Exploring Tokyo

May 19, 2009

(This morning I realized my camera batteries were pretty much dead, so Tamas took the pictures shown here – you can click on the link to his photo album to see more.)

After three hours of sleep, we woke up early to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market. All the people working there were wearing shoes that looked like rainboots, whereas I had unwisely chose to wear flip flops today. I’ve never seen so much seafood in my life – there are rows and rows of booths selling all different types and sizes of fish and other seafood. Some things I didn’t know were edible, and others I had never even seen before. For breakfast we decided to give some of this seafood a try – raw fish and wasabi at 8am was good, but probably something I’ll never do again.


Afterwards we walked through Ginza, the super expensive shopping area, but it was still early so most of the shops were closed. We saw a cool theater though.


Next was the Edo Tokyo Museum. The building looks like some robot out of Star Wars. The museum went through the history of the city and had cool little models of the city at different periods throughout time.


For lunch, we ate at a restaurant where you ordered your food from a vending machine, rather than telling a waiter or waitress your order. All the buttons were in Japanese, so it took us some time to figure it out.

Next, we visited Sensoji Temple. The street leading up to this temple was lined with shops selling snacks and souvenirs. Like Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto, there were tons of school kids going from shop to shop, buying treats. I think this is always my favorite part, just looking at all the different types of Japanese sweets.


We also made a quick visit to the Tokyo National Museum and got to see some screen paintings, Noh costumes, and samurai swords and uniforms. Afterwards, we walked through Ueno Park before heading back to the train station. I didn’t find the park to be too impressive, but I thought the area with the kiddy rides was cute – the rides had characters like Pokemon and Doraemon.


Now it was sumo wrestling time! We’re lucky because it just so happened that a sumo tournament was being held in Tokyo. Kokugikan Stadium is in Ryogoku, also known as sumo town. Around the stadium, we saw sumo wrestlers walking around in robes and wooden sandals. We even saw one who was riding a bike – pretty impressive considering their size… We watched the last round of bouts for the day, featuring the highest ranked sumo wrestlers. These guys are huge, but it’s not all fat and they seem incredibly strong. Even without knowing all the rules, it was really interesting and entertaining.


The last stop of the day was Akihabara, where all the electronic stores are. The main street reminds me of Times Square, with all the bright lights and signs. I liked looking at all the different kinds of laptops and cell phones.