fish market (part two)

(Fish Market, part two...)


The entire place was crazy with activity and noise with auctioneers yelling, motorized carts zigzagging around men loading and unloading, crowds of wholesalers bidding as well as examining and buying fish. Jeff and I had to jump out of the way of various moving vehicles several times. Amidst the chaos, however, was a high level of efficiency. These people clearly knew what they were doing. I can understand the need for speed...fish is a highly perishable commodity, and deliveries would need to be made as early in the day as possible.





There were surprisingly few tourists around. Perhaps it was the early hour (though Alison said there were quite a few tourists when she and her Jeff went to Tsukiji on a weekend), perhaps it was because it was not a place where tourists were particularly welcomed, only tolerated. But if it's DEFINITELY a place I'd put on a "must do" list for anyone visiting Tokyo.


I loved the energy, the frantic activity, the magnitude of everything. Most of all, it was so different from anything else I've seen elsewhere.





Jeff and I wandered out of Tsukiji via the stalls, where we checked out more of the incredible selection of sea creatures. Jeff nearly got squirted when a shellfish on one of the tables we were passing shot a six-foot stream of water across the aisle.


Outside the covered market were rows of small buildings with sushi restaurants and small shops selling things like fish products, vegetables, and restaurant supplies. After seeing all that fresh fish, Jeff and I both craved some sushi. We chose a small shop which had a sign out front saying that the staff knew English.





We each ordered the cheapest sushi set meal, which consisted of 8 pieces of sushi, miso soup, green tea. We cringed a bit at the cost, which was 2100 yen per set (CAN$28), but according to the guidebooks, this was a pretty average price for sushi. It felt a bit strange to be having a full sushi meal at 6:30 a.m., but it seems that this sort of thing is normal around Tsukiji; there were a ton of similar restaurants in the area, and all of them had customers. Jeff and I figured that most of those who worked in Tsukiji had been up since around 3 or 4 a.m., so would be pretty hungry by 6 am after unloading or buying their fish. :-)


Not surprisingly, the sushi was wonderful. It turns out only one staff member knew some limited English, but that was still enough for us to get our questions answered about the menu. Served on a big leaf instead of a plate, there were several types of sushi that neither Jeff nor I recognized. I asked the sushi chef (using Japanese, since he wasn't the English-fluent staff member), but sometimes his answers didn't clarify things a whole lot. One type of sushi was called "arch shell", for example. Not sure what this type of sea creature is.





Ack, still haven't blathered about the last half of our day yesterday, which was pretty cool. I'll try to finish that later today. It's Tuesday, 11:43 a.m. here. Jeff is napping, but we'll likely be leaving soon to visit the Ginza area this afternoon. Tomorrow we go to Kyoto for two nights to stay in a traditional Japanese ryokan, so I doubt I'll be able to post anything until we get back (until the ryokan offers Internet access, which I highly doubt :-)).


(To be continued later today, hopefully....)


Today's Blatherpics:


- Jeff at the sushi place we visited after checking out the fish market, around 6:30 a.m.


- Octopus, I think.


- Something I bought on impulse from a vendor. It cost 100 yen (about CAN$1.35). It turned out to be some type of kameboko (sp?), a fish product I remember having as a child. Yummy!


- Sample of the kind of shop in the area just outside the fish market building. Lots of interesting vegetables I've never seen before.


- Grapes. These are the only type of grapes I've seen in Japan so far...pretty big compared to Toronto grapes. Expensive, too. The bunch you see in the photo cost 650 yen (CAN $8.75!!!)....and that's probably a pretty good price, considering that I saw a similar bunch selling for 700 yen a few stalls away. All the fruit here seems to be expensive.


