ME :)

Fri 24/07/2009

I was out of the hotel door at 5am and headed to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market to explore the premises, examine the seafood that was on offer and see what the fuss is all about in regards to the Tuna auctions. It is quite busy at the seafood market with funny looking and operated vehicles dashing up and down the aisles filling orders for the businesses.

I can’t believe how much fresh seafood was here, it was definitely seafood heaven and it was by far the freshest seafood I’ve ever seen in the world so far at a market apart from the frozen tuna. Fish were still swimming around in their containers; it was like they’d just been thrown in a box straight from the sea. I really can’t say if the produce is expensive or inexpensive as I didn’t take notice of the price. I was too busy taking photos of the seafood being sold and admiring the size of the scallops – gigantic!

I didn’t find the tuna auction interesting at all. It was just a bloke standing in the center of the room taking bids and offers. He was surrounded by a large group of blokes raising their hands and that was pretty much it. The tuna was all frozen and once sold would just be loaded onto a wooden cart and wheeled away to one of the many seafood businesses selling this on to their customers. Some stores would sell the tuna whole, others would saw it in half literally, while others chopped and filleted their pieces of tuna to manageable and consumable sizes.
On the outskirts of the market are restaurants that serve ramen noodles as well sushi and all things seafood. I couldn’t stomach sushi so early in the morning so after eyeing where I wanted to go for lunch, I headed back to the hotel for a nap.

I returned later to a restaurant called Sushizanmai and got a plate full of sushi with different types of fish. Most sushi items I knew what they were but there were some I had no idea but I still ate it anyway. There was raw tuna, snapper, eel, crab, fish roe and many others.

This place is by far the best place I’ve ever had Sushi and everything I ate was so soft and delicious. The fish were delicate and the wasabi just right burning through my nostril. The best thing was that it only cost me around £13 and I was completely satisfied, it touched the spot (my stomach) nicely.

Roppongi was my next destination. Roppongi is the city or suburb where all the international shops and restaurants are located. I wasn’t interested in those particular places but instead I was looking to go up to the Sky Deck to see Tokyo from above. Unfortunately due to the weather that day, the Sky Deck was closed but you could go to the observation deck. Well to me that was pointless, if I can’t go to the top floor/terrace and have non obstructed views then there was no point going up there!

smiles