Monday, March 25, 2024

One of our few days when we don’t have anything booked we managed to have a lot of fun without any time pressures.

After our normal light breakfast in the lobby (why are the grapes frozen?) we returned to our room to chat with mother over WhatsApp for about 45 minutes. She is very excited about our visit here as she loves the country so much and was anxious that Mel would love it as well (she does).

When we arrived in Tokyo a week ago one of the first things we did that first night was to visit the nearby Tsukiji market for a sushi dinner but we really did not see too much in the dark. Today we returned to have a look in the day time. Despite the rain, it was really busy with what looked to be both local and international tourists. Around the outside were small stalls selling fish-based fast food such as, yes, sushi, tempura and noodles. Of course, people were here for the fish.

The original market building is no more replaced now with several blocks of stalls. Continuing to one of the inner streets we found all manner of items on sale in addition to fresh seafood: Meat, fruit, vegetables, ice cream, knives, lots of souvenirs, pots, pans, pottery, cutlery, art…For me I was most interested in the seafood and there was a lot to see here even some unexpected items such as the giant legs of snow crab which I thought came from Alaskan and Russian waters though, thinking about it, is not that far away from here. Oysters were also a bit of a surprise as I do not really associate them with Japan.

One stall selling ice cream was doing a huge trade despite the cool and wet weather. We opted for a cone of black sesame ice cream - A favourite since we first had it in from a McDonalds street cart in Hong Kong a number of years ago. We stopped at a stall selling souvenirs where I picked up a bright yellow “Tsukiji Market” t-shirt. In another stall selling beautiful wooden Japanese houseware Mel bought a not terribly cheap natural scrub brush looking to be made out of some plant-based material (it is used in bathing for exfoliation and invigoration).

Now we had seen the site of the old market we wanted to see the new market but this involved a bit of transport so we caught the subway to Toyosu (Shin-Toyosu station) which is part of an elevated train system that provides great views of the harbour area. This is quite an industrial area with wide, busy streets with small delivery vans everywhere. Thankfully, they have built a series of side pedestrian walkways above the streets that prevents traffic chaos as there are quite a number of people around as well.

We were interested in sitting down and having something to drink. The other day we passed by in the cherry blossom tour bus and it was pointed out that there was a good selection of restaurants on the edge of the new fish market in “Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai” (https://www.toyosu-senkyakubanrai.jp/, in fact just beside the “Intermediate Fish Market”, across the street from the main fish market) but it was too early for much to be happening there, instead, we went inside where there were a small number of restaurants but no coffee shops except for a small, unassuming diner behind a set of glass doors (suggesting it was warm inside, a welcome relief from the cool damp weather). On opening the doors we immediately felt like we had stumbled on a very local place with no English in sight but we barely warranted a raised head from the regulars at the bar seating area chatting to the older lady running the cafe. We were shown to rather basic seating along the far wall and browsed the (Japanese) menu to make our choices of a coffee (Mel) and an, oddly, English tea (me) - the only tea on offer. It was quite loud and felt very much like a place where the local workers went for a cheap bit of food and drink. We were in no way made to feel unwelcome and it was an interesting experience. Sadly, the drinks were awful.

I wanted to see what we could see of the wholesale fish market itself despite knowing that the main activity occurs early in the morning (the famous big tuna auction takes place just before 6 am with spectators arriving an hour or so earlier). Following the signs for the viewing platform we walked a long way to the end of the “Intermediate Fish Market” and, entering the building, followed a corridor where there were a few displays including a set of pictures showing what fish were in season in each month of the year. Another was a diagram showing the length of one of the largest Bluefin Tuna ever caught - 288 cm (496 kg).

Mel was quite short beside it…as was everyone else! There were a series of big glass windows looking down into the dimly lit market floor itself but other than a bunch of boxes and stationary vehicles there was nothing to see.

I had also noticed some signs to a roof top garden which I thought might be interesting though I suspect there would be little in the way of plants and in this regard I was not surprised. A short lift took us onto the large roof of the building which had a stone path around the outside lined with hedges. A short walk along there was another slightly higher, massive section in the middle of the building which had large sections of lawn, again lined with hedges, surrounding large skylights and courtyards below. It was quite nice if a bit plain. I can see this being a destination for people to come to in the summer to have their picnic lunches. The views of the harbour and city…would have been great if it was not so foggy and rainy but we could still make out the amazing buildings and bridges through the haze.

