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Day 6:  Meeting up with Miki, Tsukiji, Roppongi and Tokyo Tower in a monsoon.
Day 6: Meeting up with Miki, Tsukiji, Roppongi and Tokyo Tower in a monsoon.
Day 6:  Meeting up with Miki, Tsukiji, Roppongi and Tokyo Tower in a monsoon.

Day 6: Meeting up with Miki, Tsukiji, Roppongi and Tokyo Tower in a monsoon.

18 May 2017

18 May 2017

Fantastic morning! Up nice and early to scoot down the Asakusa and Hibiya lines to Tsukiji Market. We’d arranged to meet up with my first proper Japanese teacher Miki Umetani who Tracey had never met and who I hadn’t seen since she’d returned to Japan a few years ago.

Got to Tsukiji in plenty of time (“Early is on time. On time is late. Late is unacceptable” – yes I know it wasn’t a job interview but still...)

We were a bit concerned that we’d be able to find Miki San as Tsukiji is absolutely huge! Never mind the market itself, the outside part is made up of millions of stalls selling every kind of fish based food/product you could imagine. Funny that, being that it’s the world’s largest fish market.

Beware the electric carts - they are REALLY fast and REALLY quiet!

Anyway, needn’t have been concerned as, due the wonders of the Pocket Wi-fi and messenger photos we managed to all be in the same place at the same time. We tried to get into the market proper but it’s a lot harder than you’d think and involved a lot of looking at plans, muttering, more looking at plans and eventually giving up and Miki asking one of the guys in the tourist information centre. Basically you have two choices (well three, but one involves turning up in the middle of the night and joining what is effectively a lottery to see the early morning Tuna auction). You can either:

  • turn up after the morning auction/dealing are done and mooch around the nearly empty inner market or (as we did later in the trip)
  • turn up early while the place is still busy but then you can’t go into the inner market proper as you’d last about twenty seconds before being run over by an electric cart.

We followed the guide’s instructions and mooched around the inner market but there really isn’t much to see mid-morning so then we looked round the stalls next to it.

The main inner market in Tsukiji. Need to get there earlier!

There is everything from nonsense focussed purely on tourists (£40 t-shirts with Tsukiji Market written on them) to proper stalls selling stuff to locals who know what they are doing. Amazing array of seafood (obviously) but also every kitchen gadget you could want. And knives...a really very very impressive selections of knives.

No son, THAT'S a knife!

I could have dropped quite a bit of my salary on them. Types you just don’t get in the UK unless you take out a long term loan. Wasn’t sure where we stood bringing them back though so moved on. (Spoiler alert – this isn’t the last time I got excited about Japanese knives. Not in a weird “needs a restraining order” way, just like good kitchen knives for cooking. Honest officer.)

We bought various croquettes from what Miki's mum had assured her was a famous stall (it was queued to bits and they were pretty decent to be fair) and nommed the world's biggest oysters from another stall. That’s only just an exaggeration – see photos.

The famous croquette stall in Tsukiji

Miki and Tracey eating the world's biggest oysters in Tsukuji.

Miki and Tracey eating the world's biggest oysters in Tsukuji.

More mooching about then binned the main market and went to find a café to have a drink and a catchup. After Miki buying us some cooking chopsticks we found the rather nice Excelsior café and spent a good hour or so chatting and drinking iced coffee (it was a hot morning!)

Just a side note – the Excelsior’s loo has the weirdest “ambient” noise generator in existence. Not sure about the justification behind sitting in the smallest room while listening to a hidden speaker channelling a major rainforest on a five second loop. Disconcerting? A bit. Weird? Certainly. The café doesn’t have a jungle theme or anything, it’s just a normal, slightly upmarket, nicely decked out western style café. Appears to have a portal to the Amazon basin in the loo though for some reason.

After a really very nice chinwag and arranging to meet up again soon when she’s over in the UK we said farewell to Miki and headed back to the tube.

Where to this time campers? How about a trip to Roppongi (as documented in the book Tokyo Underworld that I’d read on Philip’s recommendation. Good book btw) and then a walk to Tokyo Tower? Sounds like a plan eh? So off we toddled on the tube and a wee while later rocked up at Roppongi station...

Roppongi, just before the heavens opened!

...aaaand the heavens opened. Not picturesque, chocolate box, “Paris in Spring” rain but biblical, incessant, monsoon-like rain.

However, not to worry sports-fans, we were prepared. Before leaving the UK we had bought two small folding umbrellas (easy to slip into the side pocket of rucksacks) and spent forever going round outdoor equipment shops choosing just the right stylish waterproof jacket for Tracey that would pack down into the bottom of said rucksack whilst leaving room for the range of tasteful souvenirs we would buy from waving, cheery merchants.

Had we brought them with us? Had we b***ocks!

Soaked to the skin within minutes, two cursing drowned rats first tried to wait it out under the roof of a garage forecourt and then, giving up any hope of it ever stopping, splashed across a waterlogged street (yep – into rather than round the puddles) to what looked like a supermarket to buy more umbrellas. They didn’t have any. It was a “World Delicatessen” not a supermarket. Mild cursing.

In the World Delicatessen - that's comforting then!

Could we see a combini anywhere from their window? Nope. Probably the only place in Tokyo without a combini every 50 yards (again, only a slight exaggeration). Luckily though it turned out that there was a small household goods shop next door that did have umbrellas so one was bought. Note to self - they are stupidly cheap in Japan, don’t bother buying them in the UK.

Committed to our holy quest for the fabled Tokyo Tower we headed back out into the rain and up what turned out to be a very very steep and very very VERY long hill to get to the correct road.

Found another combini on the way and bought another umbrella. Basic math lesson: 1 umbrella divided by 2 people = 1 wet left sleeve + 1 wet right sleeve. We’re not umbrella people and we suck at it.

Eventually got to the Tower and, like lots of other more than slightly damp people, went straight into the coffee shop and bought coffee. And unlike lots of other more than slightly damp people, bought ice creams.

Tokyo Tower, Tokyo (obviously)

At Tokyo Tower in a monsoon!

Ice Cream. Just because.

As you do.

Didn’t actually go up the Tower as we’d already done Skytree and anyway the visibility would have been somewhere between limited and non-existent. Would go there again and go up it next time though. It’s not as high as Skytree but as it’s on a hill rather than next to the water I reckon you’d still get a spectacular view. It’s also still pretty impressive.

Once the rain eased off a tad we walked back down the hill again, caught the tube back across town to the hotel and dried off a bit. Should have used the tumble driers but we hadn’t sussed that out yet. Slight odour of wet dog in the room then.

Walking back to the tube, jumping puddles!

Off again in the evening to the same ramen restaurant in Asakusabashi that we’d found the previous night (hey – if it’s not broke..) and ordered a lot more gyouza dumplings to start with this time. They are win! Need to find out how to make them at home.

Sake, beer, womble back, bed.

By Chris

Overview

Hotel

☎️ +81 3-5806-2111

Food

  • Croqettes
  • Oysters
  • Iced Coffee
  • Ice Cream
  • Gyouza and Ramen
  • Beer and sake

Overview

Hotel

☎️ +81 3-5806-2111

Food

  • Croqettes
  • Oysters
  • Iced Coffee
  • Ice Cream
  • Gyouza and Ramen
  • Beer and sake