TTT2019: Day 33--Night and Day in Tokyo with Two Mysterians

I remember the song 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians from way back in 1966.  The Mysterians were Mexican-Americans from Michigan.  Well, my two Mysterians are Hawaii Mystery Lady (HML) #1 and Japan Mystery Man (JMM) #1.  While he is a long-time friend of mine, I now can't mention his name because he has become too important.  If you really want to track him down, that's fine.  More than a quarter century ago he was the First International Professor for the Blue Revolution, and he has previously been featured in this blog site.

I will start with night because that was the best part of yesterday.  JMM picked up HML and me in the early evening and we went to Tsunahachi, a high-end tempura restaurant, where we sat at the bar in front of the chef.

We were greeted, and here is our tempura chef:

After being wagyued out in Seoul, it was a pleasure to be in a seafood and vegetables dining environment:

I can only barely remember what I had, but I started with beer, and these are the dips, with the first course being tofu:

Grated turnips in tempura sauce and grated turnips with ume served as the primary taste enhancers, with  salt, wasabi, etc.

The fish was larger before I took a couple bites, plus micro corn:

An artistic ayu:

I then shifted to sake:

Two kinds of squid:

Maguro and a mammoth clam:

Chazuke and miso soup, ending with fruits:

But the evening was just beginning, for we left Shinjuku for Roppongi:

A husband-wife team has been here for 40 years, and JMM has been coming that long.  This was not my first visit, and they remembered me.  This is not a traditional karaoke bar.  The husband plays a guitar to accompany your singing.  HML sang the most, and I survived with  My Way.

HML and I had McCallan over rocks.  JMM had used up his bottles here, so they brought over a colleague's bottle.  I know him, too, so I guess that is a tradition here.

That was the enjoyable part of yesterday.  In the late morning we decided to go to the new Tsukiji, or Toyosu Market.  The concierge told us to catch two trains to Toyosu Station.  However, when we got there, we looked around, and my Blue-Bar Pigeon told me that we needed to go up that escalator and catch another train and get off after two stops.  Turns out this was just the beginning of nothing much going right on this excursion.

This third train was all windows and provided excellent views.  We got to Toyosu Market in anticipation of seeing a lot of fish.

There are three sectors at Toyosu:  fruits/vegetables, wholesale fish and intermediate fish, with forty restaurants and other places where you buy items, including fish, fruits and vegetables.  But maybe that depends on when you come.  We first walked through the fruit/vegetables building.

You pass through totally sterile conditions, being a floor or two up with windows so that you gaze down at the action.  If you remember Tsukiji, your life was always in danger with vehicles whizzing by, your shoes getting wet and those restaurants close relatives of a Bangkok street scene.  Not at Toyosu.  We only saw boxes, except at one point I viewed a watermelon peeking out.

There are avenues for various products.  Here is, for example, the carrots lane.  Note that you don't see even one carrot.

The walk through this section only meant you had to re-trace your steps to get back to where you started, again seeing nothing.

At this point, we decided to have lunch, which became the only positive outcome the whole day.  The scallop domburi and zaru soba were wonderful, with Asahi Beer.

Satisfied, we next walked to the wholesale fish market.  Another mile of nothing.  And back.  Same for the intermediate fish market.  And Back.  Now up to 4 miles.  Not even boxes:

At this point, we had not seen one fish, and, up close, one vegetable or fruit.  Shops had things like dried scallops, and if you do the math, something north of $200/pound for those dried scallops:

But, ah, a well-advertised roof garden:

That was it.  A few dandelions sticking out of those hedges. No flowers.

Here is what you would see if you went early enough:

After our disaster, I still recommend that you visit Toyosu Market under ideal conditions.  Here is what you need to do if you want to visit this new Tokyo fish market.:

• wake up early to get to the site by 5AM
• everything happens between 5AM and 5:30AM
• the early part of the rest of the morning is movement and cleanup
• by the afternoon, nothing
• at 2PM, even the stores close

Here is one guide.  Read that before thinking about going.  In our case, we did not see one real fish, nor one fruit, nor one vegetable.  If you want a four-mile hike, great.  If you wish to have a safe Tokyo fish market visit, this is the place to come.  The air-conditioned buildings are spotless, cleaner than the best  laboratories in the world.  Perfectly designed for tourists who want to see nothing.  Here is what Wikipedia says:

• opened in October 2018
• largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world
• cost $5 billion to build
• 101 acres
• only a little more than a mile away from Tsukiji
• sort of between Narita and Haneda, thus, when you catch a train there, a lot of sights will be familiar, but in close-up, like Big Sight and the ferris wheel
• closed on Sundays and national holidays
• admission is free

Here is one guide to avoid:  how to walk from the old Tsukiji to new Toyosu market.  Why waste nearly an hour doing that?  Use this map to catch the JR/subway system:

The final stop should be Shio-Mae Station on the Yurikomome Line, which is not JR, so your railpass will not work.

On the way out of Toyosu to Shimbashi, there are buildings like Big Sight:

You can see this structure to the left as you ride the Airport Limousine Bus from Narita to Tokyo.  Big Sight is the largest international convention venue in Japan.

The final, and good, news is that you might have broken my record of visitors in one day:  27,318.  I know I reached 27,000 once--to report on one of the more recent Star Wars film--but stored away the details at home.  At worst, this was the second best day.  Thank you.  Tomorrow:  Hokkaido, my roots.

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