The Tosu’s lined up a city tour for us and since today is the equinox, which is a holiday in Japan, Eisuke had the day off from school and went with us. It was mutually beneficial as we got a personal guide to our tour, if you will, and we helped him with his English in preparation for his TOEFL test and some admission interviews coming up.
Our first stop of the day was at Hama-Rikyu Gardens, a large park and garden in the south of the city. I forget the details, but it was a pretty old place built and owned by the Japanese imperial family. It was a nice quiet place, despite its downtown location. It had a view of the bay, ponds with bridges, a teahouse, and a ton of plants and birds. It was a nice place to begin our tour of Tokyo. Afterwards, we headed just across the street and took an elevator to the 52nd floor of a building with an observation deck. We could look straight down onto Hama-Rikyu, where we had just been, as well as look out at most of Tokyo. It was pretty hazy out, but it helped me realize that Tokyo is unlike any city we’ve been to on this trip so far. Most major cities we visit have a couple blocks of skyscrapers (or anything above 20 stories for that matter). But Tokyo is an entire city of skyscrapers and tall buildings.
Joylani and Eisuke walking in Hama-Rikyu
Our second stop was the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the place where all the big tuna auctions go down. Today it was closed due to the holiday, but Yumi is taking us there tomorrow and we will get a chance to see it in its busy state. It was interesting to see this big market deserted and set the stage for the action tomorrow when all the fish auctioners, buyers, and shopkeepers come back to work. Although the market itself was closed, many of the nearby restaurants were still open. Our tour group split up for lunch and Eisuke helped us find a delicious little place, specializing in tuna donburi (the Japanese name escapes me). Picture a bowl of sushi rice topped with raw tuna, egg, roe, and a few other goodies. If you are thinking delicious, then you’ve got the picture. I’ve never had it or even heard of it, but it may be one of my favorites now. After lunch, we headed to the Edo-Tokyo Museum (Edo was the pre-1867 name for Tokyo). It was an extremely interesting and thorough museum, even though it was just a city museum. But since so much of Japan’s history has been centered on Tokyo, we learned a lot about Japanese history too. From the shogunates to the Meiji Restoration to WWII and the Japanese Miracle, we learned how Tokyo and Japan had evolved. The museum covered a wide range of topics within history, and was refreshingly not just focused on the usual political stuff. Sections covered daily life, the war, and art (the display on the emergence of literature, sort of the first manga, was really interesting). Exhibits included very informational commentary to go along with an excellent collectin of artifacts ranging from block prints, dioramas, clothes, etc.
After the tour, we headed back home until dinner. Once again, Sadako and Yumi had spent much of the day preparing for another feast. Again, it was delicious and we got to try a lot of new things. Joylani’s Uncle Mike and the Tosu’s have really shown me that even though I’ve eaten Japanese food throughout my life, there’s still a ton of things I’ve never heard of or tried before. One of my favorite discoveries of the night was makeral that Sadako’s sister had brought. In short, the fish is cooked for a while in a sho-yu based sauce til it has soaked up the flavor and become stiffer, tough not dry. It was similar in texture to smoked fish and made for an excellent “beer snack” at the men’s end of the table. But tasty makeral wasn’t the only good thing at dinner. We ate the best tempura that I never thought was possible: deep-fried yet light and crispy, and not heavy in the stomach afterwards. This mother-daughter pair are truely amazing cooks. To round out the good meal was a table full of good company, and we continued to have a good time getting to know everyone better as well as learn more about Japan. The tour was good and dinner better, making today a fantastic first day in Tokyo.