Friday, June 28, 2013

Tsukiji, Shibuya, Harajuku; The drunken mans ballad

Tsukiji Fish market
Today I was the day when I was to leave from Ronris house to go to the Sakura Hostel in Asakusa.
It truly is a convenient location for a hostel since it has great conections to the other popular sightseeing spots and it's only a 5 minutes walk from the Asakusa kaminarimon.

So anyhow, I left early at 8.50 a.m. towards Asakusa to leave my luggage in a coin locker at the Asakusa station so that I could go meet Ako, another Couch surffer who offered to show me around.
We met at the Asakusa station and left for Tsukiji Fish market. The auctions for the fish are usually held at 4-5 a.m. but we didn't go there for that reason, we just went there to see the fish market in it self since it was actually her first time.
The smell of fish was strong when we arrived inside the gates. It's a huge place with many sellers and many products to sell. There was eel, octopus, crayfish etc. etc. And the amazing part was that most of the products where still alive when they sold them !
Kabuki theater 
It was a amazing site to see how they still squirmed in their buckets. I could also see one of the sellers take apart a eel.

We then continued to walk around the area and the shopping arcades nearby. I bought myself a little rock-salt set. It consisted of three small rocks of salt and a sort of grater to break it down.
It is full of minerals and generally healthier according to the seller, whether to believe it or not I do not know.

We then headed for Shibuya to see a bit around there. Shibuya is known for it's crossing path that goes all zig zag and is always crowded.
We went to some stores and I end up buying a calligraphy pen and a note book, boring I know.

While we walked around an instrument store hit my eye. I then immediately exclaimed " LETS. GO. THERE.".
I looked around at the guitars and tested a Boss guitar pedal just to have an excuse to play the guitar for a while.
It was amazing, simple but true.

We then headed towards Harajuku and Shinjuku by foot. We didn't really do anything in particular there, just walked and watched the people who had many particular tastes in clothing and fashion
It was a pretty sight because the sun had already started to set and had painted the sky with a purpleish color.
Harajuku station
I highly recommend to visit all of these above mentioned places when in Japan since they all have a unique atmosphere to them,

So as it was getting close to the evening we were both getting a bit hungry so we headed out to eat and to drink.
We drank pretty  much and had a good time. Ako is such a fun person !
We stayed so late that when I arrived at Ueno station with the Jr train , the subways were not operating anymore  so I had to take the cab which you should  avoid using at daytime since the traffic is so awful but now that it was night so it was ok.

I got home safely and saw the empty face of the Asakusa shopping arcade and temple area.

Cheers
Robert

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