Day 13 - 5/25/18 Tokyo 101

Day 13- Friday - Tokyo Highlights An Amazing City

The Tsukiji fish market, while surely a tourist destination, is in fact the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. As it handles approximately 2,000 metric tons of seafood every DAY, with a total value in excess of 1.6 billion yen (approximately 15 million US dollars per day, it is the epicenter for the sale and distribution of the country's fish supply.   Fish comes in by boat, plane, and truck, and the auction itself starts at 3:30 AM. Our early morning (8 AM) was close to their quitting time, and as we arrived, fork loaders, small trucks, and motorized flat bed cars whizzed past us to pack up the last ton or so of fish, some still alive and bagged in seawater. From here they are packed into styrofoam boxes with ice and onto refrigerated trailers to be hauled throughout the city and country.  Rich captured some of the frenetic activity and somewhat run down but spotlessly clean market areas.  The market is to be torn down within the year and we could see why.  Tourists and forklifts don't make for a comfortable mix and the infrastructure is clearly crumbling.  It will be a great loss for the city and for tourists and the relocation site, Tonoyo, is not as accessible and has problems of its own.

Workers with Rubber Boots

Packing Up Styrofoam Crates

Peppers from Hell says the sign

At the outskirts of the market, we can upon a shrine dedicated to the fishing gods.

  After walking the bridge over the Sumaraiji River, we wandered back to the lovely Hama-Rikyu Gardens, where we visited with the 300 year old pine tree, then made our way over to the boarding area for a boat ride up the river to Asakusa near the 

Tokyo Skytree and Asahi Beer Hall

Tokyo Skytree. The black building with the golden "flame" on the right is the Asahi Beer Hall - but the "flame" is characterized by other more evocative names by many locals.  We will let you guess what those names are.  We passed under 7-8 different bridges, many just inches above the top of our sightseeing boat. 

skyscrapers and bridges

 
At the debarkation point, out boatload of tourists provided a welcome distraction to a collection of perhaps 50 schoolchildren (all uniformed which goes without saying) who were gathered awaiting some direction or other.  They collectively decided that we all should be cheered and welcomed as celebrities as the we departed from the boat.  Our boatload of random tourists included many Russians who had downed quite a few beers during the ride up the river - and they were quick to respond to the cheers by raising their arms to accept the adulation which only drove the schoolchildren to greater enthusiasms.  It was great spontaneous fun and it made me feel nostalgic for the innocence and happiness that should be part of a child's experience.  Too often, it seems, our youth in the US are made to take on adult responsibilities with concern for school shootings, issues of gun control, drugs, and global warming. I wonder if we've robbed them of the experience of being kids. 

Somebody Really Wanted to Protect their View

Layers and Layers to this City

Rather than make our way to the very touristy Tokyo Skytree or the glittering malls, we decided to float happily back down the river, back through the garden, 

More layers to this city

Iris starting to bloom

Bride and Groom in the Park

and return to get a late lunch of fresh sushi at the Tsujika fish market (some of the best sushi we have ever had), then over to the Kabukiza Theater in Ginza where we stood on line for same day tickets, then watched the first act  (two hours) of a four hour Kabuki show (more on that below), and finally dinner at a Ramen shop and back to the hotel.  

Impression #1. While at the Fish Market we paused to taste some beautiful fermented bean product suspended in a solid clear matrix.  The orange bean product was beautiful against the clear agar.  An elderly woman insisted we try a piece and gave a big smile when we liked it.  We bought some and she volunteered to take a picture of us.  Rich motioned that he wanted to take a picture of her, which she did a bit hesitantly, but then happily grabbed the camera from Rich and professionally snapped one of the two of us. 

Impression #2.  Perhaps the most iconic experience of the day was the unexpected stop we made while walking from the fish market to the theater.  Hearing children singing/chanting, we wandered over to a locked gate and peered around a sign that said in several languages NO PHOTOS.  An asphalt covered junior high school playground was littered with groups of children, either all girls or all boys, laughing, giggling and obviously setting up for some event. We saw teachers pairing off groups of about a dozen children, from tallest to smallest, and weaving straps between their legs that attached one child to the next in a long chain.  Upon a signal, the team would begin a coordinated trot, with the hands of the child behind tucked under the arms of the child in front with the lead child's arms crossed upon his chest.  The children would chant a song obviously meant to keep them in step, speeding up as they made their way about a short oval track until almost inevitably, some child would trip and all would fall down.  Cheers of encouragement and laughter came from the other children.  While we watched, it became clear that one girls' team was a winner, their steps synched so tightly they could have been dancers with the Rockets in NYC's Rockefeller Center.  We later learned that this sport is called a Mukada Race (centipede) which we found some video for you on Youtube.  We felt that this practice of seeking success for a group rather than an individual summed up so much of what we  saw as important in a Japanese upbringing. 

Impression #3.  A trio of lessons from the Kabuki Theater.  

1.  Beware of passionate Kabuki patrons who can outsmart you and steal seats out from under you.  Our budget was consistent with unreserved seating in the same day pick up line ($20 apiece) rather than the elegant reserved box seats ($200).  We joined the line about 1.5 hours before the 4:30 show, and we saw only two other Westerners in the crowd of over a hundred Japanese devotees of kabuki.  We learned that there were seats for 90 and standing places for 60, and the theater would admit the first 150 people on line and each person had to grab seats as opportunity permitted. One rule was that you could not grab a seat that was already occupied or had someone else's things on it.  At the ticket booth,  we got tickets numbered 74 and 75, so we knew it was a bit dicey whether or not we would get seats together and we knew if we weren't quick, there was a chance we wouldn't get seats at all if luck was against us.  As we proceeded in what we felt was a speedy but orderly fashion to get the first available seats, two older women raced behind the row we were making our way through and plopped their purses and shopping bags over the back rail onto the seats we were just about to sit down in.  Not fair, we cried!  We promptly lifted their bags and handed them back to them, amidst great distress to them and everyone around us.  It seemed they were not at all embarrassed at having literally grabbed the seats from under our bums, and we were not willing to get up from the seats we felt we had fairly attained.  All was resolved when a couple at the end of the row graciously moved down two seats so that all of us could be accommodated.  (PS, for anyone planning this strategy in the future, arrive at the theater 2 hours before the show to get a seat in the first of two rows in the balcony, the legroom provided in the last row of the theater was about half the length of our thighs, we didn't know if we could last the performance, but we did)

2.  Be assured - there is a kind soul looking out for you and wanting to apologize for any rude behavior of their countryman.  At intermission, an elderly woman that I recognized from the seat ahead of us smiled and approached us and started chatting up a storm of Japanese all the while handing Pat handmade bookmarks, several origami birds, and what she demonstrated with her water bottle, a bottle cover made to look like a sumarai hat.  At the end of her demo, we smiled and assured her that her works were lovely, and was tickled to death when she packed them into a clear bag and insisted that Pat take them.  "I hope you have a nice trip" she said as she smiled warmly.

3.  Kabuki is an audience participation event.  We learned later that this is a regular thing in Kabuki Theater called "kakegoe" and has this description from the official kabuki website:When you watch kabuki, you might be startled by shouts from the audience seats during the performance! Kabuki is a popular entertainment and the actors and audience become very close. To prove it, some audience members shout out during the plays or dances as applause and encouragement to the actors. This traditional practice, called kakegoe, adds a lot to the atmosphere. It stimulates both the actors and the rest of the spectators and can make for a thrilling experience! Since the place from which the audience calls out is on the third floor and is far away from the stage, the people who call out are called 'Ōmukō', in other words, 'Far away'!