A couple steps into Relaxation.

My mind won't stop racing. I keep feeling like I need I must I need to be appreciating this city just constantly. But there isn't anything open at 5am, and there isn't anything for me to do when I'm sick and it's raining. Yesterday was obviously Monday, which means that most of the museums in this city are closed. I met these really interesting Canadian guys, one of which asked me if I liked museums. Of course I like museums! He told me about this GRUTT pass where you pay 2000Y and you get essentially admission into 70 museums. That's pretty dope. You purchase it at the Tokyo Tourists office in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Awesome!
I ate my meager mochi breakfast and headed out. I planned on heading to the Ooeda Onsen Monogatari in Odaiba. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo currently has an exhibit on the work of Hussein Chalayan, a fashion designer I have a lot of respect for. I planned on heading to that as well, but museums are closed on Mondays. Instead I would just have to take my time and head to this weird Edo style hot spring. I wandered over to the Yoyogi station, closest Yamanote line stop to my current location. On my way there I stopped to pick up a bit of protein in my diet at one of these weird little shops where you pay a vending machine and select the time you'd like before entering the store. The machine gives you a ticket, which you present to the guy behind the counter. He asks if you'd like soba or udon and in about 15 minutes ta-da!

My breakfast supplement consisted of egg on pork croquettes on rice and a basic udon soup. I wasn't paying attention and accidentally ordered the set.
I headed to Shinjuku station which is full of interesting shops and such. I avoided those (take that shops!) and headed straight to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. I don't know why I thought that it would take me an hour or so to get all this done because it wasn't even 9:30 by the time I got there. Unfortunate. I saw this pretty cool art thing in the station on my way there.

I bought my GRUTT pass and headed up to the free 45th floor observation deck. I wasn't thinking, like the giant horde of Japanese tourists with me, about the rain. We got up to the 45th floor... and experienced a hell of a view?

ha ha ha.
I headed out to the Shimbashi station where I would transfer to the Yurikamome line that heads to Odaiba. The Shimbashi station was a little confusing and I wasn't in a hurry at all but I happened upon something that was definitely really funny to me.

Oh, Doughnut Planet! I forgot I was in New York! I laughed at the green tea flavored everything and thought back to eating at Doughnut Planet with friends and family. Oh geez, Japan, what don't you have?
I noticed this little market like thing outside the station. I did have to walk out of the station to transfer lines and I figured I would look for an international ATM in the meanwhile. It turned out to be a book market.

I found these really awesome Panzer magazines for tank enthusiasts in Japan. They were really cheap so I picked up a couple for my father. The guys at the stand were looking at me really funny given that I was buying tank magazines for made for and by military otaku. I was also clearly very excited about them. I had also found these other tank books that were published in the US but are super rare so I had about 8 or so tank books in my hands. They didn't say anything but I could tell they were really wondering so I said " Watashi no Otoosan ga daisukidesu" They were all "oh yeaaaah, sure...." except in Japanese.
I boarded the Yurikamome line to head to Odaiba and I flipped through my new GRUTT pass. There was an admission coupon for the Maritime Museum. Awesome! I'll head there first, and it wasn't far from the hot spring. D'oh! It was closed.
Instead I headed to the Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation also known as Miraikan. I'm glad that it was part of this package deal I purchased that already had 2000Y worth of museums I was planning on going to because it wasn't super interesting. I did get lost in it though, but I found these really cool ultra hot water crabs.

3:< is his most accurate face.
That was definitely the highlight of the museum for me. The rest was essentially information I'd covered in my science classes. There was this awesome exhibit of art-technology that had an example of optical camouflage that you could test. I don't have pictures but it was cool, trust me. They did have this huge globe made of of screens that I could have stood and watched over for wayyy too long, but I was sneezing and coughing so a soak was in order.


I left and walked over to the Onsen. I ran into this cat, who was trying to tell me to cross the street because the road was blocked, but I wasn't paying attention.

