Fish Heads and Cherry Blossoms

We had a great sleep and we were up bright and early (5:00 am). Our early start actually fit well with a portion of the trip that I really wanted to experience, it's called the Tsukiji Fish Market. After spending a little time trying to figure out how to use the metro system, we made our way to the market.

Every morning from 5:30 - 8:30 thousands of fish are auctioned off to local restaurants. The tuna auction is no longer open to visitors, but you don't need to see the auction to experience the mayhem of this location.

When we first arrived at the market we walked up and down rows and rows of narrow little market stalls where people sell everything from freaky looking delicacies, to wicked hand made knives. One of my favorite things I saw today were the tiny little restaurants that were jammed into these little market stalls. Each restaurant was the width of about two and a half doors and had a kitchen operating spot on one side, and a row of seats for 5-7 people on the other. At 8:00 in the morning these little spots are full and have lines of people waiting to have the freshest sushi available!

Little restaurant near the Tsukiji Fish Market. I am standing at one end, note the people outside waiting to get in on the other side.

Um, not a chance!!!

After checking out the rows of shops, we headed across the street to get to the actual fish market. This proved to be more dangerous and difficult then one would think. The market is loaded, and I mean loaded with hundreds of guys riding around on little one person carts that they move fish around on. If you weren't dodging one of them, you were dodging a tiny little delivery van that was shuttling its prized purchases off to various restaurants.

You have to watch your back around here. In the actual fish market the rows you are walking in are the width of the carts and the dudes are still racing around.

This guy was directing traffic as the little white vans and carts were bustling around. I think he made it worse.....

We walked around for a couple of hours and were continually amazed by the fish on display. What was crazy about the fish market was that it didn't smell fishy at all, which is shocking, because I have to tell you, there were some freaky things there.

Told ya......

Fintan's new friend.

After the fish market we hopped on the Metro and headed for the Shinjuku-Gyoen gardens, which is great spot to view the cherry blossoms. Springtime and the arrival of the cherry blossoms is a huge part of the Japanese culture. Even on a cold rainy day like today, there were hundreds of Japanese folks in the park taking each others pictures in front of the first cherry blossoms of the year.

After the park we wandered into the Shinjuku area which is home to the busiest train station in the world. More the 2 million people use Shinjuku station everyday...

More to come later....