Fish, toilets, sushi, fortunes and saying goodbye in my head.
Wednesday 14th February 2007 (18th – 19th December 2006)
On Monday 18th December we got up early and went to the famous Tokyo fish market. This was so amazing and it feel funny to be describing how amazing a fish market is but i have never seen so much fish in one place or see so many different types of fish. No wonder there is an overfishing problem. Unfortunately we got there a little too late to see the wholesale aspect of the fish market, but dont fear we solved that by getting up and going the next day.
We then went to Ginza which is where all the designer shops are such as Chanel (or channel as i like to pronounce it) and Gucci etc. We strolled around these parts wishing we had lots of money and looking at all the women with bags on the ends of their arms. We walked down one side road and I bought some chopsticks (well, if you’re in Japan???) and we also went to the Sony Centre which is a big building and is recommended as somewhere to PLAY. Yippy my favourite! You can look at all sorts of Sony products from TVs and cameras to musical equipment. I even played with the new Sony MP3 players which at the time were not out here in England. I got to listen to Oasis’ ‘Lyla’ about a million times to test them out. This place also has the best toilets.
The toilet lid lifts up when you enter the toilet and the seat is heated. there are various buttons on the arm of the toilet which you can press to do all sorts of things like spraying at different volumes and different places, which i wont go into. You can also dry yourself as warm air is blown up from the toilet. You can adjust the temperature if you like. The toilet plays music when you enter it and if you want to you can press a button which plays a soundtrack of the toilet flushing to mask whatever noises you are making in this toilet. I mean you could be in this toilet for hours just pressing buttons its ridiculous!
We had lunch at a sushi bar. Plates of different colours go round on a belt and you choose which dishes you would like. You just take them from the belt and at the end the workers count up what dishes you have had at what price. You get as much green tea as you would like and soy sauce. We really enjoyed our sushi experience even if we were tricked a bit. At one point the man making fresh sushi in front of us said we should try “these” and handed us two pieces of sushi. As we were munching away he just said “horse”. Janine’s face dropped so much i nearly burst out laughing. “Very nice”, I said, chewing away and tryng to swallow it down quickly. He did it again about ten minutes later and we muched away and Janine asked me what it was. My reply was, “I don’t know. Don’t ask, just eat is quickly”. I didnt want to know what i was eating this time.
After Ginza we went to Ueno where we meandered through the beautiful park. We stumbled upon a temple called Hie-Jinia which dates back to 1659 and it right there in the middle of the park. There is a little walk to the shrine there which has red poles leading the way like a tunnel. When we got to the shrine I put 100yen in a machine and it gave me a slip of paper. I handed it to a lady and she gave me an English translation. My fortune was good. That was good enough for me. It said other stuff but I won’t bore you with it.
Tuesday 19th December and we got up early to go and see the fish market again. It is called Tsukiji market and it is a large fish and produce market. We saw all these things we had missed the previous day, all this fish being sold and being slapped about. We then returned to our hotel room, packed a day and overnight bag, packed our rucksacks and checked out of the hotel. We went to Asakusa station where we put our big rucksacks in lockers in the station. We then went for a coffee. Over my coffee I thought about this country I was in.
The previous day we had travelled in women only carriages on the train/subway system. The carriages get so cramped that alot of the women complain about being groped and there is nothing they can do – noone can move (apart from the wandering hands obviously). People in Japan are always smartly dressed, didnt I stand out. Even the homeless don’t look that shabby and they line all their shoes and things up and then sleep. So bizarre.
After our coffee we headed to Ueno Park again and went to the Tokyo National Museum. There are lots of artwork adn artefacts on Japan and it is very interesting. I remember looking at murals and wanted to be able to translate the words.
Then off to the Tokyo International Forum building where we checked our emails for free for half an hour. Anything free here is a bonus. It is expensive but probably compared to London not that bad. I think it was made worse for us because we had just come from Thailand and so everything seemed expensive. I checked us in online – although looking back now that seemed pointless….you’ll get the jist in the next installment.
It hadn’t really hit at this point that I was leaving. Not actaully leaving Japan but leaving my travelling behind. It felt like we were just about to step on a plane and leave a country but then arrive somewhere else to explore. It felt weird, cold and a bit sad.
Tags: Japan, sushi, toilets, Tokyo, Travel
georgiebees
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