I said "neko-chan" and the cat who was disgruntled from being wet said "mraaaah"
I knew it would be a little awkward for me, being very obviously foreign, to enter a giant pool full of naked Japanese women, but they couldn't have cared less. The Ooeda Onsen is very touristy. I was not the only foreigner there, nor was I even noticeable. But it certainly was enjoyable. They didn't allow pictures, but it was really neat in there and their English website is fairly good. They start you off by choosing a yukata that you get to wear while inside the main area. You then strip down to your underwear, put on the Yukata and obi and wear it while in the common areas. If you'd like to go to the hot spring, you wander into the changing room for your sex for the hot spring, derobe and wash yourself. They have a bunch of different kinds of hot springs, one of which is rich in mineral deposits and awesome which turns it this weird brownish color. The temperatures are maintained at 30 degrees Celsius and up. There is also a sauna and outdor baths. The out door baths are quite enjoyable.
My favorite part was by far the "Dr. Fish" section of the foot-oriented outdoor unisex spring. There is an underwater walking bath where all these really horrifyingly painful stones have been embedded into the ground. I tried walking on them and this old lady got a huge kick out of when I fell over from how horrifyingly painful it was. Thanks, lady. The Dr. Fish section consisted of these tiny turkish fish (garra rufa in my case)that enjoy eating dead skin cells. They express this by swarming your feet (the only thing you are allowed to place in the bath) and slowly nipping at all of your dead skin cells. I must've been really unclean because the second I put my legs in I got a HUGE SWARM of essentially all the fish in the tank on my feet. Im really ticklish so I couldn't stop laughing but after awhile I got used to the sensation and just enjoyed the fishes feeding frenzy on my feet. It was really bizarre, but totally worth it. I do really mean the whole tank because there were four other people in the tank with me and they only had four or five fish feeding on them when I arrived. These fish were intense. There had to have been over 50 on my feet during the five minutes I chilled out in this pool. It was ridiculous. After the bath I headed back to my room quite exhausted. I feel asleep while trying to read this English tourist magazine I'd picked up.

My eyelids are droopy this morning but I am definitely going to head to the Museum of Contemporary Art today and check out this no doubt epic exhibit. I'm also going to check out some other museums in that area (shibuya). This pass is awesome.

And Yet, They Still Craved for Beauty...

The weather outside is miserable. I am so determined to just GO somewhere constantly while awake that I did head out to Asakusa yesterday against my better judgment. You can't tell from that picture, because when I got up and headed downstairs, it looked a little gray but nothing to be worried about. Of course, when I left the house everything changed.

My breakfast consisted of these weirdo mochi, one stuffed with red bean paste and the other with tasty-I-have-no-idea. I picked these up at the fish market and left 'em in the fridge until their deliciousness fed me breakfast. I also got these weird mega pancake looking mochi and some other equally bizarre mochi that I will eat this morning.

That's my view from eating breakfast of the common area. It's funky, but not too bad. I'm obviously not taking pictures inside the fridge. Also, TV gets BBC.

That's the stove and the sink in case you can't tell. It's not so bad, really. I guess I was expecting brand new, but when you think about how many people have stayed here and are staying here, it's not so bad. I met one of the fellows on my floor, Matt. He's from England, and is teaching English at the Japanese Walmart, Jasco. I had a flashback to Kamikaze Girls and I wish he had been in that scene because his cockney (maybe?) accent is so thick that it would've been hilarious. He teaches English to tiny children while their parents shop. He's essentially the babysitter-turned-teacher. I'll probably go have another conversation with him this morning and we'll see if he comes up with anything new. He also has this cough-runny nose sickness so I shared my dayquil to help him get through the day. I hope it worked but I'm afraid it might've made it worse. You never know.
I headed out to Asakusa on the Tokyo Subway. I got on the wrong train, got off and got on the right train. wooooo, adventure!