Across the street from the “Toyosu Market Fisheries Intermediate Wholesale Market Building” is the main “Toyosu Wholesale Fish Market” which was quite a lot busier despite it also being largely devoid of any sales activities this time of day. We briefly stopped at the nice visitor’s centre (!) which had lots of information about how to get around the market and visit the (amazing) early morning tuna auction but it also had an interesting set of pictures showing the beginning of the Tsukiji market and the building of the new market in Toyosu. Yes, they even have a mascot (“Ichi-No”)…I am not sure what it is supposed to be but it looks a bit like a fish.

The windows looking down on the trading floors in this main market are much better than the narrow windows of the intermediate market building but they revealed much the same as what we had seen there: Lots of boxes stacked ready to be shipped, piles of pallets and unmoving forklifts. No sign of any people. QED the action is in the morning so this is the time to visit, not midday (or later). At the viewing platform there were some more interesting displays such as one showing the hand gestures used during the auction.

Since we were at the main fish market of course we wanted to have some sushi. There are a few small restaurants here, most of which were closed but there were a few still open so we joined a small queue (a good sign) for what looked to be the most interesting with lots of hand written signs and pictures.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table but were eventually shown into the tiny, crowded restaurant to two stool seats beside the chef who was preparing the food in front of us. Best seats in the house. Green tea was immediately poured and we placed our order then waited for it to arrive. I spent the time watching the chef prepare the different dishes. He was very fast and had everything to hand to quickly put together the orders, reaching to the side and behind him without looking for what he knew would be there. After a few minutes of waiting I understood which dish he was putting together based on the ingredients and how he laid out the finished sashimi and sushi. So after 20 minutes, as I watched I knew it was our order he was preparing.

Mel and I had decided that one of us would order a sushi set and the other would order a sashimi set so we could each try a bit from each other's plate. I had the “Tendon Set” (3,300 yen) and Mel had the “Nigiri Set” (2,970 yen). Each set came with a bowl of miso soup which had a bit of crab in it. The fish was largely recognizable - Prawn, tuna (my sushi included a lightly seared slice of this), salmon, mackerel, octopus and some sort of white fish. My tempura consisted of a few pieces of tempura vegetable and fish on top of a bowl of (seasoned) rice.

As we were already in the harbour area of “Koto City” I wanted to return to a favourite of mine a few stops away on the elevated subway line. This area of Tokyo is all quite new with massive, modern buildings everywhere. Everything is glass and the grey, cool look of stainless steel.

We passed by the distinctive “Fuji Television” building with its huge sphere suspended in the middle of the building connected by narrow corridors of glass and stairs. It looks like something made out of lego. We disembarked at “Odaiba-kaihinkōen Station” beside the “Decks” shopping centre (https://www.odaiba-decks.com/). The other day our cherry blossom tour bus had parked on the far side of this mall near another mall adjacent, “Aqua City Odaiba”. There are walkways above the busy streets here as well so we made our way a few streets over then returned to the ground to enter “Decks” where there was a neat display of dinosaur animatronics that kids were playing with just inside the entrance.

At the far end of the mall is “Tokyo Joypolis” which is an indoor amusement park and arcade. Here we took escalators to floor “4F” which is crammed all sorts of interesting stuff - An arcade that included some pinball games (did not do too well with a “Simpson’s” one), video games (later on our way out I played the table-top version of Galaxian and did, I have to say, reasonably well) and coin-operated gift machines. Across from the arcade there is a candy shop selling all manner of classic Japanese (and American) candies and snacks. As we made our way to the back we passed by several other amusement attractions (including a “trick museum”) and shops selling snacks and cheap souvenirs.

Eventually we reached our destination: The takoyaki museum. This was my third visit to the museum. Yes, I do like it. It is a collection of “takoyaki” (small, round deep fried dough balls with a small piece of octopus in the middle and typically dressed with mayonnaise and “benito” - tuna fish flakes) restaurants. There are still 7 restaurants on site with a small shop selling a limited number of “takoyaki” souvenirs. I browsed the various menus and settled on a medal of 12 - 4 “normal”, 4 plain and 4 with mayo, along with a clear broth for dipping the takoyaki (?) and a coke. Having just eaten Mel was not interested in more food, instead opting for a frozen yoghurt only to be disappointed when she was told their machine was broken. The souvenir shop also disappointed in not having any takoyaki flavoured potato chips (a highlight of my last visit).

After stopping to buy some candies and play a video game (“Galaga”, high score!) we returned to the third floor in search of a coffee shop.

