Tsukiji Fish Market (Tokyo)

Some of us woke up around 3:00 AM this morning to get out of the hotel by 4:00 so we could witness the daily goings-on at Tsukiji Shijo - the famous Tsukiji Fish Market! This is basically where all the world's tuna comes from, along with tons of seafood. Bidding for the gigantic bluefin tuna begins around 5:30 AM and it's over basically in a matter of minutes. Then the fish gets taken to local restaurants and/or packed onto airplanes and shipped worldwide. This goes on every single day! Didn't include shots of the actual market, but here are shots of the sushi I had for breakfast.

The Sakura platter. It cost 3600 ¥, but I had to go big, there's no telling if I will ever have the chance to have sushi this fresh ever again.

It included unagi (eel) which was cooked with a mini torch separately from the rest of the fish!

Our sushi chef (probably in an attempt to educate us) brought out a bit of the root of the Japanese horseradish, which is what wasabi is made from!

He was quite an amazing character, saying "JJANG!" punctuating his movements while preparing the sushi, and he gave an extra dollop of uni to everyone in our group. WOW.

This is our last day in Tokyo :(. Tomorrow we depart for Beijing. I feel like we didn't spend enough time in Tokyo, but I am grateful we came here anyway no matter how short our stay was. I will miss Japan.

rainy days in Tokyo

Stick-on at Harajuku street. tiiight.

A thrift store in Harajuku had this USC shirt gracing one of their piles. REPRESENT, haha.

Crocheted/knit vests, how funny.

Murakami flower pins for 726 ¥ each (OUCH!) at a museum (?) store in Roppongi Hill.

A Murakami dinosaur/monster key chain at the same store. So cute! something like 1080 ¥. I got asked very nicely not to take photos of the Murakami merchandise right after I took this photo :(

Today we hopped around looking at development malls and it was alright. The rain in Tokyo today didn't help. After "school" two of my friends and I went looking for Harajuku street and we found it, but due to the rain and maybe because it's a school day (???) none of the Harajuku kids were there - although we did pass by many fashionable peoples. I'm sad that it is expected to rain during the rest of our time in Tokyo - we are only here for one more day! Fish market tomorrow morning at 4 am, so I am going to bed now!