Today's Poll:



Are you relatively fluent in more than one language?

fish market (part one)

Posted Tues. Sept. 4, 10:53 am, Tokyo time


Located on the edge of Tokyo Bay about 2 km southeast of the Imperial Palace, Tokyo's Tsujiki Fish Market is the biggest wholesale fish market in Japan, and one of the largest in the world; it handles almost all the seafood consumed in Tokyo. Boats begin arriving at 3 am and the auctions begin by 5 or 5:15 am. Every day, five million pounds of fish are delivered here, with over four hundred different types of seafood. The guidebooks we read all strongly advised tourists to arrive by 5 to catch the best of the action.


We woke at around 4:30 a.m. This would have been a tougher feat had we planned this day trip later in our visit, but with our bodies still somewhat confused by the time change, it was somewhat easier. Jeff and I tried to be quiet as we slipped out of the apartment, to avoid waking Alison. It was still dark outside, so we were surprised to see two cabs sitting by the sidewalk nearby. When we walked up to the first one, however, we saw the cab driver stretched out in the back seat with a pillow and blanket, fast asleep. Not having the heart to wake him, we went to the next. The driver was also asleep, but sitting up.





I knocked on the window, feeling guilty but also anxious to get to Tsukiji. He blinked awake and pushed a button that automatically opened the rear door for us. After getting in, I said "Tsukiji kudasai"; I couldn't find the proper cab phrases in my language book, so figured adding "kudasai" would make my request sound more polite. Later, I discovered that I was saying, "Give me Tsjukiji, please." The cabbie looked confused, so I showed him the kanji characters for Tsukiji in my Tokyo book. Nodding, he set off.


After a brief moment of panic when the driver asked us something in Japanese (we suspect he was asking us in what part of Tsukiji we wanted to be dropped off), we got off in a warehouse area with a number of stalls set up along a sidewalk, with large trucks parked nearby. Hm...no fish around. Jeff and I suddenly realized that we had no idea how to find the actual fish auctions, and I had no clue as to how to say "fish auction" in Japanese.





We decided to follow a couple of young men wearing backpacks...hopefully they were tourists like us. Or maybe (since they obviously knew where they were going), they were heading to the area with the fish auctions. Our tactic seemed to work, since we found ourselves in a gigantic hangar-like area filled with more than 1600 stalls displaying every kind of sea creature imaginable. It was incredible...I've never seen so many different kinds of fish and shellfish.


We seemed to be ignored, which was fine with us. Everyone was busy getting stalls set up. Men were rushing all over the place with wheelbarrows and carts, and we had to be alert to dodge the motorized mini-trucks that zoomed around at high speeds.





Following the perimeter of the warehouse as well as what looked like brighter lights, Jeff and I soon found the auction area. Here we found rows of frozen tuna which had been unloaded from the docks. Each was numbered and labelled with stickers indicating their country of origin and weight. I had no idea tuna were so HUGE. Holy cow. Apparently each tuna sells for between 600,000-1 million yen (about CAN$8,000-$13,500, depending on quality). The tails had been cut off and were also on display; Alison later told us that this was another way wholesalers could judge the quality of the fish.


There was a haze of mist rising from the tuna...not sure if this was simply because it was frozen, or because of dry ice. Whatever the cause, it gave the scene a surreal quality as wholesalers wandered through the aisles examining the fish. Each seemed to be carrying a white towel hanging from one pocket (probably for wiping their hands after looking at each fish?), a flashlight (which they used when looking inside the fish), and some kind of pick which they swung into the fish. Not sure about the pick thing; Jeff and I speculated that the feel of the pick hitting the fish might be giving the wholesaler an idea of the quality, or how frozen the tuna was. Then they'd scribble something on a piece of paper and go to the next fish.





Whenever there was an auction, someone would ring a bell. The auctioneer would start yelling something in Japanese which sounded remarkably like a North American auctioneer in terms of speed and rhythm. Some would add a lot of arm and body movement, almost like a dance. In the crowd of waiting wholesalers, sometimes hands would go up, stirring the auctioneer on to further yelling. At some point, the fish was sold, was marked and loaded onto wheelbarrows and carted away. We never saw cash exchange hands, only what looked like coupons or receipts.


