Japan, Day 4

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

On Tuesday we woke up as early as possible to go to the Tokyo fish market. Unfortunately, tourists were really disrupting the auctions, so that part was closed to visitors, but we got to go to the market itself. The second we turned into the market area, we were practically run over. Everywhere we looked, there were people running and pushing carts, mopeds driving and motored carts moving in all different directions, all at high speed. I really want to know how many tourists get run over and killed every year there.

Ahead of us was the market, which looks like a gigantic covered parking lot. It looked like it was about the size of a stadium--I couldn't even see to the end. It's set up so that there are narrow aisles going forward and slightly wider aisles going across, where the carts zip through. We had to look both ways a million times before wandering across. While walking down the narrower aisles, we had to also watch so that we didn't get hit by fish pieces, water or running fishermen. Chaos is the word that comes to mind. You can't even see to the end of the market because it's so big. It's just stall after stall...

That's a huge pile of tuna. The ones sitting there are frozen solid--they just throw them around like it's nothing, but Katsumi said that they can go for up to 2 million yen!

Sometimes, they use huge picks and hack away at the bones. The fish are completely frozen, so when I stood within a few feet, I got sprayed by tiny bits of frozen tuna.

Then when it's a whole fish, they cut it with electric table saws, as if the fish are just pieces of wood.

One of my favorites, salmon roe! It's still in the sac (not something I'm a big fan of), but still it looked pretty good ("That makes great bait."--Andy).

Here are some live eels. Dad tried to convince me to stick my hand inside, but I wasn't really about that.

Another one of my favorites, I've been told that these are scallops. I never knew what they looked like in the shell until now.

This stand had just a ton of octopus. After our sushi dinner, I got really hungry looking at these--just a little bit of salt and some real wasabi, mmm...

Some beautiful, colorful, giant shrimps. Still alive, but not for long.

I have no idea what kind of fish these were, but they were gigantic. Really fat, too.

We walked around for quite a bit. To be honest, it was a really stressful place to walk around in since we were constantly having to dodge carts, fish, and those motorized cart things. It took us like 15 minutes just to try and get out of the place. Eventually, I figured out that if you pick out a local looking person and just run behind them, you can usually get out safely.

On our way out, we started to get really hungry, and not for fish, so we stopped at a family restaurant called "Jonathan's." It was pretty much a Denny's, Japan-style. We both got a stack of pancakes, which were really cute but definitely Japanese-sized, meaning about a quarter of the size of any pancake you'd get in the U.S. I was pretty full anyway, so after our pancakes, we headed over to the zoo to see the panda.

The first animal we saw at Ueno Zoo was a red panda. He was almost like a raccoon, but so cute.

This is the giant panda. Unfortunately, I didn't understand how to use the picture stabilizer on my camera, but you can probably get the gist of how cute the panda was.

Normally, I wouldn't think that seeing lions and tigers was a big deal, however at Ueno Zoo, it is totally worth it. When I'd go to the zoo at home to see lions and tigers, there would be a glass wall, a moat, an electric fence with barbed wire and then another moat. In Japan, there is a stone wall in some areas and a thick glass wall. We were able to get within inches of the animals! This is the one male lion...

And one of the female lions...

We were also within inches of the tiger. There were a bunch of little kids at the zoo who were not about getting up close to this window.

When we were leaving the zoo, there were tons of kids walking all over the place. According to Katsumi, the zoo is a really popular place for schoolkids to go on field trips. There was one group of kids that were absolutely adorable, they had made little binoculars out of toilet paper holders, and were walking around the zoo trying to look through them. I just hope that the panda's area is sound proof because when we walked by the cave he was in, all we could hear were screaming kids.

Next, we met up with Katsumi (who was ditching work!), who picked us up and we drove out to Yokohama. Yokohama is a really gorgeous city that is right on the water. We went out for dim sum because Yokohama is supposed to have the largest Chinatown in Japan. Leave it to the Japanese to have the cleanest, nicest looking Chinatown I've ever seen. The dim sum place that we went to was pretty decent, but I just couldn't fathom the fact that it was relatively expensive. My experiences with dim sum are paying $5.00 for take-out and still having leftovers, so I was a bit confused. Either way, it was still pretty good and I was full.

We walked around Yokohama for a bit too. Since it's a port city, they host a ship that used to be the only way to get from Japan to the States.

Next, we drove out to take a look at Kei-Oh University. It's a university that also hosts the high school that Kohta goes to. The campus was really nice, and had great facilities. We weren't allowed to go watch Kohta's rugby practice, so we decided to go back to Tokyo and get dinner.

That night, Katsumi decided it was time to introduce me to real soba noodles. The restaurant was within walking distance to our hotel, so we just parked at Katsumi's house and walked over. On the way, I noticed some interesting restaurant names that I'll just let speak for themselves.

For once I was smart enough to take my own photos of the meal! We started out with what my sister and I call "rags," the skin of the tofu that is peeled off during some stage of making it. It was served with a little bit of real wasabi. You can click on this picture to get a closer look at the wasabi.

Next was seaweed covered in fish roe. It was a little bit sour, as if the seaweed had been pickled. It was also really crunchy due to both the seaweed and the roe.

Next was probably the most interesting thing I ate on the trip. Now, looking at the food below, it looks pretty appetizing...Without any questions, I began to pick some of it up and was about to pop it into my mouth when Dad goes, "What is it?" Katsumi told us it was whale right before I began to chew. Ugh. I kept it in my mouth to try to be polite and was really weirded out when I started to kind of like it. The part that we ate was the blubber, which was boiled down and then served cold. It wasn't greasy/fatty/oily at all. It was actually kind of like the "cloud" fungus that Paw Paw puts in Wintermelon Soup, only a lot lighter. It kind of melts in your mouth, but has a bit of a crunch to it. The taste isn't fishy, but you can definitely tell that it comes from the ocean. It's served with a lime wedge, so there's some citrus flavor to it as well. Anyway, I really liked it, and so did Dad, but it was a little bit disconcerting ("You ate SHAMUU!"--Andy). Plus, I really couldn't waste it, because it's a delicacy in Japan. Margaret says that they justify whale hunting by saying that it's for "scientific research." Might as well...

Now for one of my favorite parts of the meal. Restaurants that serve soba noodles also serve tempura...But not sushi. That's one of the things that most people, including myself, tend to get confused about. In the U.S., when we go out for Japanese food, you can get noodles, soup, sushi, and tempura at the same place. In Japan, there are restaurants that only serve sushi, and other restaurants, like this one, that serve soba and tempura. The tempura that we had was eel tempura. It was awesome. Really tender and flavorful on the inside, and unbelievably crispy on the outside. It was also served with little tempura green peppers.

For me, Katsumi ordered cold soba noodles, and also a plate of udon noodles (on the left) so that I could compare. The noodles come cold, served on baskets. That soup in the front is piping hot, and really strong in flavor so that I could take the noodles, dip them in the soup, and then slurp them up. Though I liked both noodles, the soba were definitely my favorite. I was very proud because Katsumi said that it was very "Asian" of me to like them better.

Soba noodles are very hard to make, especially to make good ones. Katsumi is in the process of learning, which is supposed to take at least three years. It's something that has to do with achieving the perfect mix of ingredients, otherwise they fall apart. Plus, they have to be made fresh every day, otherwise they don't taste right.

The last thing that I tried were these little fish. I have no idea what kind they were. They weren't salty enough to be sardines...They were dried, so they were really chewy and slightly salty. Very good.

After this meal, I was about to slip into a food coma, so we started to head back to the hotel. It was another really eventful and filling day.