Friends in a Strange Land: The Bryan, Amy, and John Visit (part 1)--Ghibli and Tsukiji

Immediately after the Parade in Harajuku, I hopped on the subway and went to Oshiage, where I boarded a Narita Express train. I got to Narita's Terminal 2 just after the gang's flight had arrived, and I waited excitedly for them to come out of immigration. I was holding a sign that said "Varnsen, Pennypacker, and Van deLay." It was the first of many Seinfeld references that would punctuate their stay in Japan. It was about 10:30 pm when we finally made our way back to Asakusa, and dropped off their things at the hostel, where we met back up with Katie. The 5 of us went out to wander the surrounding area for a bit, and settled at a noodle shop for some good eats. One of the things I love most about Japan is the preponderance of hole-in-the-wall eateries that are downright delicious. Ramen is not just a staple food, it's an art form here. Every shop has its own spin on it. This particular shop had noodles in a thick, spicy sauce--OISHIKATA! Everyone was pretty tired from the trip, so we went back to the hostel to sack out.


The next morning, we hopped on the metro for Ueno Park. We stopped at a Pronto coffee shop for breakfast and then wandered around in the park for a bit. Lisa was not scheduled to arrive until Tuesday evening, so we spent two days getting the gang acclimated to Japan and coming off of jet lag. I introduced them to convini food--onigiri, manjyu, and oden. We went to Shibuya, saw Hachiko (left--famous meeting place for folks in Tokyo), and watched a few thousand people cross the street for a while.
On Tuesday, Bryan and Amy decided to take a trip to Tokyo Disney, so John and I wandered down to the Roppongi area to visit Yasukuni Shrine, a controvertial spot in Tokyo, as it houses the remains of Japanese war dead, including the remains of about 1000 convicted war crimnals from WWII. People like the Chinese and Koreans have real problems with the Yasukuni Shrine because most of those war crimes were committed against their citizens, so every time a Japanese politician shows up to pay his respects at Yasukuni Jinja (Former PM, Junichiro Koizumi, was reviled by China for going every year), the Koreans and Chiniese voice their fears and protests that Japan is returning to an autocratic, militaristic style of government. This is because at a Jinja (shrine), the faithful pray for the blessings of the people interred there, and since there are convicted war criminals among the ages of other dead warriors, they believe the Japanese are asking for support, guidance, and blessings from them. It's a difficult situation for the Japanese, as the interrment of soldiers at Yasukuni also entitles their families to pensions from the government, so removal of the criminals would mean a legal wasps' nest, since the families of the dead would have no basis for receiving the pensions they have received since WWII. At any rate, the Shrine itself is a beautiful place, and houses some of the oldest architecture in Japan. John and I wandered around in the shrine, then ate lunch in a park nearby and walked back to the metro to catch a train back to Asakusa.

I hung out with John and Katie for a bit, then went up to Kaminarimon (thunder and lightning gate) to wait for Lisa to come out of the metro station. While I was waiting, I watched the glockenspiel above the tourist information office come to life at 5 pm. Bryan and Amy arrived not long after that, but, to my disappointment, they were not regaled in Disney paraphernalia as I had hoped. They did have a good time, but I was hoping they'd be otaku-ed out. Lisa arrived at about 5:30 pm, and we began to make preparations to return to Roppongi for one of my favorite Japan-dining experiences--Gingis Kan (Genghis Kahn). MMMM! All you can eat (Tabehodai) lamb and mutton, all you can drink (nomihodai) beer--It was awesome. We got pretty snockered and then went bar hopping a bit in Roppongi. We left early enough to catch a train back to the hostel and sacked out for the night. Well, all of us except Bryan, who wandered around Asakusa rousing up more fun. He thought we were supposed to go to Tsukiji fish market the next morning, and tried to wake us at 4:30 am (you have to get up early to see the auction). For this, Bryan received a fair amount of taunting from the rest of us. In actuality, we had planned to go to Mitaka to see the Ghibli Museum at 4 pm that day.
Bryan disappeared for a while, so we left him a note to meet us at the proper station so we could all go to Mitaka. Lisa and I then showed Amy and John around Shinjuku's Skyscraper district. Afterward, we got lost in Shinjuku station (as we always do--the place is HUGE), and were at risk of not being able to meet back up with Bryan, so we left another message for him to meet us at a different place. He wasn't there, so we decided that he would figure it out and went on to Mitaka without him. We did leave a note for him at the station taped to the steps with WInnie-The-Pooh stickers. Upon arrival in Mitaka, we boarded the bus that took us to the museum (they admit you to the museum in time blocks, so you can't miss your slot or you won't be allowed in. That's why we had to leave B behind in the first place.). On the way there, we saw our very own hung-over MacGuyver walking down the road to the museum. It was pretty amazing, and so was the museum. They don't allow photography inside the museum, but at left is a shot of John with the ladies outside next to a statute of a robot seen in Ghibli's "Laputa." We came back home and went to dinner in Asakusa, and hung around there for a bit.
On Thursday morning, we went to Tsukiji fish market. This is a truly remarkable sight in Tokyo. Billions of dollars go through here every year, and the auction process is a testament to the organization and detail-mindedness of the Japanese. When we arrived at 5 am, we were almost run down by the hundreds of transport carts (right) that men drive throughout the enormous complex, moving products from the docks to the shop stalls. The outer areas of tsukiji are the fish markets where literally tons of fresh seafood are sold every day. At left is a shot of some beautiful octopus I saw in one of the shops. Inside the auction area, there were rooms full of flash-frozen tuna, gutted, marked, and waiting to be bought. The various customers were wandering around checking the texture and flavor of the meat. The buyers include seafood shop owners, restauranteurs, and sushi makers (incidentally, some of the best sushi can be found in Tsukiji, since the majority of the fish came off of the boats only a couple hours before it was made).

At about 5:45 am, a series of bells began to ring, annoucing the opening of the auction. This was a chaotic time, as various auctioneers shouted for bids from the crowd of buyers. Surrounding the auctioners were talliers, writing down the names of each buyer and marking each fish as it sold with the name of its buyer. For all the chaos, the process was very fast moving and efficient. Here's some video footage of the auction in progress:

After Tsukiji, we went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and then went to Tokyo station to catch our Shinkansen for Kyoto, part 2 of our trip blog.