Nearby, several trucks were unloading large blocks of ice. Sometimes an order was obviously for ground-up ice, and the ice grinding machine would go to work, spewing out a white river of the stuff which was collected in heavy bags and loaded onto the delivery cart.





(To be continued later today....)


Today's Blatherpics:


- Wholesalers examining tuna.


- Taxi ride just before 5 a.m.


- Eels.


- One of the many auctions that took place in Tsukiji.


Today's Poll:



Have you ever flown in a plane alone? (if you've never flown, please don't answer this poll, thanks...that way I can also find out how many people have flown at all)

Akihabara

(Sept.4 addition: Ack! The first time I typed this in, I was having a conversation with Alison and Jeff at the same time. I've corrected a number of typos as well as expanding somewhat...)


I am typing this while waiting for my laundry in the basement of Alison's apartment. Cost for a washer and dryer load is 100 yen each (about CAN$1.35). I'm on the wash cycle right now...the only tricky part was figuring out how to select warm water temperature rather than hot; the buttons are all labelled in kanji. I experimented a bit by poking different buttons and think I've got the right setting. We'll see how it turns out. :-)





A gray day with drizzling rain starting in the afternoon. We still had a great day, however...my dad had warned me that it rained a lot in Japan, and to always carry an umbrella. From what we could tell, every second store in Tokyo seemed to sell umbrellas. For cheap, too! We saw small umbrellas ranging from $2 and up. I suspect that some Japanese never bother carrying umbrellas with them since they can be easily and cheaply bought almost anywhere.


Sadly, the Imperial Palace grounds were closed today. Later, I discovered they are only open on Mondays and Fridays. I had a very brief conversation with the security guard (my first attempted conversation with a Japanese local!). Having Alison with us yesterday was wonderful...it must have looked odd to the locals, having a Caucasian woman be a translator for someone who looked Japanese. :-) Anyway, I did manage to ask the guard whether or not he spoke English (he didn't), and when the Palace grounds were open. His reply was indecipherable to me except for the Japanese word for Friday. I assumed this mean that the next day that the grounds were open was Friday, but it turned out later that he was telling me the grounds were closed every day except for Monday and Friday. Shows you how knowing a little Japanese can be more confusing than knowing a lot sometimes!





We walked through Kitanomaru park where I bought an interesting ice-cream sandwich which looked like a fluffy waffle filled with vanilla icecream. Yum. I also got my first experience with a Japanese public toilet (see above photo). The one in the Tokyo airport had Western-style toilets and sinks, but no paper towels on which to dry one's hands. My dad had warned me to bring handkerchiefs for this purpose, as other Japanese did. He also told me to make sure I had kleenex or toilet paper handy in case none was available (this advice also came in handy). Somewhat curious by these warnings, I actually did do some research online about Japanese toilets and how to use them. I'm glad I did, else I might have been a bit freaked by the unusual appearance. :-) There were copious written instructions in Japanese, but of course these meant nothing to me. For all I know, some of them could have said, "DANGER! Whatever you do, don't push the red button! Bad things will happen!"


The flusher mechanism took some figuring out. It seemed to have two settings; I took a wild guess and chose one, which seemed to work. I took a picture of the Japanese characters above each setting to show Alison; she told me that they represented the meanings of big and small, obviously to represent the amount of water flow I thought would be necessary for flushing.





We decided to walk up to Akihabera, an area packed with stores selling electronics. On the way, we stopped by any shops that looked interesting. And a TON looked interesting! One thing I love about Japan is that it is so completely different from Canada in many ways, making an ordinary stroll down the street pretty fascinating.





