Fish, water, temples and robots (i.e. tokyo)

Trip Start Oct 20, 2007
1
4
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Trip End ??? ??, 2008


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Flag of Japan  ,
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Rising early from our pods (with far too little sleep had by either of us), we headed towards the largest fish market in the world. Using our travelcards we ended up walking a far distance over fly overs and past car counters (really just men sitting with about 20 clickers each, counting different things on the roads) due to the fact that not all the underground/city trains are Japan Rail - useful. Anyway the walk was interesting in its own way and we literally followed our senses to the market when within the general area marked on the map. Walking past fresh sashimi and ...or something, breakfast had to wait for our early (ish) viewing of huge fish. Weaving/trying to jump out of the way of transport things that looked like they belonged to a Star Wars hangar we saw huge block of ice being cut, fish being dried and then finally never ending 'stalls' in the covered market. Some of the tuna! well i didnt realise how big they could get which is shocking considering its what we all ate on St.Helena years ago! I even spied a poster of whale meat and values, although no whale...as far as we could tell without seeing the whole thing! With fresh fish, frozen fish and dead fish seen (some beautiful, some ugly, some frankly impressive - the frozen tuna was so big and heavy a machine was required to lift them to the industrial slicer and the heads were the size of a sharks!) we headed on. Still unable to decipher foods without seeing them (and then often struggling) we grabbed a drink in a 'shop' or room with tables with wall to wall drinks machines. We then were joined by a fisherman...we're not totally sure why as only sign language could be used to greet him ('fisherman' and the old reeling in of a line motion is rated to an international standard!). Anyway smiles go an amazingly long way as each side effectively entertains itself in efforts to communicate, and drinks drunk we waved a merry goodbye and thumbs up or something! Leaving the area we mildly entertained ourselves jumping on an unattended Star Wars buggy with only another pair of tourists to see, (we could see them wanting to do it as they gravitated towards it).
Finding a nearby reknowned garden, we arrived to early and were directed by an understanding gardener towards McDonalds as the only real nearby food place...so thinking we'd broken our japanese eating we wondered over to a McDs under a tower block (which the usher was super enthusiastic to point us to - again with the international sign language of tummy rubbing and imaginary burger holding!). However when we arrived, the neatest people, cleanest smartest fastfood surroundings and with 'special'drinks such as iced coffee standard we realised we were still doing japanese!
Navigating the maze of flyovers and road crossings we finally got into the gardens and saw the tea rooms and numerous duck hunting devices (most complicated and convoluted way to catch the things - involves sounds, hiding, funneling, nets sticks and some tame ducks). Taking a ridiculous number of photos compared to Si, I took some more including a glimpse of an actual offering to the spirits as depicted in the anime cartoon yesterday (and one of Si in a field of flowers looking innocent!). We also wondered relatively aimlessly to wait for the boat up-river that left from inside the gardens.
Getting on the lower crusier, used the time to nap with eyes open, read up on Japanese things and appreciate the sights, (of a crowd of school children, an english mother with three school skiving kids (who looked that they'd rather be playing a Wii), the suburbs skyscrapes and what looked like a huge golden parsnip...or golden turd as Si so eloquently described it!).
We finally got off, slighty revived by the opportunity to sit down, to the numerous temples in the eastern districts [one day i'll add the actual names!]. Needless to say, we knew the temples were going to be impressive as we passed under the largest lantern i've ever seen suspended from the main archways into the complex (photo op. again obviously!). Even the avenue of opportunisitic stalls glistening in the sun on the run upto the temples was impressive and tempting...Si, not so swayed by all the goodies, kept the pace and the money in my wallet! Then finally nearing the centre an american tourist, who we'd met repeatedly since searching out McDonalds earlier, took our photo...and us him, but we didn't linger - there is a type...
Anyway smoke purified and temples explored we headed relatively randomly away from the river towards the city and thus in a loose way where a robot exhibition was being held! Loving the drinks machines scattered everywhere (with a good variety unlike our usual Coke, water and fizz drinks) we looked for a cash machine for Si and found one outside a Pachinko place (also scattered everywhere). Although still unable to get money out for some reason, it was lucky i'd taken out a decent amount from the UK (whilst we could use his cards in shops/hotels), and we headed to a nice looking food place (you can hardly tell really as most are screened)...well one with plastic tempura in the window which we could point at! Excited to be trying yet something new, the simple tempura prawns (two huge ones) and rice was quite satisfying washed down with beer. Not quite the light batter i'd imagined but certainly the norm here. The accompanying Miso soup was however heavily fishy and thus left with thier lids on!
Full and content we continued to freestyle generally inwards past shops (some which were better stocked with anime stuff than the 'museums'!) before realising time was passing and we were by this point totally unaware of where we were. So hailing a cab, i'd luckily picked up the flyer for the robots so we just emphatically pointed to it for the driver. He didnt know exactly where it was even though it was in Japanese and we soon realised as he pulled out a map that our guesstimations were a bit wrong...as in ourside his usual zone! Anyway we arrived back to Ueno, which we knew quite well, and ended up walking around the corner from 'our' tourist office(as in one of the three english speaking ones) to get to this museum. In the park outside we watched a concert for the homeless before Si's excitement was about to burst. Nothing was in english in this place and so we rather went where we were directed until we reached the robot show and the famous Honda 'Azimo' who did a little dance and show for us. It was pretty cool, although somehow missing the shop (half way through) we missed out on buying our own little azimo as they wouldnt let us back in!?
Well, tired we were ready for the Park Hyatt Tokyo that night and went to pick up our bags from the capsule hotel and train it across town.
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