Seems nine is still to early for Tokyo. I made it to Asakusa at around 9:45, while the shops were just starting to set up. It was nice to be there early. I made it into the temple early too before it was swamped with people.

There are still alot of people there, but it wasn't too bad.

At the gate you pass these two huge guys that are supposed to ward off bad spirits or something. I'm not good at this understanding Buddist temples business. I like their faces.

They aren't extremely clear because of the screen, but there's no getting around that. These guys are like 10 meters tall, carved entirely out of wood. This temple has been built and rebuilt at least four times. The most recent one was after the fire bombing of Tokyo. The temple burned down and then was rebuilt in 1967 by a wealthy benefactor. I find that really fascinating about Tokyo. It's easy to forget (for someone so young as myself) that this city was burned to the ground in World War II. It was also heavily destroyed in a earthquake a couple decades before that. The city's ability to rebuild itself and remake important points of cultural heritage is very inspiring and breathtaking. Heading to this temple was an incredible experience for me because the grounds are beautiful and I really felt moved by the entire circumstance.

Here you can purchase incense to burn to heal yourself (or so I read). You light the incense and push the purifying smoke onto your afflicted area.

Because this is a Buddist temple, you are supposed to purify yourself (a bit) before entering. This is the purifying water zone, where you wash your hands and probably some other things but I don't know and the people I watched didn't give me a consensus.

The kannon and shrine. I dropped my coins in and prayed like everyone else. I'm sure I was doing it wrong and not praying in Japanese but hopefully my sentiments were conveyed. And I also paid for a bit of upkeep of the grounds no doubt.

Beautiful luscious green grounds. I didn't take many photos, but this one is definitely the best.

temples are also havens for food vendors, especially the Japanese elote stand. Instead of having the usual butter, mayo and parmesan(the kraft version and therefor spelled "parmesan") the Japanese grilled corn has a thickened sweetened soy sauce. I didn't get one, I was a little more bent on soup. This area is known for their oden, a fish based broth laden with fish cakes. I didn't end up getting oden, but I wandered into an area that must've had some pretty awesome oden. Unfortunately I was a very obvious foreigner and they didn't want to serve me. woooooo.



First cat located. I really wanted to eat here but the old lady running the place literally blocked the door. waaaaaahhh. Instead I went to a quick and easy chain restaurant and had 500Y curry udon. The worst curry udon I have ever had. Unfortunate, but inexpensive.



There were so many beautiful food places. This one really reminded me of Spirited Away. Giant bowls of food just ripe for the taking. Fortunately I had already eaten and there was an attendant, so I would not turn into a pig. But Miyazaki's inspiration must've been at least partially here.
I wandered around a bunch and decided that I would head off in search of the museums that my trusty Time Out Tokyo guide mentioned. The first one I went to look for was the Drum Museum. I did not find it, instead I found the Amuse Museum.
This place was amazing. I can't express how extremely passionate I was about this in words on a flat screen. I took so many pictures of the Boro exhibit it was almost ridiculous. In fact, it was, because it ran my camera out of batteries and I don't have photos of the rest of the day.
What I found so incredibly amazing about this place was that you area encouraged to touch the artifacts. I guess they aren't that old, but you can still touch them. They are part of the collection of the life's work of this amazing cultural anthropologist, Chuzaburo TANAKA. He saved these garments because he saw the value of the lives represented in each piece of clothing. As Japan because more materialistic and modern like the rest of the world, the authenticity found in these works wasn't valued for what it was. New is preferred over mended and patched and old. These pieces were so unbelievably textural and fascinating. The Amuse Museum was the ultimate Emma-museum by far. It also must be fairly new because it wasn't in any guidebooks.