One area we passed was heavy on bookstores, including English books. Jeff and I are both nuts for bookstores, so we browsed many of these stores, even if we couldn't read most of the books. I was sorely tempted at one bookstore that had an excellent children's book section, with Japanese versions of Harry Potter titles, the Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien books, and even Philip Pullman's Golden Compass series. Most were fairly pricey, however, and I knew it would take the rest of my lifetime to learn to read even part of these novels. Jeff suggested that instead we buy Edward Gorey's Gashleycrumb Tinies in Japanese. I'm a big fan of Gorey, and am looking forward to learning to read the Japanese version.


One of my favourite moments today was when I saw an elderly bike courier carefully laying out breadcrumbs in a straight row on a fence railing, whistling. After finishing, he stood still for a few minutes as two sparrows fluttered down and began pecking at the bread. Then he smiled and left with his package, blending again into the whirlwind of frenetic activity that is Tokyo.





We knew we had reached Akihabara by the sudden onslaught of competing audio-systems and displays packed with every kind of electronics imaginable. Lots of cool toys, but Jeff noticed that some were priced higher than they would have been in Toronto. We ended up doing a lot of fun window shopping (the sheer volume of electronics and electrical appliance shops was fascinating), but no buying. Akihabera accounts for one-tenth of Japan's electronics and electronic-appliance sales.


For lunch, we stopped at a small restaurant in Akihabara that had a plastic food display of a simple lunch that cost 850 yen (about $12 Canadian). We took our shoes off to sit in our booth, and eagerly examined the menu. It was all in Japanese, zero English (see below). I asked our waiter if he spoke English, and he shook his head. Uh oh. However, I found that like my encounter with the Imperial Palace security guard, it was quite possible to communicate via sign language and broken Japanese. I was immensely relieved when he understood that we wanted the set lunch. Hey, and I even asked for a glass of water and HE UNDERSTOOD, woohoo! He pointed out that we already had ocha (cold tea) at the table. I said this was fine, so he brought over two cups.





Lunch was a bowl of rice, two small breaded pork cutlets, grilled fish of some kind, miso soup, shredded cabbage, a small piece of soft tofu with some chopped green onion on top, and some kind of blue pickled thing (radish, perhaps). The waiter pointed out two sauces and then carefully indicated which sauce was to be used with which part of the meal. He was very friendly, and also kinda cute (Jeff agreed). Anyway, lunch was even yummier because of our triumph in being able to get the food we wanted despite the language barrier. And then I asked for the bill in Japanese and HE UNDERSTOOD ME AND BROUGHT THE BILL. (Debbie does a gleeful Snoopy dance)





After lunch, we visited the temple of Senso-ji as well as Nakamise Dori. More info about this (and photos!) tomorrow. I'm dead tired, and Jeff and I are going to crash early tonight so we can get up super-early tomorrow to see the fish market.


Hey, we got e-mail from the Fossil Guy in B.C.!



Hey Debbie and Jeff,

Thank you for visiting the fossil shack and sending over the

image. Visited yer website today and couldn't believe it, that I was

there. Hope ya'll are having a great time in Tokyo. Nice to meet

good people. Thanks again. All the best.

Cheers,

Bill



More tomorrow...


Today's Blatherpics


- Me with green tea icecream (in a cone! never saw that before) in Nakamise Dori. The icecream was VERY yummy, better than the stuff back in Toronto.


- Japanese coins. My favourite is the one with the hole in the middle (50 yen, I think).


- A Japanese public toilet. Definitely unlike Western toilets, and needs a bit of practice before getting used to. No toilet paper or paper towels are provided, so you have to carry around your own. Most Japanese seem to use kleenex and handkerchiefs. Handkerchiefs seem to be very popular here, not just for drying one's hands but also for dabbing one's face/nose when it gets hot. As a child, I used to always wonder why I got so many handkerchiefs as gifts from friends and relatives in Japan. I usually folded them up and stuck them away in storage. Before the trip, I took them out again and put them in my suitcase. :-)


- Display case at the front of a store that sold brushes. Every kind of brush you could possibly imagine.


- Western children's books that have been translated into Japanese.


- Jeff in Akihabara.


