Friday, March 30, 2007

Tokyo (Friday)

Friday morning, we all took the subway to Hama-rikyu Gardens (Shimbashi station, 300 Yen entrance fee), where we met Takemi and stopped for a snack and some tea before heading to the wholesale fish market for sushi.


At lunch (a tiny little place with just a counter), I bravely ordered the large (12 pieces) over the small (7 pieces). All the raw fish was very fresh and some of the pieces were fantastic (best raw squid I've ever had, crunchy not chewy). But I sat right next to the proprietress, so when the piece that she said wasn't unagi but certainly visually resembled unagi tasted like a cigarette butt (seriously), I still felt obligated to eat it. It didn't kill me, so I will assume it made me stronger. Also, the 12 pieces defeated me and I had to have Eugene eat 2/3 of my maki.

In the afternoon, Takemi signed us all up for a Hato Bus tour. First stop, Tokyo Tower. There's our bus at the bottom.


From the Tower, you can see in the direction of the gardens and the fish market we visited in the morning (left).








A little to the right you can see Rainbow Bridge.




Next stop was the Imperial Palace Plaza. It was so sunny and bright that most of my pictures seem to highlight the dust on my lens, like this one:


But this one is pretty nice:


Party boats!


We left the tour at Asakusa. At the temple, somewhere behind me in the photo, you can read your fortune on a little slip of paper for 100 Yen (mine was all bad).


We went out to dinner (mmm) then called it a night. Big day tomorrow.

1 comment:

Eugene said...

I have always wanted to go to Haya's, the sushi place literally next door to where I live in New Haven.

However, now I am very worried about going there, since after the sushi we ate in that fish market, it can only end in disappointment and sadness. (Ok, maybe not compared to that cigarette-nagi.)