mardi, novembre 16, 2004 Ohiyo! Genki desuka? (Basically "hey there, how you doing?")I'm aching all over - I managed to get up at 4am this morning to head down to Tsukiji Wholesale Market, whose main star is tuna - lots and lots of huge, humongous TUNA FISH. Like this:
This isn't from my collection, I'll post those up once I've gotten them downloaded into my computer. The fish are scary! They're HUGE! I'm sure I've told this story to a lot of my friends already - up until about JC, I always thought that tuna was the same size as sardines! Yes, it was because they were stacked side-by-side in the supermarket, in cans - sardines, tuna. So (naturally) I assumed that they were the same size. Someone asked me why didn't I ask why the tuna wasn't put into the cans like the sardines were - you know, packed like sardines - and I answered - it just never occured to me to ask. Talk about being a mountain tortoise.The fish are so fresh that a couple of clams squirted me with water as they were pissed off at being caught, I saw an octupus undulate and try to squirm its way out of its net, and I saw live puffer fish! Not many around, but present nonetheless. Yes, I had sushi for breakfast, but it was leftover from the previous night's dinner, and not fresh from the market - mainly because I was alone and wouldn't know how to order, plus I don't eat raw fish (pity, yes I know), and the market isn't exactly the most friendly-to-tourist nor navigable place on earth. I didn't know where the auction action hangars were until I stumbled upon them accidentally. Due to another unfortunate train mishap - I didn't understand that the train I was on at 5am was changing lines at station Yoyogi, or something like that, so I took a train about 4 to 5 stops over the changeover station, and finally reached Tsukiji at the late, late hour of 630am - and I still had to ask for directions. Normally I don't need to, but today I was kind of in a hurry to get to the fish before all the action was over, so I copped out and asked a storekeeper where the market was. After Tsukiji, it was time to... spend 1.5 hours doing nothing but wait for the Hama-Rikyu Park to be open at 9am. I decided to find a toilet, and spent the next hour looking for one. To be precise, I was looking for McDonald's which had a huge billboard somewhere over the bridges. After an hour of searching, I had walked to another metro station (that far), and found two toilets, one Porche headquarters, and no McDonald's. Where are these yellow-and-red eyesores when you need Into Hama-Rikyu Park, and a couple dozen timer-controlled shots later, I was waiting for the river taxi (boat lah) to bring me north, past 13 bridges, to Asakusa, where Sensoji Temple and the long shopping street called Nakamise Dori is. The company which operates this river taxi has some strange boats - there's one which looks like it's made out of bubbles, and seems like it could have come straight out of a Captain Planet episode. I bought a paper umbrella at about SGD$10 - total steal! - for my church camp for kids - it's all red, so I think I'm going to colour it or paint it with flowers or something. Working holiday! I then went to Ueno, where a great park used now for people to catch the cherry blossoms bloom is. Inside the Ueno Park is the Tokyo National Museum, where I spent the rest of my time - it chronicles the history of Japan through revolving exhibits, and it was quite insightful. Plenty of traditional kimonos, Noh and Kabuki costumes, and warrior battle armour. By the time I finished the Tokyo National Museum, it was time to return home for a good long hot shower. And that's all I can blog tonight. You try waking up at 4 and see how you'll feel at 2230hrs that night. [ETA - Yep, I'm using Frommers, only because the NLB didn't have a free copy of Japan/Tokyo's Lonely Planet.] [Tokyo, Japan: Day 5] |
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