- Lunch menu. Unable to read it, we asked for the set menu instead (through sign language and broken Japanese).


- Subway commuters at rush hour.


Today's Poll: (Thanks to Alison for this suggestion)



Have you ever seen the original movie, "Godzilla"?

tokyo! (part two)

(This is part two of a 2-part Blathering.)


Jeff and I had been warned about the heat (Alison's Jeff got sunstroke the first day here when he visited), but luckily things have cooled off somewhat. Perhaps because of the typhoon that went through part of Japan recently! Anyway, armed with a hat, sunscreen, and lots of Water Salad and other drinks from the public vending machines, we were fine.


Around 2 pm, we decided to head back to Alison's. We took the Tokyo subway, which is way more complicated than the one in Toronto. Alison was our guide; it will be interesting to see how Jeff and I cope when she's not with us. She gave us each cards with a small map of the area immediately around her apartment, with her apartment clearly marked...at least this way we'll be able to tell a taxi driver how to get us back to her place, if necessary. There seem very few street signs and no consistent building numbering system.





After snacking on yummy rice snacks (Jeff and I picked up a bunch of interesting-looking packaged rice balls which we chose by colour since we couldn't read the characters), I transferred my 148 photos (all taken since we arrived at Vancouver airport to fly here) to my laptop, deleted the rejects (leaving about 100), wrote these Blatherings. By the time I finished, Jeff and Alison were napping; I joined them. :-)


We woke after about 1.5 hours. Jeff was too groggy to go out for dinner, so I turned on the television to stir his tv-alert genes. And surprisesurprise, there was another food show on! This one seemed to be entirely about three men eating various cuts of beef. First the part of beef would be highlighted on a cartoon cow, who would smile and nod her head up and down. Then the men would cook pieces of the chosen beef on a grill, after which the camera would zoom in on each man dipping the meat in some kind of sauce then (and this was close-up, mind you) put the meat in his mouth. While still chewing, each man would grunt a delighted or outraged response.





Guest Blathering from Alison George:


My first guest blather. How exciting!


I am so happy to have Jeff and Debbie in Japan. It is wonderful to show people around and know I will have shared experiences with others. I've been here now for about two and a half months, and my only other visitor was my husband (JeffL, for anyone who read the Killarney trip report). I find it so nice to try to explain some of the culture, customs, etc. to visitors. I also very much enjoy seeing the reaction of people who are new to Japan to all the different things here. (Case in point....Debbie's reaction to "Water Salad")


Including this trip, I've lived in Japan for about two and a half years. The first year was way way back when I was 17. I was an exchange student sponsored by the Rotary Club, and I attended Japanese high school for a year in a town called Yatsushiro, on the southern island of Kyushu. I lived with host families, and was completely immersed in this culture, studying Koto (Japanese harp), Aikido (a martial art), flower arranging and of course, the language. I had no choice....foreigners in that town were scarce -- so scarce that people would stop and stare when I walked down the street. It was a challenging, unbelievable experience for me. I was shown so much, and learned so much and I was at an age when information just absorbed so easily (funny how that changes with time).





When I finished university, I decided it was a good idea to find out how much Japan was in my system, so I returned for another year. I was 23, and lived in Tokyo, teaching English and studying Japanese. Though again a remarkable year, I began to realize that I did not feel "centred" or at home in Tokyo. The city is enormous, busy and very different from Toronto. So I shifted gears somewhat, eased up on the Japanese classes and started to work at a radio station -- which was great fun. I have no regrets about spending a second year here. It helped with my language, taught me independence, all very important at that age.


This time round, I am here because of a short-term job transfer. My company was looking for someone to help out in our Tokyo regional office. Because of my experience here, and that I know some Japanese, they asked me if I would consider the opportunity. It was a scary prospect -- I would have to spend just over four months here, working on an intense project. Over that time, I would only be able to see my husband three times -- he is visiting me here twice, and I would be able to come home once (for the Killarney trip). I have the most incredibly supportive husband...we both recognized this is a once and a lifetime opportunity, and we felt we could handle the seperation. He was also intrigued with the chance to visit Japan -- his picture taking is rivalled only by Debbie. I told my boss I would go....and prepared to depart within three weeks. A week before I left, we found out I was pregnant.





