Day 4: Tsujiki

Day Four Angelica and I did what every tourist in Tokyo is supposed to do (And I don’t mean stand on the street corner and bow to each other, then pretend to hit our heads together, although that was funny every time we did it). No I mean get up at four in the AM and go the Tsujiki fish market. We took a cab, the nice driver pointed us in the right direction (which didn’t really help us all that much) and then we started walking.

We finally found our way, all the while dodging motorized carts front loaded with giant refrigerated barrels. They looked like something that would be driving in the background of a gritty futuristic sci-fi movie, one with some time of organism that must be stopped. This was very fitting.

The fish market is basically a football field sized hangar with tightly packed aisles full of ocean life. Beautiful, majestic ocean life that shows you just how varied and interesting life on this earth really is, all waiting to have their heads chopped off, mostly likely by an old man with a cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth.

Anything that exists in the ocean and is edible in some way shape or form can be bought there. Giant tuna that go for $10,000 each, Octopi writhing in giant barrels, plastic boxes full of bloody water and fish that have one or two flips left in them. And the best part was, I was wearing these jeans that dragged on the ground so they soaked up all the bloody fish water, by the end of the morning it was nearing my knees. This made me feel pretty. Angelica took lots of good pictures.

After we had seen enough, we found this place that serves a dish called sushi. Get this, Sushi is RAW FISH!!!! Can you believe that Japanese people eat raw fish? What will they think of next? And this place served stuff right off the boat. My tuna was alive an hour before. I had maybe even seen the guy cutting this fish’s head off. Seems kind of brutal. Like when I pretend my animal crackers can speak, and I eat them from the feet up so I can hear their screams.

Then we made our way back to the hotel and slept for a while. We had no itinerary for the rest of the day so we went back to Shibuya (Ange’s favorite part of town) and got lost again. There was a church group giving out free hugs, I made Angelica get one. The guys loved the tall blond gaijin. We ended the night with rice balls and other Sunkus food in our hotel room while watching CNN international.