Japan Day 1
The Fish Market
Like I said, 14 hours on an airplane in only reasonable in First Class. Our adventure started on Saturday afternoon in Florida. The hardest part of the whole trip was getting from Orlando to Dallas. We watched three flights push back (without us on them) but we got on the last flight to DFW. Stayed in a hotel that night and caught the 10am flight out of DFW on Sunday morning. We arrived in Narita (about 50 miles northeast of Tokyo) on Monday afternoon at 1 pm. Then we started the adventure of the Japanese Train/Subway service and finding our hotel. Three hours later we found it, got settled in, and did what all world weary treckers do after traveling half way around the world. We walked around for a bit (Leave it to Jennifer to find a book store. Jen hit the Manga section and I looked for an English section. She found 3 isles of Anime. I found a shelf and a half of "Learn Japanese the easy way" "How To" books. There is no god) then had McDonalds for dinner.
Off the Northern Coast of Japan. Earlier we had caught a couple of glimpses of Russia and before that, we flew over Anchorage and the Aleutians.
A city north of Tokyo.
Looks like a subway in New York. Looks can be deceiving.
Until you see the route map. To be fair, they have it in English in small letters under the chicken scratch.
These are the subway signs. When I saw them, I thought that we were in real trouble. Most of the trip was planned on using the subway and this threw me a curve. But it is actually very easy. Every station in numbered, with letter ("C" in this case) and color (green). If you are a station 8 and you need to get to station 6, this is the train you are looking for. Looking at the big picture, it was a piece of cake.
"Ok, I'm on my second drunk since leaving Dallas, and we're supposed to go where?"
This was our Guardian Angel. We made it from Narita to Tokyo on the, appropriately named "Narita Express". Then to the subway station. I had studied the subway system map before leaving but the big map on the wall didn't look anything like the one I has seen. I guess our looks of "We don't know how to get where we are going" or "Holly shit" showed on our faces because this lady came up to us, and in broken English, helped us. She got us a map (In English), then showed us where to get subway tickets, then made sure we got thru the turnstile, then made sure we found the right platform, then made sure we got on the right train. We used here teachings for the rest of the trip. It was the first time I ever tried a Gratitude Bow (They are real big on bow's out there).
This was a cool pic traveling from Narita to Tokyo. I was amazed that the houses really do have the oriental architectural look and they really do have rice paddies everywhere.
Ok, we come out of the subway station. I didn't realize that the station had five different exits. I didn't know which way was north. Which street we were on (don't forget they don't have street signs with English). Or where, exactly, our hotel was. But at least I knew where the "AM/PM Miny Mart" was.
Our Hotel. It turns out that his was the perfect hotel for us. Western style (see below), situated close to 3 different subway lines, and a half a block from McDonalds. Perfect in every way.
From what I understand, Japanese style hotels are nothing but closets with beds. This was as nice as I stay in at work. The bed were twins (and not pallet boards as I've found in most of the countries I stay in).
On top of this little living area, it also had an efficiency kitchen. Unfortunately, it took three day to figure out the microwave (yes, no English, no numbers, nothing. Trial and error to figure it out. It isn't bad if the popcorn pack sitting next to me was expanding, does it)
But the toilet was a high point. See the controls on the left. Yes, the seat was heated (something I may transition our home toilets to because it was damn nice). It also has a badea feature that I wasn't brave enough to try. I wasn't going to sit there and hit the button. I didn't want to hit the button without sitting on it for fear of where the water was going to go. But looking at the drain behind the toilet, I would not have been the first. Judgment call.
Have you ever lived somewhere that didn't have TBS on the TV? Neither have I. And they have it here. No reruns of "Matlock", though.
Ok, so we were awake at 3 am (local, 2 pm on our bodies. This is a time zone change that beats all). We were the only ones on the subway at 4:45 and we went down to the docks. We (We/I wanted to see it. It wasn't on Jen's list but I wanted to see where some idiot spent $100,000 on a fish) went down and found a group of people following a lady with a sign. They were round eyes, we were round eyes, we just tagged along. It was the right group to follow. We walked past this pile (it will be larger, later) and realized they were already thowing this stuff out.
Everything moved on these little transports. These guys had no fear. They didn't worry about little things like running over peoples feet. Did I mention they traveled in tight quarters.
Fish on the market.
There was so much going on at this place. This pic kinda captures the goat rodeo concept.
The buyers would look at everything and decide what they'd like to bid on.
This is one of the Auctioneers. This guy had a kind of a song and then he would stick his hand up. I'm sure it meant something to someone but it was lost on us.
I'm sorry but I think people eat this shit on a dare. Some of it was fine but some of it, well, some of it I don't know what it was.
I'm sorry that this pic doesn't show what was happening. The water was boiling. Not because of the temperature but because they were still alive and rolling in the water. Who eats this shit?