Ah, the fickle finger of fate. The timing isn't so bad....I'll be just under six months when I return. The toughest part is being apart from Jeff...especially now when physical changes are well underway. I'm afraid he won't recognize me when he gets here in two weeks (we will have been apart for a month). Debbie said she'd take a "belly shot" to e-mail to Jeff. Hopefully, that will lessen the shock.


Okay, enough....I've written much more than I meant to. My next guest blathering will be about the life and times of Jeff and Debbie in Tokyo. They are doing very well, and a pleasure to have as visitors.





Today's Blatherpics


- Rice snacks we picked up on the way home.


- A number of young people are into this "Goth French Maid" style.


- Jeff and Alison, a few minutes after we arrived at her apartment.


- Flea market. Amazing selection of items for sale, with some excellent deals. I very nearly bought a gorgeous used kimono for $90, but realized I had nowhere to display it, nowhere to wear it, and it would somewhat of a pain to get back home on the plane.


- A street musician.


- Alison on Takeshite street.


- Subway car.





Today's Poll:



Have you ever watched an episode of The Iron Chef?

tokyo! (part one)

(Sunday, September 2nd, 8:40 pm, Tokyo time)


Yay, we're in Japan!


Another two-part Blatherings follows (a Guest Blathering from our friend Alison on the next page)...


Because of the reading light problems I experienced on the Air Canada flight from Toronto to Vancouver, I looked for a book reading light (the kind that you could clip on your book, or wear around your neck) as soon as we got to the airport. Despite the many shops, no one had one. And of course when we boarded the flight, I discovered that my reading light DID NOT WORK. Sigh. Fortunately our flight was during the day, so I only had problems reading when the cabin lights were off and window shades pulled. But I have vowed to track down a reading light before going back...I would not survive a 12 hour flight with no reading light.


The nine hour flight from Vancouver to Japan went by remarkably fast, considering that neither Jeff nor I were able to sleep very much. We both had books and magazines, plus the two movies were pretty good ("Spy Kids" and "Bullets Over Broadway"). Then about 2/3 way through the flight, a flight attendant brought a message to the passenger sitting next to me, beside the window. Turns out that his luggage was never put on the plane, so it would be delivered a day late.


We then got in a conversation with the guy, who turned out to be an Asian Studies student teaching English in Tokyo, who has been living in Japan for the past four years. He gave us tips on sights to see in Tokyo, where to eat, etc.


The food on the flight was pretty good, and included Asian-theme variations like green tea, cold Oolong tea, sushi, hot towels, Japanese rice crackers. Soy sauce in extremely cute clear plastic containers shaped like tiny fish.





We took a bus from the airport to the Prince Hotel, where we met Alison. Alison looked great and remarkably energetic/perky for someone who is four and a half months pregnant. We walked to her apartment, where we chatted and snacked on stuff in her fridge and watched some Japanese tv before crashing fairly early. I was extremely braindead, and fell asleep within a few seconds of my head hitting the pillow.


Here are some highlights of our trip so far, as well as some differences I've noticed already between the Japanese and North American culture:


- Japanese tv. A lot of the shows seem to be about food. Eating it, cooking it, examining it. One show we found was about sticky food. Two guys in lab coats were comparing the relatively stringiness of various types of Japanese food.


