Posted by Jess
8 October 2010
Kiki-fest 2010 officially began last night and this morning we headed to a popular tourist destination - the Tsukiji Fish Market. We dropped Ella off at school and headed on the train to the market, which consists of an outer market and an inner market. Tsukiji Market is the world's largest seafood market and the tuna auction where up to 600lb tuna are sold to local restaurant owners in the mornings. Because the market is a working wholesale market and tourists tend to disrupt work there, the tuna auction takes place as the boats arrive in the morning - around 5am. The auction is limited to 140 visitors and again, its at 5am, so we didn't go for that - I think you have to be in line by 4:30 or so to be in the group let in and that seems a bit extreme to see big fish on the floor with people shouting in Japanese. We did go to the outer market and got there around 9:30.
The outer market is more for individual buyers than restaurant owners, with small stalls selling lots of different types of fish, some fruit and vegetables, some pottery, and lots of noodle stands and sushi shops. We wandered a little bit up and down the streets and tried to take a few pictures, but its hard to do because the rows are small and there are a lot of people. We tried to stay out of the way as much as possible and Jay stayed home with Abby since kids are politely requested to stay at home. We did see a group of American tourists that were holding things up and taking pictures with them. We tried to not be so American as everything I read says "do not be a nuisance in the market". I felt a little badly because I moved Kelly along probably a little faster than she wanted to! We did try a small sample from one of the stands - it had peanuts and snacks. Kelly tried some dried broad beans and we both tried the broad beans with brown sugar. They also had peanuts with sugar and peanuts with wasabi out to sample. Here's a pic of broad beans (but no pod for ours and they were dried like potato chips):
Most things we saw at the outer market are things that we can find at the local grocery store. We didn't go into the inner market, which is where the wholesale market all takes place. To be honest, I don't even know where it is and tourists are not so welcome there. Maybe we'll check it out next time. The market starts to close up around 11am or so, but we left by 10.
On our way from the station to the market, we passed by a cool looking building. Thanks to the wonders of the iPhone, we figured out that it is a famous Buddhist temple and decided to stop in for a look. The temple was the Tsukiji Hongan-ji temple. This version of the temple was built in the 1930's, but the original was built in 1617, then burned down, rebuilt and then taken down again by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. While the main hall (Hondo) seating area was not fancy, the altar in this shrine was really ornate, with beautiful gold - the pictures don't do the beauty of the place justice. They have daily service there twice a day (we weren't there for service) and an area with incense in the front where you could make a small donation, add some incense and then say a prayer (similar to lighting a candle in a catholic church).
And that was Friday morning. More to come from Kiki-fest 2010. Stay tuned for some thoughts on the Japanese karaoke experience.
Kanpai!
Jess
8 October 2010
Kiki-fest 2010 officially began last night and this morning we headed to a popular tourist destination - the Tsukiji Fish Market. We dropped Ella off at school and headed on the train to the market, which consists of an outer market and an inner market. Tsukiji Market is the world's largest seafood market and the tuna auction where up to 600lb tuna are sold to local restaurant owners in the mornings. Because the market is a working wholesale market and tourists tend to disrupt work there, the tuna auction takes place as the boats arrive in the morning - around 5am. The auction is limited to 140 visitors and again, its at 5am, so we didn't go for that - I think you have to be in line by 4:30 or so to be in the group let in and that seems a bit extreme to see big fish on the floor with people shouting in Japanese. We did go to the outer market and got there around 9:30.
The outer market is more for individual buyers than restaurant owners, with small stalls selling lots of different types of fish, some fruit and vegetables, some pottery, and lots of noodle stands and sushi shops. We wandered a little bit up and down the streets and tried to take a few pictures, but its hard to do because the rows are small and there are a lot of people. We tried to stay out of the way as much as possible and Jay stayed home with Abby since kids are politely requested to stay at home. We did see a group of American tourists that were holding things up and taking pictures with them. We tried to not be so American as everything I read says "do not be a nuisance in the market". I felt a little badly because I moved Kelly along probably a little faster than she wanted to! We did try a small sample from one of the stands - it had peanuts and snacks. Kelly tried some dried broad beans and we both tried the broad beans with brown sugar. They also had peanuts with sugar and peanuts with wasabi out to sample. Here's a pic of broad beans (but no pod for ours and they were dried like potato chips):
Most things we saw at the outer market are things that we can find at the local grocery store. We didn't go into the inner market, which is where the wholesale market all takes place. To be honest, I don't even know where it is and tourists are not so welcome there. Maybe we'll check it out next time. The market starts to close up around 11am or so, but we left by 10.
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| Octopus anyone? |
On our way from the station to the market, we passed by a cool looking building. Thanks to the wonders of the iPhone, we figured out that it is a famous Buddhist temple and decided to stop in for a look. The temple was the Tsukiji Hongan-ji temple. This version of the temple was built in the 1930's, but the original was built in 1617, then burned down, rebuilt and then taken down again by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. While the main hall (Hondo) seating area was not fancy, the altar in this shrine was really ornate, with beautiful gold - the pictures don't do the beauty of the place justice. They have daily service there twice a day (we weren't there for service) and an area with incense in the front where you could make a small donation, add some incense and then say a prayer (similar to lighting a candle in a catholic church).
Kanpai!
Jess
6:26 AM |
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