Day 4: Raw Fish, the Wandering Panda, and 10-Course Meals
I am not a huge fan of sushi. I mean, its raw, its slimy, and, well, for some foods being tasteless is best. Mary is right there with me on this one.
However, from the moment we first picked up a book on Tokyo, Mary and I knew that one of our priorities would be trying the freshest sushi in the world from the Tsujiki fish market.
If there was a fish capital of the world, this might be it. Here, at 4am (when the fisherman get in from the previous day of work), the choice catches are sold at auction and in lots to an eager crowd.
Since the odds we'd be able to get up at 4am to eat raw fish are even lower than the odds of us getting up at 4am normally, we wimped out a bit and slept 'till 8am. Dressing quietly, we slipped out while Laura
(a vegetarian) blissfully dozed on.
In our sleepy state it was a minor miracle that we managed not to get lost on the way over to the market. On the way there, we were nearly run over by an enterprising mother biking along with a kid on her back, a kid in the bike's child seat, and a kid on another child seat on the handlebars. Wow--why do American moms need minivans? We weren't the only ones amazed, either; a Japanese couple walking ahead of us turned to stare at her too.
The Tsujiki market was even more fun the second time around. Since we were so close to the opening bell, there were all sorts of live seafood testing the confines of Styrofoam cells. Vendors hawked everything from Japanese steel to tempura at us. Foods of all description were being made fresh all around us--while wandering we tried several samples, including some amazing and savory apple buns, which we ended up buying for Laura.
Eventually we remembered why were there, settled on a sushi venue, and breakfast began.
As I've already stated, I'm not a sushi lover. I figure that your average sushi falls into two categories: overly slimy, and overly chewy. These sensations can be easily simulated with cooked food that is far less likely to kill you.
With this in mind, we started out simple: salmon and shrimp. That went down smooth. From there it was on to clam, squid, tuna, and so on all the way down to eventually trying sea urchin and eel. After breakfast was over we both honestly acknowledged that everything we tried that morning was absolutely delicious. I would write a food blog entry on this meal except that I really would have no idea how to evaluate sushi.
After breakfast it was back to the hotel to pick up Laura. With her in tow, we decided to show Laura the shrine we'd visited yesterday, the Akusaka temple.
Akusaka was even crazier than the previous day. This time around we ran into some young Japanese folks who appeared to be filming a live TV show. There were cameramen, sound men, what appeared to be a director, a young guy who appeared to be a color commentator, and his female costar. The focus of the filming seemed to be a stuffed panda bear. The color commentator would put the panda bear in some position and then comment on it at length in Japanese, greatly amusing the crowd. At one point he tried a red bean bun and apparently burned his mouth, leading to what was apparently flat out comedy genius. Eventually this whole circus just got annoying--no matter how we tried to avoid the "Panda Posse", we seemed to be perpetually surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers.
Also worth mentioning: this time around Asukasa, I tried another sweet I'd been seeing everywhere, a "red bean ball". This turned out to be a flavored ball of condensed bean paste. I had strawberry. Very interesting. I've never been a fan of the earthy, sickly-sweet taste of red bean paste. However, I have to say that adding artificial strawberry flavor and molding it into a suggestively-sized-and-colored pink ball did absolutely nothing to enhance the experience.
After Akusaka, we headed west to Akihabara, Tokyo's "Electric Town". One of the highlights of this district is the iconic 8-floor electronics megastore, Yodobashi camera. The girls loved it. The best part was when Mary and Laura found rows and rows of capsule toy machines and just went to town. It was like tossing a t-bone into a piranha tank. Capsule pieces flying everywhere. Both came away with several weird little toys--including an electric banana that squeals when you peel its rear end.
Exiting Yodobashi, we headed into the streets of Akihabara. This is the only place I've been where you can literally buy an ATX motherboard from a vendor with a street cart. Wall to wall electronics shops, interspersed with arcades and anime/manga/softcore porn joints. In short, your average geek's complete and utter dream town. Mary found a store with lots of Star Wars, Final Fantasy, and Hello Kitty merchandise and the yen flew once again. Interesting note: most of the stock you see on ThinkGeek as imports you can find here in the stores of Akihabara.
