Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo Central Wholesale Market handled 615,409 tons (2,246 tons a day) of marine products, 498 billion yen (1.8 billion yen a day) total in 2003. Some 450 kinds of fish are received; this figure is unparalleled in the world. Marine products sections are set up in three markets: Tsukiji, Ohta and Adachi. Above all Tsukiji Market, handling 89% of the total amount, is one of the biggest markets in the world. Thats alot of fish!
Tsukiji is huge! We were rushing through it and still skipped maybe a 1/3 of the actually facilities. You could easily spend 3 hours walking through the place looking at all they have to offer. Words of advice, do not wear sandals or open toed shoes. In fact, I would recommend boots. They are filleting fish as you walk through, and on more then one occasion you’ll get sprayed by fish juices.
It’s best to go in the morning time, as thats when the main hustle and bustle is going on. We went about 8ish, maybe a little late.. but good enough. Go in the morning and eat breakfast in tsukiji. Nonething like same day fish. There is a little mom and pop sushi shop called Tsukiji Sushi. Good prices and great fish, the owner even speaks a little english. Tell ‘em large marge sent ya.
My favorite:
20lb hamachi steaks… 60$ mmmmm
After tsukiji, we went to Nikko. Nikko is a 2 hour train ride north of Tokyo in Tochigiken. It is a huge complex of temples, onsens and zen schools. Most of which are dedicated to the 1st and 3rd Tokugawa shoguns. Most temples in japan are very plain, these are the complete polar opposite. Lavish and intricate in design, quite impressive, hence we took about a billion pictures.
This is definately a must see if you are in Tokyo with a day to spare.. Probably best to go in the late summer or early fall.
Ueno -
Ueno is a large park in Tokyo that is home to museums, fountains, an amusement park and homeless people. Outside of Ueno is AmeyaCho, a nice little market district where you can get things on the cheap.
Fun place to walk around. The Tokyo Metropolitan museum is also a enjoyable place to visit.
Akihabarra-
This is a must see for technoph1les. Though the prices are not cheap per say, they are a bit cheaper then most normal electronics stores in japan. But this doesn’t say much compared to Singapore or Bangkok. Anyways fun none the less. A must see if the Adult Conbini store..
7 floors of Adult pleasures, including the ubiquitus used school girl panties, flesh lights, cosplay, asian real dolls, blurred out japanese pr0n and scary looking ‘muscle’ relaxers. A good laugh, especially seeing all the old japanese men and young japanese girls in there.
Yodobashi Camera is a must. This is a chain department store with 8 floors of everything you could need. I picked up the Ghost in the Shell PSP FPS here along with watching the demos of the PS3 Metal Gear Solid. Fricking amazing!!
Roppongi-
Roppongi is the club district of Japan. Also due to all the embassies in the area, it is also gaijin capital of japan. This in addition to a huge number of Nigerian guys harassing you to go to their clubs, this area isn’t very enjoyable.
Ginza-
Ginza is the expensive shopping district. Here you find your Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani etc etc store. I think the only thing here worth seeing is the Sony Tower. Here sony has 7 floors of their latest in technology on display. Everything from cameras to there sony aibo robot overlord err dog. The 76″ LCDs with BlueRay HDDVDs playing are quite nice. No PS3 yet though, really disappointing.
Friday I met up with my aikido sensei who just recently moved to Tochigi for work. We spent the day drinking and exploring MeijiJingu Park and Harajuku. After that we went to a beer garden type place and continued to drink.
All in all it was a fun trip. Tokyo is interesting place…