Here starts part two. If you haven’t read part one, it is below this one I imagine and you should probably start there.
The next day, we woke up at about 5 am, got ready, and caught an early train to see the Tokyo fish market. Every morning thousands of fishermen, restaurateurs, and consumers alike gather at this fish market to buy and sell fish. There is an auction very early in the morning which we didn’t make it for, so by the time we got there, they were hard at work packaging and shipping the fish off to all corners of the world. There were hundreds of small electric cart things which zipped around at about 15 miles an hour, through crowds and traffic. It was really amazing that we didn’t see a single wreck or injury while we were there. We went to the vendor section, which was probably 3 huge warehouses full of fish that was either still alive, or was alive in the last 2 days and walked around. There were literally all sorts of fish, from thousand pound tuna, to squid covered in ink, to live crabs. It was really cool to see Japanese commerce at work in that way.
After the fish market we wanted to do something a bit more relaxing, so we went to the Tokyo Palace gardens and wandered around. The gardens featured huge calico looking rock walls, large open spaces, and beautiful ponds. We sat down there, and Tolan played his guitar which he decided to carry around for the trip. After we finished up at the gardens it was time to find somewhere that would serve us breakfast. Most places in Japan are not open when we would normally consider breakfast time. For example we walked by a couple coffee and donut shops, and McDonald’s which were closed at 7 am. We found a street with a bunch of little noodle stands next to each other, one of which had tempura that everyone wanted. I was all fished out after smelling it for 2 hours at the fish market, so I said no thanks and wandered around the block alone looking for something fishless to eat. I failed to find anything and went back to the tempura stand and ordered a bowl of noodles, broth, and green bean tempura which was delicious.
After breakfast we made our way to the Sony Building, which might be there headquarters, I have no idea, but had a showroom featuring all of their current and upcoming products. There were two things that excited me, one of which I knew about already and one I didn’t. They were 3D TVs and 3D Video Games. I’m guessing those reading this won’t be as excited about this as I am, but the TV’s I believe are set to launch really soon, and 3D channels will be showing up starting this summer with ESPN offering the World Cup in 3D. We were able to put on glasses and try it out, and the picture was great. It was just like being at a movie theatre. I then got to sit down and try out a racing game in 3D and it was unreal. It really felt like I was right there with the action. We looked at some more things like some awesome cameras, and then looked for a place to sit down, rest and eat. (I just realized the noodle breakfast was before the gardens, so hopefully you don’t think we ate like every hour) We found a restaurant in the basement of a building that had amazing food. I got some spicy noodle bowl and rice, and was in heaven. Rejuvenated, we set off from there toward Akihabara, the electronic district of Japan. There were huge buildings covered in bright billboards, and stores that had a dozen floors all with electronics in them. Everything was pretty expensive, even more so than in the US, so no one bought anything, but we had fun exploring anyways. Japan has awesome massage chairs by the way, and when they are selling them, they put out rows that anyone can sit and try. I’m pretty sure if we could speak Japanese they would have tried to sell them to us, but seeing as we couldn’t understand a word they were saying, the salesmen left us alone and we enjoyed free massages.
At this point it was getting kind of late so we headed back to the hostel to drop off some things people had purchased, and to get ready for the evening. We went to the fashion district, Harajuku, it is where you see all of the nice clothes stores, and people dressed up in really funky outfits. Unfortunately it had gotten cold and started to mist a little bit, so we saw no unique outfits. We headed back to Shibuya to meet up with some more people at the statue again, and with our group now up to 8 people, we went in search of Kaiten Sushi. Kaiten Sushi is conveyor belt sushi, and for those who don’t know the concept, there are basically 5-6 Sushi preparers in the center, and they constantly make rolls and place them on a conveyor belt which circles the restaurant. When you see a plate of sushi go by that you like, you simply grab the plate and eat it. At the end of the meal, they count up your plates and that’s how they know what to charge you. The sushi here was AMAZING. I had 10 plates I believe, with 2 pieces per plate, so 20 pieces. I had mostly Tuna and Salmon, both of which had no hint of fishy taste, and melted in your mouth. I’ve grown up not liking fish at all, and I realize now it is because Kansas is in the middle of nowhere, and whenever we eat fish, it is at minimum probably 4-5 days old. At that point it starts to get a fishy taste, which fresh fish simply does not have. This sushi we had was probably swimming around in the ocean not 2 days before we ate it, so it tasted great.
With dinner finished and our hunger satisfied we left, picked up two more people making our group of 8 a group of 10, and decided to do Karaoke! In Japan, Karaoke is entirely different than it is in the states. Instead of singing for a group of strangers, you get a private room, and pay to sing by the half hour. It is pretty expensive but lots of fun. We were in there for an hour, and I got to sing about 4 songs. We sang in groups of 2 so that no one was embarrassed, and Jose and I, one of the guys who we met up with, were definitely the best duo. Toward the end, Jay, another one of my roommates had me sing with him because his partner Eric (my third roommate) had decided he was retired from singing. We did “In The Club” by 50 Cent, which is pretty much straight rap, and I was intimidated. Well out of nowhere I did the whole thing pretty much right on, and so we all discovered that my one talent in life is Karaoke. We finished up our session and left, everyone had a great time.
All of the 5 new people in the group were ready to head to the hostel to dump their backpacks, so Eric led them back. Tolan and Sarah, his girlfriend, went off to wander around, leaving Jay and I not ready to call it a night yet. We wandered around in search of something to do, and decided that it would be cool to find somewhere to dance in Japan. We tried to ask random people on the street, including one set of girls who thought Jay was asking them to go out with him. They replied with “No only Japanese” so that was a good laugh. Eventually we ran into a British man who had lived in Japan for 15 years and knew his way around. He went out of his way to lead us to a place that he considered foreigner friendly, which we appreciated. We went down into this club I guess you would call it, and it was dark and loud. It was interesting to see people dance in Japan, because there is absolutely no connections at all, people in general dance to themselves around others instead of a touch fest like there is in America. I was about ready to bail when another group of Semester at Sea people wandered in, so we talked to them for a while. Jay and I were sitting back just talking, when we look over and the other group, which was 4 girls and 1 guy, was being surrounded by Japanese business men. They were getting hit on by 40 year olds, and it was hilarious. They called us over for backup, and eventually one of the Japanese guys even got kicked out of the club for it. After that they were leaving, so we decided to as well, and headed back to our hostel to call it a night.
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