It's this texture that really drew me into these garments, but the English explanations of everything sold me. I first looked at these and thought, ok, mended garments. But the explanations reminded me that someone's hand placed each of those stitches. Someone wore these garments to shreds so that they need to to be patched. And then they wore them again. And they patched them again. And here I was touching this stuff and photographing it up close and personal thanks to this fellow who knew that these were a cultural treasure. He fought for them to be granted treasure status and be protected by the Japanese government and he got it. He collected all these stories from these old ladies who talked about mending their garments when they had nothing else and how the whole family would curl up naked together to sleep at night in the giant heavy kimono like donja that was often patched with hemp cloth and stuffed with hemp. The other thing I found really interesting was that cotton was valued and terribly expensive. They would have an original garment cut from cotton cloth and slowly have to patch it over with their hand woven and hand dyed hemp cloth. With the rags that were too small to be used for anything else, they would make rugs and belts and housewares. On the sixth floor of this museum was a relaxation zone where you could sit, drink tea, and watch girls weave these rag fabrics. Unfortunately they were filming some promotional video at the time so I couldn't sit there and watch the epic weaving process. And my camera battery was dead at this point, so there would be no photographing of this situation.
Chuzaburo made a very big point in his collection to collect all of the Boro garments that were used. He included diapers for old people, something that it was very difficult for him to get a hold of, but very culturally important to these people as they took care of their elders who had mended and created the clothing they were wearing over time. He also included woman's work clothing and woman's night wear, talking about how they enjoyed to come home and take off their itchy work wear and put on these soft handmade garments. It helped them relax. I enjoyed reading these labels because without that added commentary, the pieces in this exhibit would not have had the amazing depth and importance that they hold.

This is a life cloth, bodo. It was kept onto of straw underneath the donja in the winter. It was where women would give birth.
"We individuals do not stand on our own. We are here through our parents, grandparents, and all the ancestors that existed before us. We could easily trace back to more than 1,000 lives of our ancestors through the past ten generations. BODO has always reminded us that we would not be standing here right now if even one person had been missing from the unbroken line of family."
The power in cloth is something that is often lost in the day where clothing is considered "burnable garbage" and quickly thrown away to be lost forever. The cultural treasure found in these garments has been preserved and saved for future generations to hopefully understand how important each individual of their family really was to their birth. I think this is especially lost in America where now all births are done in hospitals where I almost wonder if there could be any blessings left from previous ancestors like the Bodo cloth leaves to the newborn upon its arrival into the world. There really is something powerful about the amount of time it takes for handiwork, and that was really moving to me in this museum. I bought the book from the exhibition (that is really a good piece of publishing) and I took many pictures for those of you interested in further exploring this subject.
There was also a special exhibit about Maekake-aprons, which were hand embroidered aprons used to keep women warm in the rough terrain of northern Japan. Alot of these aprons were given to Chuzaburo by the women who made them because of his obvious interest in their cultural heritage. The embroidery present on these items is really beautiful. They were originally made with hand woven hemp cloth that was then embellished with dyed wool threads.

After this moving cultural experience I wandered in search of the Edo Shitamachi Traditional Crafts Museum which was less than impressive. It was interesting to see which crafts still survive and the craftsmen that still make them in that area, but nothing was in English and my knowledge of the kanji that are associated with crafts is absolutely nothing. But it was neat to see that there are people who still craft in traditional styles.
I then went in search of a post office, got lost, and then finally found it. I went to Kappabashi Dori or Kitchen Town. I didn't know that pretty much everything was closed Sundays, because I was in search of plastic food. The plastic food I found was horrifyingly expensive and that's not the souvenir I'm bringing back for everyone like I had originally hoped.

oh my, more blisters on my feet than I have had in awhile.

I have been having this trouble with maps, especially my city atlas. It seems that none of these maps are oriented north-south. If they are, they have no intention of declaring so. And I can't seem to figure out which direction is north anyways. Fortunately the streets really only go on their crazy twisty way in one direction so I can usually assume that if it's twisting this way I'm walking in the right direction. For the first time since I arrived I did not get lost finding my guest house last night. It was quite the accomplishment.

