys and their families. It was a fabulous afternoon that passed all too quickly.
By 3:00, we were back in the cab heading to my hotel. I was really sad to say goodbye. Not sure when I will see them again. Just incredibly kind, lovely people.
And if all this weren’t enough, I still had an evening food tour. Now the biggest hurdle for the food tour was tackling Shinjuku Station (the closest station to our meeting point). This place is massive and sees 3.5 million people pass through each day. Now I knew how to get to Shinjuku Station from Tokyo Station, but finding my way out of the station was a problem. Three security guards later, I finally find the exit and the meeting point.
By 6:00, Anne our guide had corralled three folks from Minnesota, two from Seattle and me and we set off to the entertainment side of Shinjuku. We headed down an alley where numerous open air (i.e. no doors) restaurants were located with an array of foods being cooked. We then exited and walked smack dab into the lights and nonstop advertisements from the flashing signs, which is what you often see on TV when Tokyo is mentioned.
There was a mass of humanity, every kind of bar and restaurant imaginable and, of course, lots and lots of noise. We passed the massive Godzilla head that the area is known for before crossing down an alley to another street where we went upstairs to a sushi restaurant.
Once seated, the sushi was brought out and it was fabulous. Fresh tuna, soy tuna, herring, white fish, shrimp, and on and on. The fish was fresh and absolutely delicious. (And it was not so loud in the restaurant.)
From here, we walked back out into the noise and down the street to what sounded like a concert. Once we rounded the corner, we ran right into a massive crowd of people watching some girl band do their thing. And judging from the size of the crowd and the way the crowd sang along, the band is quite popular (Anne, however, did not know who they were).
We then made our way into some kind of entertainment hall where young people were playing numerous video games. In addition, there were all these machines with “collectibles” in them that the young Japanese kids waste tons of money on. Anne kept trying to explain it to us, but the over 50 crowd did not get it.
Eventually we went up the elevator to the 17th floor for some nice views of Tokyo (although I am on the 30th floor of my hotel so, quite frankly, my view as better and the windows on the 17th were a bit dirty). We then went back downstairs past the concert and down another alley to restaurant where we were served miso soup and 4 different cuts of Kobe beef, which we grilled up on the little hibachi on our table. The meat was absolutely incredible. (Not sure how I can ever go back to USDA again.)
We then wrapped up the evening by doubling back to the area we started from and hitting a bar for dessert. I opted for the macha iced tea and chocolate, while the others went for sake.
By 9:30, we were all headed back to the nightmare that is the Shinjuku Station. Fortunately for me, Anne was taking the same train line I had to take so Anne pointed the others in the direction they needed to go, while I had an escort all the way to the train line. Yay! By 10:00, I was back at the hotel, absolutely exhausted from the loooooong day. Tomorrow? A two hour train ride each way to Nikko to see one of the most famous temples in Japan.