We found one but according to Mel the coffee was awful. We instead opted to leave the mall and walk out on the large wooden outside deck (perhaps why the mall is named “Decks”), wet with the rain.

We walked away from the mall towards the harbour with the wonderful rainbow suspension bridge crossing to the far side. Down some steps we were in a small park running along the water which had a sand beach as well. In this weather there was no one swimming but there were people just enjoying the space.

I had done my homework so had another destination nearby in mind so we climbed the steps to the pedestrian walkway, crossing a busy road to another mall: “Diversity Tokyo Plaza” (https://mitsui-shopping-park.com/divercity-tokyo/). At the entrance was “Doraemon Times Square” featuring the Japanese animation character of the same name. After first waiting for others I took Mel’s picture with the blue and white coloured smiling Doraemon on a bench. This mall had a lot more Japanese animation shops than we have seen before.

Mel and I have a thing about the “Hello Kitty” character where I say how much she loves it and where she says she hates it with a passion. So, sure enough, there was a “Hello Kitty Japan” shop where I had to have Mel’s picture taken cuddling with her favourite (or not) character.

One thing we have noticed is a large number of donut shops in Tokyo. I guess it is noticeable because where we live in the UK there are very few of them. Big cities in the UK have Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, and, now, Tim Hortons Donuts (from Canada) but in all other areas of the country we are bereft of these decent deep-fried indulgences. So, donut shops immediately attract our attention and we will go to see as we like donuts that are not too sweet, preferably not glazed at all and, even better, cake donuts rather than yeast. In the mall we were happy to discover a branch of “Mister Donut” which we noticed had a good selection so we picked up a box of six (sour cream PLAIN, sour cream GLAZED, sour cream cinnamon, bubble donut cinnamon, chocolate with peanuts and a cruller).

At the far side of the mall was our intended destination: Gundam Base. Yes, another Gundam (giant robot) attraction. This time a full-sized (but static, well, it moves for only a minute or so at set times throughout the day) “Unicorn” Gundam posed outside of the mall. As it was about 6 pm now the white coloured robot glowed from its joints in a light pink colour. It stands at about 20 meters high so is quite impressive and you are able to get right up to it and look up. Of course, there were many there taking pictures and we did the same (I sent a few to a rather jealous friend in the UK who I had earlier sent pictures to of the moving Gundam we saw in Yokohama). Of course there was a nearby shop which we visited but I am not that much of a geek and passed on buying anything.

We ate at the mall food court. There were lots of choices but I had my mind set on “Kara Age Chicken”, that is, deep fried marinated chicken typically accompanied by mayonnaise for dipping (yeah, yum). My dish had a good side salad of shredded cabbage and the obligatory miso soup (this one a bit bland after our wonderful crab miso at lunch). Mel opted for another restaurant and one of her favourites: Chicken (ton)katsu curry which came with more cabbage salad served together in a metal skillet and a generous side of rice. She found it a bit spicy but quite tasty. We both had a large cup of coke which was quite refreshing after all of our walking.

The food court had lots of interesting places of course but one that caught our eye at the bottom of the escalator was selling different flavoured candy floss. You could even get it with ice cream or bubble tea (“tapioca drink”). Yikes.

Next up we visited the fifth floor where we found a couple of shops selling “fake” (Japanese animation) studio Ghibli items before we found the REAL “Ghibli” shop which, of course, was much more expensive but had much nicer items for sale.

Outside it was dark with the city lit up around us as we made our way to the elevate train for our return back to the hotel. I made sure we caught the train that went over the Rainbow Bridge which has an amazing spiral section on the far side of the harbour that it uses to quickly descend from the tall height of the bridge to being once again elevated above the street. From Shimbashi station we transferred to the Asakusa line then walked the now familiar short distance back to the hotel from Higashi-Ginza Station.

Tomorrow is our train trip to Kyoto. I am very much looking forward to this as it is probably my favourite city in the country with a much more laid back culture than Tokyo but with a lot more history and things to see. I really hope Mel likes it but based on what I have seen so far, I am very sure she will.

We have gotten into the habit of sleeping in the full length beige housecoats provided by the hotel. They are not terribly flattering to look at but they are comfortable and as a bonus we don’t have to clean them!

We spent a few minutes packing, using the room “clothes refresher” (or whatever) to freshen up our jackets. While watching a Japanese blooper show on television (yes, it was quite different) we have a few snacks now including the black eggs donated to us on our Mount Fuji trip the other day.

Lots of travel coming up in what I consider the second part of our holiday.

 

>> Next: Day 11