Japan: Mike eats fish

On my second morning in Tokyo I went to the Tsukiji Fish Market. There's a wholesale market that restaurants buy from but tourists generally aren't allowed in until 10 am and by then the vendors were packing up.

There's also a nice street market, shown here. It mostly sells seafood.







I went to Yamazaki in the 'inner market' of Tsukiji to have a sushi breakfast. I chose it because there was a line but not a ridiculous line. It still took about thirty minutes to get in as there are only about twelve seats inside.

This picture is of my meal. Two pieces of tuna and a piece of uni came out after I was finished the stuff shown.

It was tasty but I regret picking a set meal. One American couple picked from the daily specials list and were getting some awesome things, including seared fatty tuna (which I would have gone for) and live prawn (no thank you).

In Japan, people bury the dead in special parks and mark the burial spots with stone blocks. They call these 'cemeteries'. This picture is from Yanaka Cemetery. It was part of a nice walk that my guidebook suggested.

The walk continued past a train station where I saw a bevy of unlocked bicycles. That's right, a bevy. I saw this a lot in Japan. Invoking International Rule 513.4 (Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers), I spent the remainder of my vacation collecting and reselling bicycles.

Actually I just continued on my walk.

I was feeling a bit peckish again by this point, but not enough to eat at this Live Dog restaurant.

Not far from that restaurant, on the pleasant Yanaka Ginza shopping street, was an escapee. I didn't rat on him. I crouched down to pet him and when I came back up, an old Japanese man gave me the largest, warmest smile.

"You are a good person," his smiling eyes seemed to say. I responded with my own smiling eyes: "I really am good, aren't I? What a fine person I am!"

Buoyed by these compliments, I set off for Shinjuku, which is similar to the area I was staying and its tall buildings, crowds, lights, etc.

I wanted to try some more ramen so I went to Ichiran, a popular chain restaurant in which you eat in little solo booths. There is a partition on the left side as well, not shown in the photo.

The partition in the front lifts up so that they can deliver the food.

With food in my belly, I was ready to hit up Harajuku, a fashion district that I knew about from old Gwen Stefani songs.

My favourite part of this area was Takeshita-dōri, a busy and narrow shopping street that Lonely Planet says is "a pilgrimage site for teens from all over Japan." You can see a picture of it on the right.

Here are more photos from this day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RfZkEJwXv7Gandre2