- Plastic food displays. They are all over the place, and remarkably realistic. I like these because you can tell immediately what the restaurant serves. Most plates have a small label with the price in yen. I figure that if Jeff and I have problems ordering in restaurants and Alison isn't with us, we can drag our waiter or waitress outside and just point. :-)





- My first Japanese restaurant experience. We went to a Starbucks a few blocks from Alison's place. Alison and Jeff ordered some frosty drinks (it's pretty warm here right now, around 30 degrees, which is a lot cooler than it's been in recent months). I wasn't planning to get anything, but then noticed PUMPKIN sandwiches in the case. Wow, very cool. I had to try one, of course. I reached in and started to pull one out, but then remembered that I had seen the Starbucks clerk take one out with tongs for a customer. Oops. I pulled back, but then accidentally knocked another sandwich (fortunately wrapped in plastic) on the floor. Mortified, I put the sandwich back in the case and took out my pumpkin sandwich (heck, I figured I might as well go all the way since everyone was probably looking at me anyway). Went to the counter, where the clerk smiled and said something to me in Japanese. Augh. I muttered something incoherently and looked confused, and then the clerk pointed to a sign which said "350 yen". I handed over a 1000 yen note, not sure if I was paying $1 for the sandwich or $100. The clerk handed back some change and said, "Thank you" with another smile. I marched out of the Starbucks red-faced but triumphant, having (barely) successfully made my first purchase in Japan.





- Clothes and doorframes are smaller. Jeff has to duck to get into Alison's apartment. I'm sure he's going to bonk his forehead at least once during our trip.


- Other differences I've noticed: More people seem to smoke. There don't appear to be non-smoking areas in restaurants, but perhaps I'm wrong. Right now I'm trying to memorize how to say "a non-smoking train car, please".


- People don't tend to wear safety helmets when riding bicycles, even when using child carriers. I was pretty horrified to see a father go by with a baby in a carrier on the back of his seat WITHOUT A HELMET, and a toddler girl sitting in front of him, also without a helmet.





- Flea market. The one Alison took us to apparently only occurs twice a month; our timing was lucky. Huge event, with all kinds of interesting items for sale including second-hand kimonos (yes, I was highly tempted! the prices were pretty cheap), Japanese swords, musical instruments, manga, bowls, toys, books, old family photo albums, tons more.


- People-watching. I am going to have a TON of fun people-watching in Japan. It's fascinating. Some initial observations: There are very few overweight Japanese people. Many Japanese (especially the younger generation) dye their hair different shades, including blonde, red, orange, brown. There seems to be a much wider range of fashion styles in Tokyo than in Toronto, from full traditional kimono get-up to new age goth to platform shoes to business outfits, etc. We spent some time on Takeshite Street, which is somewhat the equivalent of the hippie area of Queen Street in Toronto.





Another highlight today was seeing weddings at the Meiji Shrine. We were lucky enough to see several weddings in progress at the Meiji Shrine, where the brides and some of the wedding party were in full traditional clothing. Absolutely gorgeous (see above and below). (Note from Guest Blatherer, Alison....As we approached the Meiji Shrine, I told Jeff and Debbie...rather proudly... how very fortunate my husband and I had been several months earlier to happen upon a wedding party at the shrine. We felt so priviledged and lucky! Of course, there was a plethera of weddings going on today -- it was wedding central. Debbie even managed to get into a few of the group shots.)





Continued on the next page...


Today's Blatherpics


- Me with Water Salad, a yummy drink I bought from one of the zillion beverage vending machines all over Tokyo. There were also a zillion cigarette vending machines.


- Japanese TV.


- Plastic food display.


- Alison's apartment, which is larger than the average apartment in Japan. I was standing just in front of the inside entrance. Immediately to the right is the bathroom, and immediately to the left is the kitchen. The building kindly loaned Alison a single-person pull-out cot during our stay. I feel pretty guilty about Alison (our pregnant hostess!) staying on the cot, and am Immensely Grateful to her for letting us invade her space for 12 days!


- Pepsi promotional booth. There was a crowd of young men lined up along the sidewalk, not surprisingly.


- Wedding we saw at Meiji shrine.


- Another wedding at Meiji shrine. We saw THREE during the hour we were there. Obvious a popular spot. :-)