The Tsukiji Fish Market was something that Cristian, Matt and I attempted last time on the previous trip. However it was closed due to it being a holiday. This time would not be the same as I preplanned and checked the days they were open beforehand.
Since it is still Golden Week, the Market had be closed the prior days as it observed the nationwide holidays. I would imagine it resulted in a build up of buyers and tourists as they were unable to purchase any fish. As such the market was jammed pack when we arrived.
The small vendors outside mostly dealt with selling food items and more or less acted like a farmer's market. Through the area were sushi restaurants that offer various types of sushi made from the catch of the day. The vendors even demonstrated the methods for filleting a giant tuna.
The actual Fish Market resided within a separate building and was composed of different areas. The Tuna auction area was closed off from the public and had already finished for the day (they do allow about 120 visitors to go in but it opens at 5 am and is first come first serve). The area that the public have access to is similar to the farmer's market outside and had a number of vendors selling off their fish. While not the top end of fish, they were still many times better and fresher than the ones you find in stores.Once we finished our walk through the market, we decided it was time to fill our bellies. First off was the many street vendor food.
All of the food items were cooked on the spot and was nice and hot. Our favourite was surprisingly the brick of steam sweetened egg. It was soooo goood and only 120 yen 😍
After whetting our appetite we decided to go for the main course, the sushi!
Now the thing with the area was that there were so many options. So we decided to find one that was indoors and offered seating. The one we found was conveyor belt style and charged by the plate. Higher quality and better cuts of sushi would be placed on fancier plates while cheaper cuts were on more plain plates. The plates are stacked up at the end and the waiters will add up the amount each plate was worth and charge you the total.
We ate mostly the middle ground as some of the plates were as expensive as 600 yen for just 2 pieces (that's fatty tuna for you)
Once we were filled with fresh sushi, I took them to Asakusa Station, which I had already covered on this trip so I'll keep it brief. Being Saturday and Golden Week, the shrine was packed with tourists. It took us a half hour to walk to the main building when it usually takes 5 mins.
As the shrine was packed, we didn't dally to long and decided to leave after an hour there. Since there was still time left to the day, I decided it was a good time to bring them to Akihabara so that they can see how big an thing Anime and Manga is over here.
I'm not sure I was able to get the idea across to my sister as she continued to refuse to understand or respect the culture, but atleast she enjoyed dumping her money into the gatcha machines.
At this point I had begun to feel unwell, perhaps the continues trekking the last few days plus overstressing myself in keeping my siblings in check took its toll. I had felt pain and exhaustion throughout my body and I was running a light fever
But alas, the adventure shall go on regardless of my health. My siblings insisted to go eat on Ramen Street, a "street" that was filled with Ramen restaurants and was known to be some of the best Tokyo had to offer. It was recommended by my siblings friends and they insisted on experiencing it themselves. As result we took a detour and subwayed to Tokyo Station.
If you have forgotten, Tokyo Station is famous for its European design and is regarded by the locales as a beautiful architecture. I personally think its pretty normal looking on the outside.
We ended up wandering the station for quite a bit as there was no signage for Ramen Street until we were standing infront of it. The restaurant we chose was supposedly known to be the best Ramen restaurant there (as claimed by my sister's friend) and is called Rokurinsha Ramen.
The wait in line was about 40 mins which was apparently fast for the restaurant as it was known to take a hour or more. And maybe it was because I felt like I was dying but the ramen we ate was kinda normal and nothing special. My siblings agreed with me and said the previous ramen we had the other night tasted better.
I ended the night eating a bunch of medicine and thankfully it appeared to have paid off. I still feel some aching but atleast my fever is gone. Today we'll be going to visit a museum dedicated to our childhood hero, Doraemon.
No comments:
Post a Comment