Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Makes a person heathly, wealthy, and wise; and usually also pretty cranky and irritable. Waking up at 4:30am is not my idea of a relaxing vacation, but we are intent on seeing the famous fish auctions at Tsukiji (skee-gee) market. 1 hr later, we arrive at the fish market and it is booming and bustling with a barrage of fisherman, auctioneers, wholesalers, restauranteurs, and tourists.

Walking through an alley of fishmongers and trucks/carts with a strong stench of fish permeating the air, we arrive at our destination: the auction warehouse. Lined with hundreds of tourists, also carrying the Lonely Planet: Tokyo guide that brings them here, the auction area has restaurants, wholesalers, distributors all vying for the best cut of tuna and other seafood catch that day. There are literally hundreds of frozen tuna fish about the size of a park bench laid out in rows on the ground, and each one auctioned off to the highest bidder who takes careful approach to testing quality by observing, touching, and tasting the frozen fish. It's amazing how much of a different world that fish market is, and of course, at 5am in the morning.

The really exciting part of that trip though, is actually trying to get out of that auction area. Trolleys fly by at break neck speed, so like a football player, you need to keep your head on a swivel. Walk through an intersection without looking thrice, and you'll need to explain to your boss why you're in the hospital having been run over by frozen tuna.

We ended the morning by having fresh sushi in the area, where people line up for an hour at 7am already. I don't think you'd be able to find fresher fish, and the toro, or fatty tuna, was nothing short of awesome. If you don't like sushi, just imagine a pad of butter with fins, and you have toro.

After the fish market, we head over to Odaiba, the man-made island off the coast of Tokyo built about 10 yrs ago to draw shopping, entertainment, business, etc., but apparently 9am is too early for visiting. We head back to the hotel and get some much-needed shuteye before heading out again.

We eventually make our way back out to Odaiba again, and spend some time at the huge indoor mall and the Sega Joypolis center, a huge playground for kids and adults alike. Les and I play this game called Typing of the Dead, which is essentially a shooting game, but instead of guns, you have keyboards. To kill a zombie, you have to type the key sequences as they show up before they hit you. Les ends up beating my score, but I think I it was because all the words were in Japanese.

Next, we head over to the Toyota center, which is a huge warehouse that showcases their cars, prototypes, and even lets you test-drive cars! You can choose which model (I think 40 to choose from), and they'll bring the car down in their conveyor system, and you get to drive it around the bldg in an obstacle course. I would love to have done it, but it requires an international license, sadly. I was going to ask if the test drive included free unrequested acceleration, but I think the sarcasm would have been lost.

By this time, the weather goes south and rain forces us to head home. To cap off an exciting day, the usually reliable train system has a horrible convergence of technical difficulties, so service gets backed up for almost 30 min. Mind you, this is about 10pm, but the trains are still busy as ever. We get packed into our trains, shoulder-to-head, and I can barely find any sort of breathing room. It's tight enough that most people don't even bother holding to the handles anymore as the moshpit pretty much keeps you locked in position. By the time we reach our stop, I summon all my strength and lower my shoulder to force my way out; only to realize that I'm getting completely pushed from the back with more power and force that I could ever muster. I turn around only to see a sub-5' girl, weighing no more than 98 lbs, who was giving the business. Now that's good effort.

Fun day, tomorrow is a trip to Kamakura on the outskirts of Tokyo to see another side of Japan. Calves and lower back are calling for Icy Hot.

Interesting note of the day: if you ever want to look 20 yrs younger, go take those pictures from those picture booths for kiddies. They do some amazing stuff to your picture, and it makes us look like we're in middle school again.