NoahandMasonandXiaoandCheinTokyo, part 1 (Tskiji)

(because NoahandMasonandXiaoandChunChizzleinTokyo or NoahandMasonandXiaoandCtotheCtothePinTokyo were just too long)

Hey everybody,

Wow, yesterday was stunningly long and exceedingly awesome!  It's going to have to be broken up into multiple posts

First though, let me introduce our special guest stars:  Mason and Chun Che, friends from college; and Xiao, Che's friend from high school (middle school?  Preschool??).  They were visiting all over Japan, and I managed to catch up with them as they spent their last full day in Japan here in the city of Tokyo

One day only, gotta get as much in as possible.  Fortunately, I already have such an itinerary planned and ready to go.  Be warned, just writing about it is tiring.  Living it is fun, but exhausting!

We woke up super early and heading to Tsukiji, the fish market (ok Tsukiji is actually just the name of the district, the official name is something like "Tokyo Central Wholesale Market", which is boring so we all call it Tsukiji).  This is one of the coolest places in the world.  The only drawback?  See it is a working market, which is awesome . . . but all of the restauranteurs and them clear out after like 8am to go to work, so after that the whole place is just filled with tourists.  To get to watch the real market, you have to show up early--just be warned, it is indeed a workign market and if you get in the way of one of the ubiquitous electric carts zipping along through the narrow alleys, he will run you down without a second thought.  And he will sleep well that night

The backs of Mason and Che's heads, a necessary evil in any blog of this nature ;)

Every single stall specializes in only a few things, squid and eels here . . .

. . . delicious-looking crabs and shellfish here . . .

. . . and some very surprised-looking fish here

Like I said, working market.  Faint of heart can just sleep in :)

Of course, there's nothing like looking at all of this fish to work up an appetite.  Now you can follow the guidebook that sends you to places like Sushi Dai, but you're going to have to wait in line for an hour . . .

My choice?  The same place my grandmother took me to, after half an hour of searching and my mother and I both going, "this place looks good, can't we just go here?" a half-dozen times.  Sushi Bun, the best place in the market for the past **one hundred and fifty years**

The website might not be a hundred and fifty years old, but damn near.  But everything else about the place is perfectly realized and magnificently executed.  Sit down, order the C Set (their largest), and enjoy a dozen pieces of sushi and some of the best miso soup you've ever had (the little clams in the soup make it taste like the ocean, in the best possible way).  I have very rarely had sushi this good in my twenty-six years of eating the stuff as often as possible, and I have never had as good of a value.  The best fish available prepared by the best chefs around.  Make it happen



Stop one on my one day in Tokyo tour, and it may be my favorite thing in the whole city.  If you are ever in Tokyo for any reason whatsoever, you cannot miss Tsukiji.  Go, eat the sushi, see the market, buy some souvenirs, get a beer from a vending machine, and enjoy yourself

Next up:  Hama Rikyu Gardens and a cruise up the Sumida River

Noah out

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4