Day One in Japan: Part I, Fish Market.

Technically my first day in Japan was Friday but since I had just spent 13 hours on a plane and didn't get to the hotel until 7PM, we'll call Saturday my first day.

Our itinerary was pretty aggresive because we only had a few days in Tokyo and there was a lot to see. Day one includeed the Tokyo Fish market, Kabuki-Za Theater, searching for Mini-Z parts and trying to find the Mini-z track. We got an early start because the action at the fish market starts at 5:00 AM. It wasn't too difficult for me to get going because I was excited to see Tokyo and we *were* 13 hours ahead of Virginia time. Little did I know that I would be waking up at 5:30 AM for the next couple of days.

Well we got up and moving around 6:00 to try and catch the bulk of the activity at the market (reported to be between 7 and 9 AM) .From what I understand, large quantities of fish are brought into Tokyo bay every morning (except Sunday) and licensed individuals are allowed to view the fish and bid in the auctions. Once the auction is over people are shuttling around with small pallet cars loaded with fish and ice. They are either taking the fish to their "booth" for public sale or loading small cargo trucks to be taken somewhere else in Japan.

We got to the market around 7 or 7:30 and it was son onf the most surreal things we had eeveer seen. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.





Sea Urchins...I think you eat the gonads.








All of the tuna that's brought in from other countries is shipped frozen. They use these huge band saws to cut the fish.

And how do you cut fresh fish that can grow up to 3 meters...you use a meter-long knife!


Nothing like a little sushi for breakfast. No joke, it's 8:30 in the morning and we are eating raw fish...delicious!





The one thing that sketched us out a little bit is that there was a huge line at one place and
no wait for the place we chose. We just thought maybe it was famous or something...like the Sushi nazi.