2024 Tokyo Day 2

Today was a tourist day, starting out at the Tsukiji Fish Market. The fun actually starts before this trying to use Google Maps to get to a place. It is very confusing initially to get your starting direction, but once you start it isn’t too bad. It is also interesting when it sends you through the middle of a shop to get to a road on the other side, or to a subway entrance hidden within the shop.

The fish markets were very interesting when you walked down the small alley ways. There were a lot of opportunities to buy interesting food at good prices and everyone bought something that appealed to them. This was our first real introduction to the Japanese queuing culture. If something is supposed to be good then a huge line will form to purchase it. Our first 30m queue was for an egg omelette, it was very small (we didn’t buy it). Many other queues existed but the most ironic was a huge queue (50m) for Kitsuneya (first had to translate Japanese characters and then find what it was). This turned out to be beef stew.

After the first markets we went of to Shibuya Crossing, which apparently is the largest pedestrian crossing in the world (by volume of people). It is opposite the Shibuya Station, which has a monument to a dog that apparently sat outside the station waiting for its owner to come home from work. It did this for two years, but then the owner died. The dog kept coming back every day for the next 8 years.

At the crossing there was an interesting shopping area with typical anime advertising and other typical culture icons.

After this we went back to the hotel to rest before our evening Bar and Restaurant Tour.

The first restaurant was an izakaya style. These have red lanterns out the front and are small traditional restaurants, not fancy but very good. The guide Yoshi was very entertaining and did all the food choices for us. The meal also included a drink of choice, most of us had sake, which was very interesting in its presentation. The full glass was sitting inside a small wooden box, this box was also half full of sake so when you finished your glass, you poured the contents of the box into your glass and kept drinking. It was very interesting. We also got a lesson in chopstick etiquette. A really good start to the night.

After this, we walked down the alley to another bar which was a standup bar with snacks. Here we tasted five different types of skewers which we dipped into a huge bowl of dipping sauce. Again drinks were served and the sake or shochu were the recommended choices. I had shochu here which was great. Yoshi explained that alcohol was relatively cheap in Japan which explained why people went out after work and distressed by getting rolling drunk.

To finish our tour we walked through the red light district, past the Godzilla sculpture eating Japan and onto the Shinjuku Golden Gai area, which is an area full of small bars. Each bar can usually only take 6 – 12 customers, but we assume they stay and drink all night.

At this bar, called the Bar Lonely, we went up a set of very rickety stairs to the “secret room” which I think means only those sober can find, not sure how they leave after a heavy nights drinking. Again a great atmosphere and really good drink suggestions by Yoshi. Our group was very talkative by this stage and we really enjoyed the experience. Two were from New York City and the other was from Colorado. Great group, great fun.