As mentioned, here are a few pictures from the trip to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo...Seeing all those different kind of fish was fascinating and in a certain way, horrifying. Sometimes it's better to not know what you may be eating.

Some of the fish you'll recognize. Some you probably won't. Still, to be safe, you may want to skip this if you've just eaten lunch (or have plans to go eat sushi later on today...).

Let's take a journey into the world of raw fish (and other things...)!

Warming up...

Inside the market...

Fat Tuna

The guy who would soon yell at me and tell me to leave...

Mmmm...Sea Slug! I'll take TWO!!

And give me one of those...um....whatever that is. Fish? Jimmy Hoffa?

The Tuna Hook guy...

How do you cut a frozen tuna? With a vertical band saw. We never did this in seventh grade shop class...

Shrimp

This lady was yakking on the phone while rooting through a bucket of shucked oysters. Don't ask to borrow her mobile phone...

Octopi

As interesting as the inside of the market was, after a couple of hours, I'd seen as many sea slugs, fish ovaries, squid, and other denizens of the deep to tide me over for a while. So, I moved outside, promptly nearly getting run over by one of the thousands of propane powered carts shuttling fish around. (Aside...for any "King of the Hill" fans, I wonder if those would be considered "propane accessories?"). The scene outside was just as fascinating...and maybe even busier. Somehow, nobody was crushed by a cart or accidentally pushed into the styrafoam recycling machine.

Chaos...

Styrafoam Police

Big tunas coming thru!

Hitchiker

Nice hat

Sumo wrestler's day job?

Scandinavian-looking Tourists getting a ride (or were they about to be auctioned off?I I never saw them after that...hope they didn't end up in some sushi restaurant. "This is very fresh, unique sushi. From Sweden.").

After a while, I headed off to the "normal" market section on the next block. I got a little breakfast, and just wandered around. For some reason, there were several small shops that offered stuffed animals. The taxidermy kind. And they were not very realistic.

Scary Tiger.

Um...I don't know what this is. It's ugly, though.

All in all, it was a fascinating experience. And, one that I'd like to go back with Melody to see again. Really neat. By the way, she's back now. Finished up her cruise last Monday, and now, we're settling back into the routine of living together in the same house. Except now, it's for good. This was her last cruise with the ship, and she will move to a new job across base before the ship goes back out. So, we can finally "get on" with the rest of our life! It's nice to know that we won't have to worry about having to be apart every few months. There will be the occasional business trips for each of us, but nothing in the 3 month or more range. At least for now.

More coming soon. We're going into the holiday schedule, which means a bit more time to relax, and more time to update the blog.