Day 29 Japan
I decided not to go to the tuna auction. I'm regretting it a little bit but I feel like it was the right decision.
Instead I had a nice sleep in my cabin.
I did however go to the fish market when I woke up. I got there about 9am and by the time I found the wholesale bit with all the fish they were mostly packing up. I guess I needed to get up earlier to see the best bit. There was still a bit of activity happening but I'd say half the vendors were gone or cleaning up. To be honest I feel like the Busan market in South Korea was far more interesting and engaging from a tourist perspective unless I just completely missed a whole section. It is supposed to be 55 hectares or something so that's completely possible.
Regardless I wandered around for a while and it was interesting and a lot cleaner than I expected. Go Japan.
I was a total asshole to a couple of tourists at the market though. There was this one particularly place doing sushi that had about an hour wait to get in there because some review of the Internet said it was the best. I was walking past the line and I spotted a couple of westerners and I just couldn't help myself.
I walked up to them and asked what they were in line for. They told me then I asked them if they knew enough about sushi to be able to tell the difference between the sushi at this place versus the place next door that had no line. They looked at me (with some attitude - deserved) then each other and said "no" then went back to staring at their phones and stayed in the line. I had a little laugh then walked off. I was definitely an asshole but they definitely deserved it. I'm on a mission to improve the world one asshole conversation at a time.
I ate Sushi at the market as well and I walked right in without lining up. It was tasty but completely overpriced and on the way out I walked past heaps more that would have been just as good for 1/3 of the price.
Afterwards I just went for a bit of a wander around the Ginza and Marunouchi areas which are sort of high rise shopping and business districts. Pretty cool areas to walk around as they are filled with skyscrapers and heaps of money. Not really a lot for me to do there since I'm not interested in shopping but it was entertaining for a while.
Tokyo is a really beautiful city.
There are a lot of really nice buildings, gardens and trees, neon lights, train tracks and cars/buses and it all just works together. I haven't yet found any area so overwhelmingly busy as to be offputting. It is a huge city though. It takes a long time to walk around and the subway system (while very extensive) is not as good as Beijing (more expensive and more confusing).
After a while I headed back to get my bag and check into my last hotel for Japan. I'm staying in Shinjuku for the last 3 nights I'm in the country in an actual hotel for a little bit of luxury before I head off to Russia. It's not a fancy hotel by any means but I'm very happy with my little room. I have a private bathroom and a double bed with a very comfortable mattress and good pillows. In fact I'm sitting here right now when I should be out exploring because it's just nice to have a private space for a while.
The Shinjuku station area is quite confusing. Apparently this is the busiest railway station in the world and I can see that possibly being true. Many lines meet here and there are many exits and there are multiple levels and it's huge. One of the biggest issues I've had so far in Tokyo is figuring out which exit I need to use. Smaller stations are fine but the bigger stations can be really challenging. I've often looked at the station map, been certain which exit I had to use then ended up on the wrong side of the station. Ah well.
So my plan for this evening was to wander around Shinjuku then go have a few more drinks at Dry Dock and check out the Nippon TV clock.
I started with the Tokyo Metropolitan Department observation deck. It's a free observation deck on the 45th floor of a government building in Tokyo and it's 5 minutes walk from my hotel so why not. It's a bit overcast this evening so the light isn't amazing but you can see Tokyo sprawling out into the distance. There was some sort of protest or rally happening outside the building but I couldn't figure out what it was about so got bored pretty quickly.
I found a little street north of the station that is supposed to be like old-timey Japan. A small alley with old style restaurants jammed next to each other and lanterns all around the place. Probably used to be pretty cool but now it's just a tourist trap with heaps of people taking selfies.
After that I headed to the red light district which is the biggest one in Japan. I'm not sure if I missed it or if it's all contained in the high rise buildings but it was pretty tame and didn't feel any different to any other part of Tokyo. I'll come back a bit later and check it out again.
Back to Shibuya and I headed to Hayao Miyazaki's Nippon Television big clock. Derek recommended this since it's so close to Dry Dock. I'm not exactly sure whether it's based off a book or anime show or what but it's basically a big animatronic steampunk clock that does a bit of a performance a few times a day. I aimed for the 8pm showing since there seemed to be some lights and such on it so thought it might be more interesting.
It's actually pretty hard to see in this video what's going on because there aren't any spotlights or anything on the clock so it doesn't show up very well. But I could see what was going on with my eyes so that's all that really matters. It was pretty cool. Each of the little sections did a bit of an act then they all worked together til the show was over. There were some gears going around and some little things going side to side. It was fun and the show went for maybe 5 minutes all up. I'm not sure I would recommend going to see it specifically but if you're in the area at the right time it's worth a quick stop.
Back to the bar after that for a couple of drinks and dinner. It was totally packed when I got there so they planted me on the stairs where I had to dodge people coming going up and down with drinks for a while. It's a really nice little bar. No seats downstairs so it's all standing. It's right under the train tracks so you can hear the trains rumbling over the top every couple of minutes but it's not loud enough to obstruct conversation. And the fried chicken WAS really good. I even saw the troll in the corner who makes it but Kat says that unless I have a photo it doesn't count.
On the way back I had another wander through late night Shibuya which is still a cool area. I'll stay here next time I come to Tokyo.
I also wandered around through the red light district in Shinjuku again. It was much busier this time but still not quite what I was expecting. There were heaps of touts around trying to get people into places but couldn't see any of those places so it was actually pretty boring. The Sapporo area was much more lively and fun with a lot more to see for someone just wandering around. Again - I might have missed the most interesting areas but I suspect it's all just private stuff in the high rise buildings.
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