Morning at Tsukiji

Even with a couple of sakes the night before, my sleep patterns are still varying fairly widely. My first meeting of the day on Wednesday wasn't until 1 PM, so I knew I'd have some time in the morning to do a little sight seeing. Taking advantage of my inability to sleep, I left the hotel at around 6 in the morning heading across town to Tsukiji fish market for a fresh sushi breakfast.

It's an easy shot to the Tsukijishijo station with a single transfer at one of the stations that I'm beginning to get slightly familiar with. The morning commute, I must say, doesnt appear to be much different in Tokyo than it does in New York. If you're on the train at 6 am, you arent happy. And there's a good chance you'll end up falling asleep so you clutch your bag a little extra tighter so you don't drop it, or worse yet, invite someone to take it. I remember reading an article on the New York subway and the type of riders that board at different times for their morning commute. The 6 am'ers in NY were more blue collar, if i recall correctly, and then the office workers started showing up later and later. I didn't sense anything different about the early morning travelers here except that as I neared the fish market, I began to notice the occassional wet-boot wearing commuter. I made a mental note to follow one of these guys as he'd probably be spending the day in fish guts.
Also, as the station got closer, more and more westerners hopped on. So far, the largest number of americans I've seen has been at Tsukiji. Perhaps 25% of the morning sushi eaters were from the west. This is a pretty touristy spot, even at 7 am. It was great to see though and is divided really into two sections - the side closer to the station had eight or so mini streets with sushi restaurants, bodega style shops, and a few clothing or pottery shops. On the other side of a parking lot is the actual market, where chefs meet in the mornings to purchase their fresh fish for the day. This was the real sight, mainly for sheer volume. Unrecognizable fish and other ocean creatures at every corner, some still alive, pulsing with their last gasps of freedom and others just piled into styrafoam coolers or arranged on the floor. One of the things I couldnt seem to take my eyes off of was the electric saws they were using to cut the meat off of the bone. It was like running a two-by-four into a saw except it was maybe a shark head.

After wandering around for a while, I made my way into one of the little restaurants. By 7:30 the place was already clearing out, many of the chefs done with their shopping, so navigating around got a bit easier. It was later explained to me that sushi in the morning is very out of the ordinary, but I dont care, it was delicious. I had maybe ten pieces of the freshest sushi I've had and got to watch the most amazing display of sushi eating prowess I've ever had the chance to see. The guy next to me was putting back light beer and taking pieces of sushi down like it was his last meal. The chef just kept slapping more and more exotic looking things in front of him and he would slap his paw around it and throw it down without flinching. I'm not sure if he was even ordering, or the chef knew he was just to keep bringing food until he was told to stop. Regardless, it made an impression.

Back to the hotel for an attempt at a short nap before work. Work has been good and, without getting into the details, I think I was able to fulfill the tasks assigned to me and in the end we were able to bridge the difficult language barrier. The language of computers helps, as there are certain words and ideas that make sense in any language and the concept of white-boarding is simply universal. They may not have understood every word that I said, but there was a lot of affirmative head shaking, so I have to assume that things worked out in the end.

Lastly, another American co-worker was in town for the evening, so our entire office - 10 plus the 2 of us, went out for Italian food. Yes, Italian food. It was quite good, I must say. Anne gave me some good advise before I left and I managed to pick up two decent New York City t-shirts before I left town and I presented them to the two employees that I've spent the most time with. Arrigato's all around and I took off for the subway station by myself.

Here I am with the guys I spent the majority of my time with over the past two days: