Tsukiji market

Thousands of people must have wrote on this market, and half of them probably hate it. My sentiments tend to lean towards the きらい side. I mean, why do you have to wake up to see people cut up giant tunas and get yourself tired and stinky, then queue for exorbitant sashimi, albeit fresh, not really worth it I feel. I mean, go to the wet market with your grandma in the morning for heaven's sake...

Nevertheless, it was an eye-opener and there really was a large variety of seafood. That said, I won't come here again. Oh btw, if anyone tells you "Go there early to catch them bidding for the tuna!" THat's a lie, ever since last year, its closed to publc. "Go there early to see them slice up the fish!" That's another lie, I went there at 8.30 and they were still cutting tunas.

Go there before 9am, and you should be able to catch an eyeful, but mind you... be ready to duck from dangerous zooming vehicles, bear the fishy stench and if you're a trigger-happy gaijin, prepare for dirty stares.

Petrol kiosks in Tokyo due to lack of space. More feasible than those u see in Rome.


Trucks they use to transport the big chunks of fish and barrels of ice. The only place you'll see this type of vehicles.


Gargantuan tuna


Sliced up into smaller pieces for sale to sushi shops and restaurants


The mechanical slicer


This poor man has no mechanical slicer... tough on him!


Eww...


Gimme a kiss...


Queueing to chomp on raw fish.


Whole bunch of raw fish sets for you to pick from, some includes yellow sea urchin meat. Argh! I don't like this place... haha but don't flame me if you like Tsukiji.


Slack.

Yokohama

If I haven't mentioned yet, I actually don't stay in Tokyo. In fact, I stay in this place which is essentially in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. It is only half an hour from Tokyo, and the main station is pretty much as crowded as Shinjuku would be. However, it has its own beautiful sights like its port. Minato Mirai especially is a place where you could go for a romantic getaway, a ride on the ferris wheel or a cruise to nowhere for under 2000yen.

This is the landmark tower. Tallest in Japan. The elevator brings you up to the top floor in less than 20 seconds. And the view from it is fantastic.


A view of Yokohama Bay.


Ferris wheel from the top.


The view of the city at night.


Yokohama stadium.


Yokohama Bay bridge. Famous in case you don't know.


Chinatown. The impression you get is that everyone's selling big meat buns for exorbitant prices, and they don't taste as good as the ones you get in Singapore.


The ferris wheel which I've yet to try. Someday...


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PACKED TRAINS!!

I've always wanted to blog this. The train traffic during rush hour here is すごい! When my Japanese language teacher told me that in Singapore, I could hardly imagine how amazing it was. After all, I've taken the New York subway, the London tube and Singapore MRT during rush hour too, what can amaze me further?

Well, you have to try it for yourself, and as much as it amazes me, we all hate it. My friends who came to visit me in Japan all said the same thing when I asked them why they hated Tokyo, "The trains are too damn packed!", "The city is too crowded". This is all thanks to poor urban planning according to an architect friend.

The standing area between seats usually has 3 rows of people, and the place next to the door is packed like sardines. When people need to get off and you're standing somewhere there, you'd be SHOVED out of the train, pretty roughly I might say. If Japanese are known for their politeness, everything dissipates into thin air on the trains. See them rush for the seat like hyenas pouncing on their prey. People pretending to sleep when needy people come along. Trains full of drunkards at night tipping left and right. Shoving and pushing to get on the train. Worst of all, molesters out to take advantage of the situation to feel ladies all over without getting punished. =(

Jammed pack on the platform.


Squeezing onto the train. Even ladies do it, leaning the body-weight against the person behind so you make a space for yourself. By the way, after I took this picture and before the door closed, 3 more people squeezed into this cabin.


Inside the sardine-packed train.


Slack.

Boy's day

This is a back-dated entry which for some reason did not appear. Its about Boy's Day which occurs every year on May 5th. It falls in the long chain of National holidays the Japanese affectionately call the Golden Week, coz its the week when nearly all Japanese go on vacation. Some say this holiday is the Japanese version of the Chinese 端午节... the dumpling one which falls on the 5th of the 5th lunar month as well. On top of that, this festival also welcomes in the spring after the long chill, but then again, spring comes at different times in different parts of Japan. For more info on Boy's day, click here for Wiki!

We were supposed to attend a festival, but coz I only came home at 7am that morning, hmm... by the time we got there, everything was over.....


However, we managed to catch pictures of this Koi flag hanging outside somebody's house. The kid's called Taro.


And we also ate the official bun for Boy's day!


Slack.

Disney Sea Tokyo

Last week I had a bunch of friends come over from Singapore, okie, 1 friend and her bunch of math-teacher-friends, and we went over to Disney Sea to see what's the hype about. Turns out to be pretty different really, not just the ride, but also the characters and themes and feel was slightly different. For example, my friend was collecting popcorn containers and she saw someone carrying one in the shape of Pooh's honey pot. But that was not available in Disney Sea, coz Pooh is a Disneyland character!

The train into Disney Sea, which we didn't take coz we figured that we should take a nice 20mins stroll in the cool breeze.


Mickey mouse parade.




Water all around. Venetian gondola?


Although this looks like Venice, Disney Sea Tokyo is still pretty much a Japanese place. Most people here are Japanese, and naturally the shows and stuff are in Japanese too. Too bad if you can't understand. Gwen fell asleep thru one of the 4-D shows. =)


More fake boats and the Tower of Terror in the background.


Look like Titanic?


Not-so-Indian tandoori chicken and nasi goreng.


The nautilus.


The volcano starts bellowing smoke and rumble once in awhile to add to realism. Hmm... but not very majestic on my cam.


The bunch of us in front of the Tower of Terror. Anyone going to Disney Sea MUST take this ride. I shall not be a spoiler. ^^


Slack.

Ramen Museum in Yokohama

Went to the ramen museum on a rainy day, so that was the only thing we did that day other than alot of shopping. Well, when you enter the building this is what you see. Kinda shocking really, since I was expecting a museum rather than a time machine bringing me back into the past. Basically, the ramen museum is a remake of the olden days of Japan. Pretty funky and very similar to olden Singapore I feel.



An old sweets stall! Good old mamah stalls.


More pictures of the old shops. Look like a movie from the 70s showing at Princess. Hmm... but what do I know about the 70s...


Yummy Kumamoto ramen. This one's pretty light, I still prefer the spicy Kanto Ramen like those in Tokyo. =)


Pictures of different ramen, check out the ramen served in a claypot from Susaki（須崎).




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Shibuya crossing

Recently I've had a couple of visitors from Singapore. All of them being my closest friends in my life, I felt obliged to bring them around. As such, I've been so busy lately, there was hardly any time for myself.

So just an update on my life so far: I'm working on electron transport of coupled quantum dots, in lay-man's term.. wait there's no lay-man's term... hmmm... basically its something that has to do with quantum computing, which is the future of computers 10-20 years from now. I'm still single and looking for a pretty Japanese girlfriend, albeit not very successful thus far. Jap friends reading this should recommend me some Jap girls... hehe. Japanese language is improving, not as fast as I would like it to be, but ordering food and basic daily conversation is no more a problem. Finance still going strong, as long as I don't keep shopping. And, there're still many things I wanna accomplish before I head back for my final year.

Okie, enough crapping, here are a few pictures I took from Starbucks overlooking the infamous Shibuya crossing which appeared in Tokyo Drift. Click here to Wiki Shibuya. Supposedly 3 million people cross this junction daily. Many many...





Slack.

Sumo wrestling

Sumo is a big thing in Japan. Its supposed to be spiritual, and its definitely rich in history. Seeing 2 colossus bodies come together make you think why would people invent such brutal sports without any finesse? You have to go see for yourself. Its better than watching soccer or baseball... seriously.

A view of the ring and the crowd. Notice the roof on top of the ring. Long time ago in the Edo era, sumo was fought in a pavillion for the samurai lords to see. Now, with the stadium seats, you can't do that, so the elevate the roof.



Announcers like this one sings out the names of the competitors in the coming match. Yes, sing.



The sumos from the premier league of Makuuchi gets to make a grand entrance into the ring wearing this heavy piece of silk cloth. Notice he isn't Japanese, many sumos are not Japanese, including the current Yokosuna (Best fighter) is Mongolian.



Sprinkling salt to purify the ring.



"Yoisho", the crowd shouts as the sumo lifts his leg off the ground simulating the noise you'd make lifting a heavy object. The higher the sumo's leg goes, the louder the crowd shouts with glee.



Ready, set....



Off they go!!



Caught this sumo in mid-flight as he lurched at his opponent, hoping to throw him off-balance!



Out of the ring he goes. 2 ways to lose. Step out of the ring, or have any of your body other than you feet touch the ground. Its really a balancing act. Not easy at all.



Slack.