Yesterday I walked along Meiji-dori into Harajuku. It's a really nice walk. I seem to be located in this weird fashion business kinda district. I don't know if it actually IS a fashion district of some sort or if there are just bunch of little fashion businesses making their own way around here. On the first night I wandered about a bit(while totally lost) and I kept seeing these weird little obviously wholesale fabric stores. I've since tried to locate them and failed. I'll just have to get lost sometime in unfortunate shoes (because that guarantees a lengthy walk) and I'm sure I'll find them again.


Obligatory Shrine Photo that I probably wasn't supposed to take. This shrine happens to be across from the Soom Doll store. All the things I find when I'm not looking for them. Never in my life have I wanted a GPS more. I actually think that might be my big purchase because I just can't deal with walked around for hours trying to find some place. I'm stubborn and I nearly passed out yesterday because I was so determined to find Innocent World. And the WHOLE TIME it was just right in front of me. I never looked up. It's on the same block as LaForet. Maaaaaan....

I did come across this really awesome Design Festa gallery. I was too much of a wuss to go in, and everything was unbelievably crowded. Oh, yeah, of course, Saturday is simply the best time to just happen into Harajuku, one of the most famous shopping districts in this whole city. I was on a quest for an ATM. This was so easy last time I was in Japan. 7&i Holdings(7-11) is everywhere and their ATMs are international. And they still are except they don't support MasterCard anymore. Lucky me because both of my cards are MasterCard. I found a JP Bank and thank god it worked.
I should've photographed all the stores I went into, but I'll do that on some other day when there aren't forty thousand people trying to walk past me right as I'm whipping out my tiny semi-decent camera. I went to Closet Child, they were having this weirdo sale that they have every time I go to Closet Child so I got some weirdo things for really cheap. I picked up this chocolate or something on it(therefore making it $45 or so) AP gingham JSK that I wore to Alice and Wonderland theme restaurant, and a really cute black AP cardigan with these dorky alternating striped and polka dot bows. It was also only $50 and I figured out that's because there are matching holes on the elbows of the sleeves like whoever owned it was shooting up heroin. I like making up ridiculous stories about these items 'cause they just have the most bizarre things wrong with them. It's never as simple as a stain from eating or tea or something right at the waistline. It's always something like weird chocolate maybe spatter across the left breast. I'm sure Alice's amazing dry cleaner will fix my chocolate problem and a couple stitches will fix the sweater. I also bought the heart leopard hoodie($15!), cherry berry bunny tank top ($13!) and the pink punkma biker style jsk($30!). That will do me for brando for awhile unless I somehow magic some money or something. I went to the daiso and picked up a towel so I can actually shower now, slippers so I actually remove my shoes at the door and some other crap. I didn't realize that everything was 100Y unless otherwise marked and I lol'd at the checkout line 'cause I was expecting everything to be like 300Y. I also headed to Kiddyland and bought some household items that just happen to be of Banao for totally reasonable prices. I got a couple mugs 'cause I need to tea and they were only 600Y for something that in the states would be easily $14 or so. I mean, I'm sure with the cost of everything taken in the discount of them being right at my fingertips is lost but it was a fun purchase. I did not buy any stationary. Aren't you proud of me? There has been no food with faces on it and the mamegoma wasn't cute enough. I accidentally found the Volks mega-complex behind the main drag just 'cause i needed a breather from people. I also picked up a couple mameshiba books which are awesome and hilarious.


I met up with another US lolita to head to the Alice and Wonderland theme restaurant. We met at the Hachiko statue which I expected to be about 4000 times it's size. I was expecting this giant dog and I couldn't find it and I was like, goddamn, I must be really blind since I seriously cannot find anything today (after the failure of locating Innocent World, my spirits were seriously crushed). But there it was, this life-size dog statue hidden amongst a giant crowd of people.

