Spring Break

Spring break began almost 2 weeks ago, and in spite of my enthusiasm to travel around Tokyo as much as possible while time is available, somehow almost all of my plans have managed to fall through.  I would call it a miracle except that it's easily attributed to my lack of experience planning outings.

I did tag along with some other adventures, however, and it is probably for the best that I didn't travel excessively (as train fare gets expensive).

On the 16th I went back to Tsukiji, this time with students and the professor of a global economics class that I took last semester.  The professor is very humorous and is always trying to make the exchange students feel welcome to Japan, so I appreciate him and plan on taking his course again next semester.

Everyone assembled at school around 10 at night and we proceeded to take the train to Ginza and have a light meal at Denny's.  It was truly miraculous how, throughout the night, our group managed to split itself starkly between Japanese boys, Asian girls, Western girls, and Western guys.  It always amused me how in my Japanese classes our teachers strived to put us into groups that mixed genders and nationalities as much as possible.

Regardless, we still enjoyed diverse company and dessert.  Japanese Denny's is rather similar to American Denny's although the menu items are more gourmet (and smaller of course).

 furuutsu nata de coco (Fruit with coconut milk)

Afterwards we proceeded to spend a couple of hours at an internet/manga cafe.  Basically, a nice place to stay overnight if you miss your train, since hotels are expensive!  You pay around ¥1000 and can help yourself to computers, manga comic books, magazine, and the soda/coffee fountain.

Then off to the fish market (part 2!)

I was excited to see this green wall on my walk there.  I took a class about urban sustainability and vegetated architecture, but I've never actually seen it close up.  Leave it to Japan to give me my first glimpse! :)

Incidentally, green walls provide good insulation to the building and help preserve the building's facade by taking the elements (sunlight, rain) and putting them to good use by fixing CO2.  A win-win situation for the urban environment.  Just more costly.

 

A large piece of fish.  My hand doesn't really provide accurate perspective though, as it is distorted by distance.

It was interesting to see more of the interior of the market this time.  I definitely got a better glimpse of the seafood.

Giant tuna!

They look a little like specimens in my opinion.  Not really fish and not really edible.  More like tiny, frozen dolphins.

We entered the market around 5 and waited 30 minutes for the auction to begin.  There was a lot of preparation and inspection of the tuna underway.  Multiple people would come to the same fish and inspect the inside of it with a flashlight, hack at parts of it with an ice-pick, mark it with red paint, rinse it off with a hose, apply tags to the fish with steaming hot water.  A very peculiar procedure.

Meanwhile, a guard would walk around in front of the tourists bearing a sign saying "No flash photography."  Apparently the flash blinds the auctioneer and prevents him from seeing people's bids.

The actual auction didn't take as long as I had expected.  There were about two rounds.  The fish were sold from ¥90000.  I didn't manage to get any pictures, because I couldn't get a very good vantage point and I expected more opportunities in the future.  But the auction proceeded as most auctions do--but a little more orderly.  It seemed as though there were two auctioneers shouting prices simultaneously.

Afterwards, we ducked into a neighboring restaurant for sushi, but I just got miso soup this time around.  It was very chilly that day, and snow fell heavily around Tokyo.  Quite magical.

On Wednesday I went to Yokohama with several friends. Yokohama is a port city located south of Tokyo.  It features a fairly large Chinatown area as well as shopping, museums and rides around the city area.

I don't have too much to explain, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

China district

Panda-man (red bean paste-filled bun)

 

  

  

Landmark lighthouse.  Tallest inland lighthouse in Japan (and the world)

  

  

  

  

 

 

We got to ride on the ferris wheel.  It lasted 15 minutes, moving very slowly the whole time, never stopping, so you kind of have to jump on and off mission impossible style (not really)

Well, that about wraps up this long blog post.  I don't suppose I will be able to update much in Kyushu, but there is limited internet so I hope that I will have some chances to keep in touch.  Wish me luck! :)