We've jammed so much into our days that it's hard to remember how we started it when it ends. We woke up early once again around 5 am to make our way to Tsukiji market(the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind- wiki). The whole time we thought it was Tsujiki but found out it was slightly off when we looked at the Subway map. We missed the fish auctioning which was supposed to be pretty exciting so we walked around the vendors and restaurants in what they call the "outer market" section. We settled on one restaurant, or I did, that had a giant line in front. But I took some kind of stupid comfort in that. After almost 45 minutes of waiting, we decided to ditch the line and find somewhere else to eat. Before we knew it, we were ushered into a place to eat by a fast talking Japanese man. And not too much sooner after that, I had a bowl of Miso soup, a bowl of rice, a plate of Unagi, Daikon and a cup of green tea sitting in front of me. It was my first time to try eel and when I didn't think about what I was eating, it was quite tasty. We took pictures with the host and he wrote a bunch of Japanese phrases to help us poor lost tourists try to make sense of the foreign island on which we stood. He was very talkative, almost too much so, but he spoke to us longer than anyone has since we arrived.
After the market, we headed to the Ghibli museum in Mitaka. Whenever I see a town I like, I settle on it being my favorite, then I see another one to replace it. Today, Mitaka became the place that charmed me. One thing I love seeing here are all the side alleys with homes all along them. Their family names are written in Kanji outside on a plaque stuck on a wall that serves as a partial entrance. Unfortunately, not a lot of our time was spent there. The Ghibli museum was awesome. No pictures are allowed inside and I wish that weren't so. It was really fun to see some of the animation in action. I spent about 7500 Yen at the gift store.
We took the bus back to Mitaka station to go back to the hotel and rest for a minute. That lasted about 45 minutes. We were back out into the world again to explore Akihabara - also known as electric town. I don't think there is one thing you couldn't find there in the way of electronics. There are also the usual aggressive salespeople trying to sell merchandise like cameras and other gadgets. There are tons of stores selling manga and anime merchandise. Valerie and I somehow found ourselves trapped in a world of claw machines or ufo machines. You could win things like candy and drinks and cookies, to manga figures and big stuffed animals and handfuls of tiny stuffed hamsters. There went 2000 Yen easily. We couldn't resist finding a couple more devil ufo machine houses like this and giving in to temptation. After more shopping, we headed back to Ikebukuro and stopped at KFC for food. The kids that work in the fast food establishments treated us wonderfully. Usually quite the opposite coming from America. They act like they don't mind being there. Something is being done right in Japan my friends.Last stop was space create, our favorite internet cafe. This time we rented a cubicle with two computers, mats, and cushions. We even had PS2s ready to be played. Unfortunately, smoking is still allowed inside some places so I was sneezing up a storm from the smoke clouds above our heads. We spend almost an hour in that cubicle then we left. Time for some rest since waking up as early as we have is not so much the plan tomorrow. Oya Suminasai!
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