There was a wait so we chilled out in Starbucks for awhile just talking about stuffs and other stuffs and much stuffs until 9:30 which is when our reservation that we made right then and there was up. We headed into these giant book pages that slid around to our table. I don't know what I was expecting exactly but I was a little let down. I was hoping for something a little more interactive, but as it was, it wasn't too bad.

My first cheese of Japan! I'm sure this was milk based, but it definitely wasn't "Cheezu Fondue" like it was announced as. Oh Japan! So cute!

I ordered a cocktail that I think she said was Strawberry Honey?

Later I ordered the Drink Me Cocktail that included this really bizarre tiny vial poured onto liquid and I thought it would do something interesting but clearly Japan is aware that I am a sucker and will spend too much money on things regardless of what they actually do or contain because of what I hope they will do.

I ordered eperoncino pasta with shrimp and got this pepe but not peperoncino laden frutti di mare dish. It was really cute. I would have loved to order one of the pies but we were running on a bit of a time constraint so unfortunately this would do. I cracked up a bit because as you can tell, that's not a peperoncino pasta. Oh you silly Japanese!

I also ordered these fantastic little potato dough guys that were coated in cinnamon sugar. I found this to be a pretty awesome appetizer and combo, even if a little unusual.

Dessert was supposed to be mousse and ice cream mad hatter style! It's silly but it was cute. And there was fresh fruit, which is like more expensive than fresh fish here therefore it was fancy. All in all, a fun time had!

My fantastic new friends, Tericka and Dave!
I'm off soon today to Senso-Ji at the mention of the lovely Tericka. I'm full of stupid and I did not even bother to notice that there is a festival going on in Asakusa at this temple that evidently is accompanied by a huge flea market (oh no!). I'm sure I've even seen pictures from this, it seems to one of the more popular ones. I'm going to take advantage of my jetlag and head up there pretty early this morning. After that I'm going to try to hit up Tokyu Hands because I can't think of where else I can get reasonably priced towels and bed sheets 'cause sleeping on this weird maybe clean maybe not crap is really starting to get to me!

Japan - First Day without too much added commentary

I know you probably can't tell, but this awesome old lady was up at the asscrack of dawn (like me, but she does not have jetlag) pulling potatoes from her (probably illegal) garden in the space between the Lawsons and the train tracks. I am all about this.

Well Ladies and Gents, let's get started.
I flew in first class to Narita. I was out of place in first class, so this Singaporian guy asked me what I was doing there. I told him I purchased the ticket and he was instantly impressed and asked where I was going. I told him that I would be traveling alone to Tokyo for a month. He was incredibly impressed. Or embarassed for me. Hard to tell.
Customs and Health Check was a breeze. I was out in 15 minutes or so. I got lost finding Sakura House office.
I got my information from them etc and got lost trying to find Sendagaya. I got totally lost trying to find it again this morning, but that's ok, I'll figure it out eventually. I did find a "Natural Lawson" which must be the organic-y version of Lawson? And I found a really big supermarket. Things are good.













I left early this morning, around 5AM, to head to the Tsukiji Market aka the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market. I really enjoy markets and this did not disappoint. Of course it was full of foreigners like myself in addition to the thousands and thousands of pounds of fish. I wasn't unusual so no one looked at me funny or even minded as I photographed so much of their market. It really made me want a better camera, but I did take some decent photos.















Cutting the tuna in action! There were so many live fish, crabs, and other weird things I don't know the name of. Just walking out of the station smelled like fish.
Of course I wandered down the wrong street because this guy was like "TUNA! THIISSU WAAAAY!!" I'm a sucker for yelling people.














