Tokyo! (part 6)

First thing on Thursday morning we took the subway to Tsukiji Fish market. However we made a very big mistake - rush hour!!!

The Ikeuburo train station was packed! People were squeezing and pushing to get past the barriers, as well as into the trains. We were lucky to get into one, although the relief lasted only a second as people continued to pour into the carriages. I finally experienced how it felt to be a sardine squashed in a tiny can - wedged between 2 towering salarymen in black coats. To make matters worse there was an accident in the Oedo subway line, so our train was stuck for a good 10minutes.

When we finally reached Tsukiji at around 11, it started to drizzle. Since we arrived too late, we missed out on the actual fish market and decided to just take a walk among the narrow alleys filled with lots and lots of stalls selling fresh seafood!





We had a hearty brunch of ramen and beef bowl!!







My dad was feeling partically peckish so we started to hunt for this stall which sold freshly grilled shellfish -



I saw lots of weird shellfish, including this box of "uni" or sea urchin. My parents absolutely loved it (I just don't get the idea of eating the meat of a spiky ball thingy)



A visit to Tsukiji wasn't complete without a taste of its fresh sushi! So we entered this sushi shop, and I was rather surprised to see a female sushi chef! You don't see many of those around.





A fishmonger slicing up a huge piece of tuna meat.

After that rather filling visit to Tsukiji we went to Kamakura, a few stops away from Yokohama, to visit the famous Daibutsu, or Giant Buddha.



The bus ride from the station to the temple.



Daibutsu! According to history a huge tsunami swept into Kamakura, killing lots of people and destroying nearly everything - everything except the Daibutsu. Even the temple that housed it was swept away.



A cute map probably drawn by one of the locals, as we walked down the sloping and winding streets of Kamakura towards the beach. On the way I was lucky to see this



A train crossing!

After a long walk we finally found Yuigahama beach! The song by AKFG Yuigahama Kite was probably named after this beach, considering their Yokohama roots.



We took the small train in the above picture back to the station and to Yokohama! By the time we reached Yokohama the sky had already turned dark and the rain was super heavy! Not the best weather to go walking about in the streets but we did anyway. My shoes were soaked ><

After a 15min walk we reached our destination - Chinatown!



Thanks to the weather there wasn't much activity in Chinatown, though most of the shops were still open and brightly lighted up. Saw a number of stalls selling GIANT BAOs. And those buns were really huge! Even bigger than the da bao you can get here in Singapore.

We went into this Chinese restaurant (there were plenty of those, they practically lined the streets) for some comfort food. Though the food tasted less salty than what I was used to, they were quite good! Ate supaiku (sweet sour pork), fried rice, fish and some dimsum. The staff could speak very good Mandarin, and the manager even spoke in Cantonese! Not sure if they were Japanese though =x

More coming in part 7!