Budget Tokyo
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
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Since I only had 4 days in Tokyo, and little money left for traveling, I had a challenge – how do you stay in Tokyo on a budget. After months of living a simple life – I think I was up to the challenge. The first big accomplishment was finding a reasonably priced hotel amongst the sea of business travelers on company expense budgets. I was lucky enough to find Sawonoya Ryokan – an oasis surrounded by the old neighborhoods of Tokyo. For $40 a night I stayed in a small room, slept on a straw mat on the floor – but had plenty of comforts such as television, tea, free internet, and a shared Japanese bath. In addition, they served breakfast in their lobby area – western style for $4 and an authentic Japanese breakfast for the same price.
If you are on a budget, then the subway is a must. After spending a day lost in the subway, I became much more at ease with the Tokyo subway for the remaining 3 days. All of a sudden, it all made sense, as I looked around I even noticed English signs that seemed to escape me the first day in my confusion and panic. The subway rides range from $1.60 to $3.00 depending on the distance you are traveling. This is a bargain compared to the one cab-ride that I took which lasted about 20 minutes and cost $25. However, I found that my favorite way to get around was on foot. It is really the way to see neighborhoods and culture and Tokyo.
Photo: Man feeding birds in Ueno Park
Most days I chose one or two neighborhoods to explore. I would take the subway to one and then walk all day around it or into others and then subway home. My walking took me to many wonderful places where I was able to explore at my pace. I learned that if you want to experience ‘old Tokyo’ – then you need to spend time in Ueno and Asakusa. I spent a whole day walking through these neighborhoods to simply watch and understand Japanese life. I started off walking around the neighborhood, the little back alleys sprinkled with bikes and green plants. The first thing that struck me is that there were many bikes in Tokyo – however none of them appeared to be locked up. I knew that Tokyo was safe – but I couldn’t fathom leaving bikes outside not locked up…that seemed ludicrous. I thought for a moment that I had walked into this safe haven utopia! However, after day two and a little closer inspection of the bikes, I realized that they had a wheel lock built in – no separate piece – it was already attached to the wheel and then went through the back spoke. Granted – the locks still weren’t prohibiting anyone from picking up the bike and carrying it away…indicating that Tokyo is safer than most large cities. In addition, I found it funny that everyone rode their bikes on the sidewalks amongst the pedestrians. As a pedestrian, you always had to be on your toes. No one seemed upset or mildly concerned about the bikes intermixed with the pedestrians on foot. It’s not like the sidewalks were abandoned, quite the opposite – however somehow the bikes and people intermixed successfully – a site you really wouldn’t be able to see in much of the world…certainly not in the US!
I wandered into temples in the various neighborhoods – the uniqueness of the temples called me inside. I watched people as they went through their rituals that all seemed extremely foreign to me. I didn’t really understand much of it, but there was definitely a process that was to be followed. I later learned that before entering a temple, there was always a water ‘trough’ with long handled ladles hanging above it. These ladles were used for ‘cleansing’ yourself before entering the temple. Once you enter the shrine, you are to throw money in the offering box, ring the gong, pray, clap your hands twice, bow, and then back away from the shrine. Of course – since I learned about these rituals after the fact – I’m positive that I will go to Japanese hell (banished to karaoke bars) for not doing these things! Hopefully the Japanese Buddhists or Shinto’s will give me a pardon. 
Many temples were surrounded by cemeteries. I love how cemeteries vary by country and religion, and I had never seen a cemetery like the Japanese ones. There were gravesites all closely placed together, and they were kept up very well. The gravesites were normally surrounded by flowers, and a bunch of tall, flat, narrow sticks with Japanese writing on them. Each gravesite had about 5 to 10 sticks behind it sticking up tall into the air – as if they were reaching for the sky. They honestly reminded me of giant popsicle sticks. From what I later learned – the giant sticks were Buddhist name markers, yet I still never really understood the significance of them.
Next I came to a huge park filled with people, fountains, fall colors, musicians, and lots of birds.
I found vantage points and simply sat and people watched for a few hours throughout the park – photographing some of the locals and many of the birds. Shinobazu Lake in Ueno Park was full of old men feeding birds – which made it feel like a bird sanctuary. The lake was surrounded by the modern buildings of Ueno, giving the whole place a Central Park feel to me. I then went to a market area in Ueno – one of the last authentic goods markets in Tokyo, Ameyoko Market. It was a post WWII black market that had survived the influx of post WWII department stores – this market survived on old style bartering and selling to locals. When I think of Asia – I think of markets. I loved Ameyoko market – it was my first real glimpse of Asia in this very non-Asian feeling city. It was filled with people hawking fresh fish, clothing, spices, and individually shrink wrapped shoes and boots. I was baffled by why the shoes were shrink wrapped (each one separately), but was never able to communicate my question as to “why?”
