Its my final day in what seems like an eternity here in Tokyo. Don’t get me wrong I love this city but after being in Shanghai for a week, coming here was overkill. Anyways I hadn’t planned on doing too much today as my flight out of Narita departs at 1:00 pm. I was determined to wake up and catch the fish at the Tsukigi fish market. After a failed attempt the last time I was insistent on seeing some big tuna. I woke up promptly at 4:30, showered and was at the fish market at 5:30. There was no getting lost this time as I had memorized the route to a ‘T’. When I arrived I was dumbfounded by how busy the place was. Compared to the ghost town that I witnessed a few days earlier today was an ever moving sanctuary of local fisherman. As I weaved through the aisles I tried to avoid being run over by the small transport vehicles. One has to pay attention or you could be lying face first next to the fresh fish on display.

I snuck into the local fish auction to catch a glimpse of the morning action. Tourists weren’t allowed into the scene so I unobtrusively shadowed myself around. I was ushered out once but then just moved on to the next auction. The fish were amazing to look at. Flash frozen they looked like big ocean kayaks at first glance. I couldn’t help but to touch one as they lied dead on the warehouse floor. Judging by the size I would guess the average Tuna weighed almost 200 lbs. Calculating that in Sashimi costs I would guess it was a heck of a lot of money. Observing all the fish made me hungry. I slowly wrapped up my photos and paced through the rest of the fish market en route to my next sushi breakfast. With so much seafood around me I was hankering for some fresh nigiri.

I found another Sushi-Zanmai restaurant not too far from the fish market. It wasn’t the same one I had been to earlier in the week. It must be a chain. I sat down and ordered breakfast consisting of Miso soup and Nigiri sushi. I just pointed to what looked good on the menu and the chef delivered it in front of me. I met a fellow traveller from the Netherlands named Ken. We swapped stories over breakfast and I told him I’d be visiting Holland in the near future. Pretty nice guy. After breakfast it was back to the hotel to pack and head off to the airport. I arrived at Narita almost 3 hours early so I grabbed some food, read my book and watched the planes come and go. Next stop Shanghai.