I'm really game for an adventure this trip so all this getting lost hasn't phased me. The only thing I'm a little worried about is finding an international ATM in Sendagaya since it isn't very touristy.
I did locate a Softbank so I might pick up a prepaid phone but I haven't decided yet.
This market is massive and very confusing. I had a lot of fun trying not to get hit by cars and staring at rows and rows of the oceans bounty but now my shoes smell very very bad. I'm low on energy today 'cause of the jetlag but this morning I was very energetic. It made this market quite fun. There's another section that sells fruits and vegetables. It was really interesting to see what they would have to offer and I wasn't let down. Of course, I snapped a shot of a pretty fantastic variety of mushrooms. I don't know if you all can tell, but there are definitely some royal trumpet, maitake, lions head and oyster mushrooms in this picture.














There was also the 10500 YEN set of mangoes and the 10000 YEN set of strawberries. I am very lucky to live in the states 'cause fruit here is terrifyingly expensive. I ran into some Brits who asked me if I knew where one could food nearby. I had no idea, but I decided to wander around some more (by myself) and found a fantastic sushi place that seemed to be very popular. It was called Sushizanmai (they have a really great video on their website). Given that I am obviously foreign and my Japanese is rusty they were more than accommodating to my point and request method. I did not take any pictures of the sushi chefs or other customers. I thought that would be rude so best to avoid it when someone's making your food.














The sushi chef (I sat at the bar) even helped teach me how to pronounce really difficult things that I was ordering like "Ark Shell" which is pronounced "Aruku Shyeeru." The old Japanese man sitting next to me and his lady friends got a tremendous kick out of my requests so they turned to me and asked me "Oishii?" to which I responded to their delight "Hai! Hontoni Oishii!" They were impressed (woohoo, score 2 for Emma). They did approve of my taste because they ordered the same things I did immediately after me (score THREE for emma!).















I had my first piece of fresh Otoro and a couple other pieces of equally expensive in the states tuna. I even had a couple pieces of lightly seared Otoro (look at how fancy I am!). I wanted to try some other things I had never tasted before so I randomly chose some things from the menu. I particularly ordered the "Horse Clam" expecting it to be part of these really obscene clams that I kept seeing but it was much less horrifying and much more tasty than I was anticipating.














I'm still trying to figure out how to describe sushi/sashimi/'carpaccio' flavors so that I could better put this into words. I do love clam sushi though, it is really tasty. It's a little tough but has such a nice smooth flavor. The sushi chef was really fantastic, he even advised me when to soy sauce and when not to (as I obviously had no clue). I also tried this really bizarre "squilla" which seems to be this fancy prawn but wasn't too my liking. It was very tough and not very flavorful. I'm sorta assuming that it might be what these weirdo expensive shrimp are, but I have absolutely no idea. I finally had fresh sweet shrimp and they were heavenly. After I left and paid up (to a whopping 2553 Yen which, for what I ordered (12 pieces, 3 Otoro) is really reasonable) I decided to wander around the more commercial part of the market.














I couldn't capture all of this awesome in photos but I'll try to show some of them. Highlights included seeing giant shaving machines in process of making the flecks of bonito that wave in the heat on yakisoba(obviously among other things). There was the obligatory old lady who I assume makes all her mochi selling weirdo mochi that I bought. I haven't photographed it yet, but I will. It's still sitting in a bag on my bed (maaaybe not the best policy). There was also the required for market old lady who made all of her onigiri with weird flavors. I did not succumb to my love of onigiri (good thing, or I would have never otoro'd)














I also got suckered into purchasing some delicious green tea from this guy 'cause there was a funny looking old man on one of the packages and the store was really nicely set up. I am a tremendous sucker for presentation. And I LOVE Japanese presentation. SO much stuff everywhere! How could you ever get bored? And that is the problem with my presentations, they are often just like this (and this was a comment from the judges of the scholarship). I don't find it a problem, obviously, or mochi lady would never be able to sucker me in!















I snapped some early morning train folks and now I feel just like they do.
I'll try to be good about these blog updates for my trip to Japan so you all can actually live vicariously through me. Please click the links as they are to my photos of what I ate etc.