Nakamura-san had been providing weekly tours of the market for a number of years. He had a wonderful command of English, a degree in economics, and had spent 12 years working in the Fish market for one of the big wholesalers. I had hired him to show me the ins and outs of the ‘Wall Street of Fish’ – Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. Sure – there are many places that do Tsukiji Market tours; however Nakamura-san offered a unique experience that the other tours didn’t – a real behind the scenes look at the business. Most tours start at 5:30 to see the tuna auction, however we started at 3:30, and spent 3 hours touring around the ground watching the unloading of the fish, the prep, inspection, auctions (fresh tuna, frozen tuna, sea urchins, and live fish), the middle men market, the butchering, and finally breakfast on the market grounds. As long as you were willing to get up early, you could see everything – and most importantly to me – you could photograph everything!
We entered the ground of Tsukiji Market and immediately I was on guard…one has to be extremely aware as you walk the grounds else you will get run over by one of the many speeding vehicles carrying fish – or at the very least yelled at in Japanese. I’m not a morning person, so luckily the my earlier speeding taxi ride prepared me for a bit of the chaos. There are trucks backing in to unload tuna, as well as a barrage of small, fast vehicles that seem like go-carts. Add to that bikes, and men pushing wheel barrels along the wet fish filled ‘roads’. No matter where you go – you always seem to be in the way. Tsukiji Market is a perfect example of vertical integration (I can’t even believe I remember this term from my Economics classes years ago!). It includes the suppliers, shippers, inspectors, middle-men (buyers), and customer. 
To top it off near the outer ring of the fish market is the market that supplies the people who work in the market – they sell knives, fish hooks, rubber boots, and finally – sushi. This is a complete society around selling and moving fish. This market employs 6000 people, yet there are about 50,000 people in and out each morning. On average, 2,000 tons of fish are sold daily, and annually the market brings in aprox. 5.5 Billion US Dollars…yes – I told you it was big. It is the largest fish market in the world – which is probably why I felt dwarfed as I walked about it. 
They were unloaded off the frozen truck by a man that kicked them out of the back of the truck where they would land 5 ft. below on a rubber tire to soften the blow. From there a man with a large handheld fishhook drug the tuna popsicle to the staging area where they were lined up in straight lines. The men inside all had hooks as they arranged the fish and methodically cut the tails off the fish so that the middle-men could see the quality of the meat. A man with a kettle of hot water would pour it over the frozen fish in order to thaw their outer skin so that people could survey the quality of the fish. The middle-men were stalking around looking at the day’s take and determining what they wanted to bid on and how much the tuna were worth. 
Next we moved on over to the fresh tuna staging area. The tuna were massive, ranging from 400 to 500 pounds. I’ve never seen such huge tuna in all of my life. I watched at the men primp and ready the fish for the auction – as if it were in a pageant. Each had a number and some writing that provided information about what country the boat was from that caught it as well as what waters it was caught in, and the weight. Once again, the tail was cut off in order to see the quality of the meat while another man would go around and mark any imperfections on the fish with a red wax. I asked Nakamura-san why the country information mattered, and he indicated that the Japanese fishermen normally caught the fish that went for the highest prices. Conversly, the Chinese fishermen had lower quality fish. The whole thing just made me laugh as China continues their ‘poor quality’ reputation – even in fishing.
These little slimy urchins are a big ticket item in Tokyo – a small 5 in by 7 inch box (about an 2 inches deep) will sell for about $150. They use the urchin to put on the top of sushi rolls – something that I’d never tried before, but would before I left Tokyo. I watched as the bell rang and all of the men yawned, got up and moved towards the bleachers prepared to bid. The auctioneers were on a pedestal, and seemed to be as animated as playing a game of charades. Next we made our way to the live fish auction – a very full and active auction. First we walked around and watched the fish being inspected. I was in awe of the men that could simply reach a hand into the water container and simply pull out a fish with his hands…this seemed to be a good talent to have! We came across a bin of live fugu, otherwise known as pufferfish- a deadly, toxic fish if prepared the wrong way. 
We talked to one of the men standing by the fugu and he showed off his fugu preparation license to us – a license that is in high demand. Only people with a license can be allowed to prepare the rare and expenseive fugu, and there are only a few people that have a license. He said that he had to be re-certified every year. I chuckled as I thought about who in the world would want to be a certification judge – it quite possibly may be the worst job on the planet…think of all the people that don’t pass the fugu preparation test…deadly! 
Sherry