Japan Day 3: Fish Market & Traveling to Kyoto

Ever eat a tuna steak and wonder what it looked like before ending up on your plate? We woke up at 4 a.m. Monday to head over to the Tsukiji Fish Market. Before I go into the fish market, I have to give kudos to the hotel desk attendant who was nice enough to walk outside and flag down a taxi for us and to the taxi driver. The taxi driver who was dressed in a suit and tie was so polite and patient with our inability to speak Japanese; he even apologized for not speaking English which made me feel like a complete tool. Riding in a taxi here was like having a limo and your very own chauffeur.

Anyway, when we got to the fish market we roamed around a bit checking out the various shops/stalls while waiting for Kim and Steve. One of the shops we visited us encouraged us to try their various samples. Not sure what I ate, but I figured if it wasn't moving, I was okay. Most of it was fishy with a few sweet-tasting things that I think were beans. It was a cold morning and the shop owners were nice enough to give us hot tea knowing that we were tourist and probably not going to buy any of these mystery foods. Friendly folks...

We finally wandered to the tuna auction where they only allow visitors in for about an hour each day. It was pretty interesting to watch the different buyers inspecting the tuna with flashlights and picks. I'll post a separate entry so you can hear one of the auctions taking place.




After the tuna auction we strolled around to check out the various goods at the fish market. I love seafood but I can totally understand why environmentalists are worried about Japan's overfishing.



Sushi at the fish market is supposedly the freshest you can get so we dropped in at one of the tiny sushi joints that seats no more than 8 people for breakfast. Yes, breakfast. My parents used to serve us fish for breakfast growing up, so that part I'm used to, but sushi breakfast was new even for me. It was tasty, but definitely more expensive than the sushi go-round (about $38/person) and it wasn't all-you-can-stuff-in-your-face. Oh well. It was still an interesting experience.


After checking out of the hotel, Steve and I headed to the train station to board the Shinkansen for Kyoto. The Shinkansen is Japan's high-speed bullet train. It got us to Kyoto which is about 288 miles from Tokyo in about 2 hours.

When we got to Kyoto, it took us a bit longer to find our hotel than we expected. Not many streets in Japan are named, and most of the buildings aren't numbered so finding any place is a challenge. We finally got checked in and took the bus to Nijo Castle only to find that they were closing up for the day.

For dinner, Steve wanted to "eat like the locals" so we went into a diner-like restaurant and ordered what appeared to be their special. The dinner consisted of miso soup, salad, rice, and some marinated beef strips which had way more fat than I like on my meat. To make up for the less than satisfactory meal, we dropped by a corner crepe stand for dessert. My chocolate crepe more than made up for dinner.

Back at the hotel I decided to check out the hotel onsen. An onsen is basically a hot spring bath. The catch is that you go into it nekked with your fellow women peeps (guys go with their guy peeps). Yes, I know publicly nudity isn't for everyone. If you had asked me ten years ago if I'd ever do this, my answer would have been, "Hell no." Now that I'm older and perhaps a bit more uncaring of what the world thinks of me, I figured I'd give it a try since (a) it's part of the Japanese culture, (b) everyone looks the same in their birthday suit, and (c) I'm really never going to see these people ever again. The way it works is you undress in a locker room type area before entering the bathing area. The hotel had about 5-6 shower areas with stools where you're supposed to get yourself squeaky clean before actually getting into the bath (they even have shampoo, conditioner, and soap dispensers there). There were 3 other women showering when I got there so I basically did as they did - although that was probably the longest shower I've ever taken in my life since I didn't want to look like the dirty tourist who didn't clean herself enough before getting in the bath. After you've stripped away every speck of dirt and oil from your body, you mosy on over to the bath "tub". This one was about 20' x 12' and about 3' deep. I have to say that the water temperature was right on and that my tired legs began to forgive me for constant beating they were taking the last few days. After about 10-15 minutes, I noticed that the showering area was starting to get a bit crowded so I took that as my cue to get out. All in all it was a good way to end the day.