The modern day Samurai. I've filleted a bunch of fish but these guys are serious. See his knife. Look to the left of the table and see the knife he used a couple of minutes later to finish off the fish. Then he made a Ninja pose, said "Prepare to die, round eye" and lunged at me. I'm just kidding about that last part but these guys are really serious about there fillets.
Yummy. I just have to wonder who really eats this crap. I've had calamari but that is a distant cousin. On the other hand, I wish I had testicles this size. Oops, I mean tentacles.
Now that is a oyster on a half shell if I ever was one.
You Eyeballing me Boy. Sorry, I reverted to my basic training/Drill Sergeant days.
Again, I would have to have lost a big bet to eat some of this crap.
How do they get that big fish in that little Tuna can?
Look at the aquarium and think "Hey, life is good. They keep feeding me. All I have to do is swim around. Life is Good. Wait, what is George doing down on that bed of ice. Hey George, George, how are you doing? I haven't seen you since this morning. What, I'm not good enough for you to even say hello to anymore?".
Serious Clams
More clams but these things have some really big dicks. Is it an oriental thing? I thought they all had small thingies.
Regardless, these are some really great pieces of fish.
Big Fish. As scale, Jen put here had down there. She should have just stood there.
Looks like a bunch of crowns. Yummy.
Our first temple.
Our first real Japanese meal. Ramen Noodles, Fish Broth, Vegetables, Fried stuff. We sat on the right. The old lady there said that she served Abraham Lincoln when he visited Tokyo. I believed here. Did I say she was old?
Along some river in Tokyo. I'm just happy Jen not only posed for a picture, but she was actually smiling, kinda.
Our first Shinto temple. It was for the prosperous growth of the little fishing village outside Tokyo. It is now well within Tokyo so this was started several hundred years ago.
We saw this in many places. They have a kind of public water fountain. You use the cups to drink out of. What we found ironic was that people would take down there masks (about 20% of the people were wearing breathing masks in public), drink out this cup that a thousand people have already drank out of, and then replace their mask. Only in the Orient.
You can't really see it from this pic but about half the boats in the area are sunk. That Shinto Shrine to ensure the prosperity of the village may not be working to well. I'll stick with Jesus.
That's Tokyo Tower. Godzilla pushed it down. Now I am pushing it down. I guess you had to be there. By the way, it was pretty cold there. I guess it comes with having to be there for the "Spring" festivals.
The Architecture was amazing. These people build things just to see if they can.
Inverted pyramids. I never would have thought to do
that. Well maybe, suffering an LSD hangover.
Tokyo Bay Mall. It seems like a big place to show off Toyota Cars. (Half the mall is a showroom. Coming soon to America).
This was on "Big Sky" A 450ft. Ferris Wheel. It was way cool. We saw the entire Tokyo Skyline. But without a doubt, the best view was of Jen smiling. I think she really enjoyed this trip.
Mount Fugi. Going to Fugi was the only thing on our list of things to do that we didn't do. Between this pic and buying some of their film (it's on the package), I'm ok with that.
This might have been designed after an 8 ball. Whatever that is.
One of the things on the list of things to do was to go to the "Venus Mall". This is a pic that we took. unfortunately, it may have been a pic we took a couple of years ago in Las Vegas. A copy of the Venice Mall. That's ok. We got hungry when we were there. Went into a place to have lunch. I saw on the menu a "Mayonnaise Prawns" that looked good. Jen was torn between the chicken dish and shark fin soup. I pushed her towards the chicken but she chose the shark fin. It was placed in front of her and after playing with it for a bit, the only thing she said was "Dad, it's slimy". That was when I knew I wouldn't be eating prawns but shark fins. It was actually quite good, once you mixed the slimy shit with the rest of it. It won't be the last time that meals were transferred.
After we left Tokyo Bay, we went to the high tech district of
Tokyo.
This place is the Japanese "Best Buys" with eight floors. This place had
everything. The only problem was that the guy who wrote the signs was
either very drunk or he just used a chicken with their feet dipped in ink write
the them out. I couldn't make heads or tails of them but everyone else had
no problem. I can't even blame the drink. I'm not sure what the
problem was.
After we got back to the hotel, Jen wanted to lay down for "just a minute". I advised against it but she did it anyway. She didn't stir (until 3 am, that is). Well I was a little tired but I really wanted to have some real Sushi. I also knew that Jen isn't real wild about fish in general, let alone raw fish. So off I went looking for a Sushi Bar.
And I found one. It took some looking because most of the places were Ramen (soup with noodles) type places. I stumbled onto this place and had Jim here slice me up a platter.
Here is what he served me. It was delicious. The best I've ever had.
Well maybe not the thing with little orange eggs on it. No, I ended up leaving that one.