Woke up a bit later this morning ~ 4:30am. Lu was up earlier, but didn’t keep our deal to wake each other up!

The boon of early morning is it means early Tsukiji days! We got to Tsukiji and immediately got in a random line – turned out to be a line for Sushi Zanmai, a very large chain in Tokyo, but this location had a 3.49 on Tabelog (which is pretty respectable), and a large Japanse clientele. We could tell it was a Japanese holiday, as many of the locals were drinking already and having a good time.

We got a chirashi bowl, and then nigiri orders of uni and fatty tuna. The chirashi don was only 2300 yen, and came with 12 or 13 pieces of sashimi, a wide variety, all of amazing freshness and taste. The uni was to die for, the fatty tuna was Edomae style and to die for, and for only $66 total Lu and I had one of the best fish meals we’ve ever had.

We intended to not eat too much, as we wanted to talk around the outer market and enjoy some of the random stand offerings. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, but we did manage to keep down an elegant strawberry mochi and a massive raw oyster. Wagyu skewers were on our list, but we weren’t nearly hungry enough to spend that much money. Finally, we stopped by an absolutely classic and cute coffee shop, Yonemoto, from the 80s, that loved The Beatles and kept a cheap simple offering for both locals and tourists alike.

The next phase of the day was basically a massive planned shopping excursion in Ginza. Itoya, the oldest craft shop in Tokyo (1904), specialises in western style stationary. Of course, at this point, the west is much more inspired by Japanese sensibilities than vice versa, and Lu was psyched to go. I have to admit, I was quite impressed by the seven stories (and a basement!) of goods: pens, papers and notebooks, stickers, towels, umbrellas, desks, and even a hydroponic garden where they grow their own vegetables that are then served at their own penthouse cafe.

We were lucky enough to be there during a tenugui exhibition, with various vendors selling traditionally made tenugui, a traditional Japanese hand towel made from cotton. This was a perfect spot for buying people souvenirs, but I made sure to grab one for myself, which is now adorning my new coffee cart. Finally, we hit up the surprisingly delicious cafe for lunch and a caffeine infusion, before moving on to Tokyu Hands for even more stationary goodness.

Next up was Tokyo teamLabs, a lauded interactive art museum – exhibits that you walk through, feel, see, and even touch, this was a big highlight. The most impressive aspect to me was the accessibility; this is art that scales, obviously intended for anyone to be able to come to and enjoy. Large groups come in at a time, but then it’s basically up to you to make your own pace through a large sequence of exhibits. There’s a certain amount of trust in the clientele, that perhaps wouldn’t work in the States.

The exhibits are broken out into two main groups, the water side and the garden side. Exhibitions include but are not limited to:

  • waterfall down hill
  • squishy room
  • light led vertical lines, crazy
  • deep water fishes and flowers
  • balls you could touch (gross)
  • giant rotating flower planetarium Garden side
  • weird ovoids you could move around
  • suspended orchids room
  • 1 stroke bench

Our favorite exhibit was the mirror room in the water side, which created a viscerally trippy effect.

We took the easiest route home since our legs were killing us. Managed to go back out for dinner to get excellent Unaju @ Koyanagi, delicious little puddings from “Asakusa Silk Pudding”, and a couple donuts at Mister Donut. We walked back through Hoppi street, which was absolutely bustling, but mostly with locals on holiday. Obviously we didn’t want to disturb them. The reviews online for Hoppi street were simultaneously foreigners complaining about it being uninviting, plus locals complaining about too many foreigners. I certainly don’t mind there being spots where foreigners aren’t as welcome.

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