Japan Trip Travel Log Day #3Jeremy's Home Japan Trip Travel Log Day #3
See also: Fish Market Pictures, New Sanno Breakfast Pictures, Harbor Tour Pictures
Don't ask.
We got up at 3:00am so that we could get ready and get to Camp Zama (from Sagamihara) in time to get on the tour bus that left at 4:00am to take us to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.
I really didn't know what to expect at the fish market. I knew there'd be lots of fresh (a.k.a. raw) fish and other exotic sea creatures for sale in large quantities. And I knew there'd be auctions going on. And I knew that it was a big place.
Well, my expectations were exceeded. The fish market was massive. There were carts, trucks, fish (and assorted other creatures), dry ice, and people everywhere.
We had a phrase that we found ourselves using over and over:
| Quarter Ton Tuna with Cheese. |
Why?
Because the tuna were big. Very big. Quarter ton big.
It rained a bit today. Not nearly as much as yesterday, but we had some rain. It stopped early on, so it wasn't too bad. It was still cloudy all day long.
We arrived at the market around 5:00am. We had two hours to wander around. We gave up a bit early to head back to the tour bus, 'cause we were all fished out.
At about 7:15am we arrived at the New Sanno Hotel (which is run by the US Navy) in Tokyo for our all you can eat breakfast buffet. It was at this time that Scott decided to try and demonstrate a phrase he had recently introduced us to:
| Eat till you can't see straight! |
While we all had a fair amount to eat (trying to get our $7.50 worth of food), Scott managed to have an entire plate of meat in addition to his first plate full of breakfast food [picture coming soon].
We had almost two hours during which to eat breakfast, so upon finishing we headed to the lobby to get comfy on the couches and hang out until the bus was ready to take us to our next stop (the harbor tour).
While hanging out on the couches, both Scott and Kristin were poked by the security guy's walkie-talkie and told that they had to open their eyes. Apparently sleeping (or sitting around with your eyes closed) is not allowed in the lobby of the New Sanno Hotel.
Who'da thunk?
After our tour guide explained that there was a "Cream Toilet" nearby (he was trying to say "Clean Toilet"), we had a while to wander around near the water before out boat was ready. During that time, Scott demonstrated how some of his friends used to try and ignite their farts (and end up burning their asses).
Eventually our boat was ready. We got on the top level and hung out there as we cruised around the harbor and took amusing pictures (like the one of Tokyo Tower coming out of Scott's head).
One of the entertaining things we did while on top of the boat was when Scott and I decided to grab both ends of Kacky and pretend to throw her overboard. That was amusing. I'm sure that most of the other folks on the boat thought we were more than a bit strange. But that's really no surprise, is it?
It wasn't actually that long of a ride. But the fact that we'd been up since roughly 3:00am and the fact that traffic completely stopped a few times, it sure seemed like a long ride at times.
Along the way, I came to a startling realization:
| Tokyo is really freakin' big. Too big. |
Seriously. Tokyo is massive. Really, really, really big. You can look around in all directions and see nothing but they Tokyo skyline. Then you can drive like 15 miles in one direction, stop, look around, and find that you still see nothing but the Tokyo skyline. Yikes.
Oh, and they played a movie on the bus for our trip back to Camp Zama. We had to watch Gone Fishing. If you've never seen the movie, don't waste your time.
After we finally got back, about all we could bring ourselves to do (remember that we've been up since 3:00am--and it's now 4:00pm) is sit around, munch on chips, and play with the dogs.
When we started to get hungry, we hopped in the car and drove to a relatively nearby establishment for some more all-you-can eat. For those of you keeping score at home, that's two all-you-can-eat meals in a row (breakfast at the New Sanno being the first). Oh, Megan & Pat (two of Aaron & Kristin's friends) joined us for dinner.
This particular place was a twist on one of my favorite eateries: Mongolian BBQ. At Mongolian, you fill a bowl with all the food you want cooked up on the grill and give it to the grillers to cook up for you. At this place, each table has a small grill at it. So, not only to you get to pick exactly what you want to eat (from a wide varitey of veggies, meats, and other stuff), you get to cook it yourself and then try to eat it with chopsticks.
After pigging out for a while, some of the Y chromosones (Aaron, Pat, and Z) headed to Media Valley. Media Valley is a 5-story tall electronics superstore. They had lots of box toys, things that blink and make noise, and various other items. I was quite impressed with the size of the place and amount of stuff they had. Lots of laptops. Lots of flat screen monitors. Lots of DVD players.
We were in heaven. It was paradise... or so we thought. We managed to find the true promised land a few days later.