We eventually tired of the endless blaring ads (some of them in Yodobashi were sung to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", which was strange) and endless neon signs. It was time to head back to the hotel for dinner.
Our meal that evening was our "splurge" for Tokyo. Another of the goals Mary and I had for our visit was to try traditional Japanese Kaiseki 10-course meal. After getting dressed up--even Laura wore heels, a world first!--we accomplished this at an eatery named Hanasanshou, a Michelin-star restaurant in the Park Hotel Tokyo.
In short: it was an amazing meal, which you can read about in detail in my review entry.
Buzzed, stuffed and tired, we crashed right after dinner for the third night in a row. I think I'm getting old.
However, from the moment we first picked up a book on Tokyo, Mary and I knew that one of our priorities would be trying the freshest sushi in the world from the Tsujiki fish market.
If there was a fish capital of the world, this might be it. Here, at 4am (when the fisherman get in from the previous day of work), the choice catches are sold at auction and in lots to an eager crowd.
Since the odds we'd be able to get up at 4am to eat raw fish are even lower than the odds of us getting up at 4am normally, we wimped out a bit and slept 'till 8am. Dressing quietly, we slipped out while Laura
(a vegetarian) blissfully dozed on.
In our sleepy state it was a minor miracle that we managed not to get lost on the way over to the market. On the way there, we were nearly run over by an enterprising mother biking along with a kid on her back, a kid in the bike's child seat, and a kid on another child seat on the handlebars. Wow--why do American moms need minivans? We weren't the only ones amazed, either; a Japanese couple walking ahead of us turned to stare at her too.
The Tsujiki market was even more fun the second time around. Since we were so close to the opening bell, there were all sorts of live seafood testing the confines of Styrofoam cells. Vendors hawked everything from Japanese steel to tempura at us. Foods of all description were being made fresh all around us--while wandering we tried several samples, including some amazing and savory apple buns, which we ended up buying for Laura.
Eventually we remembered why were there, settled on a sushi venue, and breakfast began.
As I've already stated, I'm not a sushi lover. I figure that your average sushi falls into two categories: overly slimy, and overly chewy. These sensations can be easily simulated with cooked food that is far less likely to kill you.
With this in mind, we started out simple: salmon and shrimp. That went down smooth. From there it was on to clam, squid, tuna, and so on all the way down to eventually trying sea urchin and eel. After breakfast was over we both honestly acknowledged that everything we tried that morning was absolutely delicious. I would write a food blog entry on this meal except that I really would have no idea how to evaluate sushi.
After breakfast it was back to the hotel to pick up Laura. With her in tow, we decided to show Laura the shrine we'd visited yesterday, the Akusaka temple.
 |
| Pro tip: stuffed panda bears are comedy gold. |
Also worth mentioning: this time around Asukasa, I tried another sweet I'd been seeing everywhere, a "red bean ball". This turned out to be a flavored ball of condensed bean paste. I had strawberry. Very interesting. I've never been a fan of the earthy, sickly-sweet taste of red bean paste. However, I have to say that adding artificial strawberry flavor and molding it into a suggestively-sized-and-colored pink ball did absolutely nothing to enhance the experience.
After Akusaka, we headed west to Akihabara, Tokyo's "Electric Town". One of the highlights of this district is the iconic 8-floor electronics megastore, Yodobashi camera. The girls loved it. The best part was when Mary and Laura found rows and rows of capsule toy machines and just went to town. It was like tossing a t-bone into a piranha tank. Capsule pieces flying everywhere. Both came away with several weird little toys--including an electric banana that squeals when you peel its rear end.
 |
We eventually tired of the endless blaring ads (some of them in Yodobashi were sung to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", which was strange) and endless neon signs. It was time to head back to the hotel for dinner.
Our meal that evening was our "splurge" for Tokyo. Another of the goals Mary and I had for our visit was to try traditional Japanese Kaiseki 10-course meal. After getting dressed up--even Laura wore heels, a world first!--we accomplished this at an eatery named Hanasanshou, a Michelin-star restaurant in the Park Hotel Tokyo.
In short: it was an amazing meal, which you can read about in detail in my review entry.
Buzzed, stuffed and tired, we crashed right after dinner for the third night in a row. I think I'm getting old.
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