Tsukiji Fish Market

The Tsukiji Fish Market is widely known as the largest fish market in the world, and is a great place to start your visit to Tokyo. Arriving in Tokyo from the the U.S. means you're pretty much guaranteed to wake up at some horribly early hour (4:30 a.m. in my case), and since the market opens at 5:30, you can experience the madness first hand!

It's an amazing experience; a large warehouse packed to capacity with fishmongers selling the mornings catch, much of it alive, some larger catches flash-frozen, and all incredibly fresh. Not a single whiff of "fishy smell" will permeate your nostrils anywhere you go. You will see fish you've never seen or heard of before, you can watch a man slice through thousands of dollars worth of tuna with katana of a fish knife, or see eels skinned and gutted in record time.

Of course you stand still for any time at all entirely at your own risk and peril, as hundreds of motorized carts run at breakneck speeds up and down the tight, wet alleys between stalls. Getting bumped and knocked is to be expected; just try not to upset anyone holding a large bloody knife!

Surprisingly a lot of Japanese tourists are there as well; I think we saw more Japanese with cameras than gaijin.

Here are a few pictures; the full collection in in a [gallery]





After an hour or so of walking around the market and watching all that delicious fish being sliced and diced, you'll find yourself hungry for a sushi breakfast! Just outside the market are rows and rows of shops and sushi restaurants, where you can have the freshest sushi you've ever had, washed down with beer or sake, sitting next to chain-smoking Japanese fisherman… all before 7:00 in the morning. Perfect!


Enjoy a larger [photo gallery] here.

(Very) early morning in Tokyo

While waiting for my colleague to head off to the fish market, I grabbed a few shots in they stylish hotel lobby and outside the Shidome Media Tower in the frigid morning air. This hotel is in what appears to be a newly constructed business complex; there is still lots of road construction, and the buildings are all very new and modern looking.

Shidome Media Tower Park Hotel Lobby

Stairs up to the pedestrian bridge between buildings

Coffee

Tea is the drink of choice in Japan, but in catering to western travelers, most hotels have some sort of coffee in the room. Every room I've ever stayed in in Tokyo has had an electric tea kettle and a selection of teas, and often has some sort of horrid instant coffee as an option.

This hotel has something I've only seen once or twice before, is very effective and surprisingly good! The single-use drip filter. Behold…



Mmm, a hot cuppa joe to start the day! Of course it's 4:45am but that's just fine, as it means I can go to the fish market!

Park Hotel Tokyo

Cool, trendy little place. Japan is just starting to do the 'boutique hotel' thing. This one's got it in the lobby, although the room is pretty plain. Nothing wrong with it at all, but a bit bland. The view is fun though.

Japan Land

Flight was fine, easy enough (or as easy as 12 hours in the air can be). Met up with a colleague at the airport and we rode the JR line train into Tokyo station. Nearly missed our stop… oops… guess we both figured EVERYONE would be getting off there! Good thing we asked.

From the Tokyo station we were both too hungry to wait until after check-in to eat, so we wandered until we found a row of restaurants. Nothing in English, no pictures, all Japanese in the joint's… perfect!

We ended up in a sushi place (honestly didn't even know what kind of restaurant we were in until they handed us a picture menu). A huge pile of sushi and several beers later and we rolled on out and off to our respective hotels.

We had some great sushi, including hamache, amaebi, some unidentified white fish, maguro, whale (!! -- although we were assured it's imitation, and it some other guest called it 'bacon'. OK we have no idea what it was, but it was tasty), and the winner of the night -- horse! Yes, horse. At least that's what he said. Red meat, served raw, very fatty, and unbelievably tasty. We ordered seconds.

Washed down with a beer or three, and we were two happy boys in Tokyo-land.

I couldn't tell you the address of this place, but there is a name on the first photo. If you find it, go!

Kassen Ichiba (ok for all I know that could say "eat here, gringo!")

rating: 4 feet
verdict: Try something you've never seen before, it'll be good! Honest!

SouthWorst

SouthWest has just graduated from a crappy boarding procedure to a super-crappy-shitty boarding procedure. Instead of the ass-numbing (because you had to sit on the floor for half an hour before boarding if you wanted a decent seat) yet understandable A, B or C boarding procedure, you now have a number assignment (not a seat assignment mind you). Mine was Group B Position 30. So I had to locate the 8-square foot staging area for B26-30. No I'm not kidding. But wait, there's more. B1-5, 6-10, 11-15 etc. don't exist until A1-5, 6-10, etc. have boarded. Once A is on the plane, they rotate the sign and A staging area becomes B. And the confusion begins again.

Just to make things more fun, they boarded the flights to SJC and to SFO at the exact same time, at gates 11 and 13, for which the gates are about 6 inches apart. For the first time in my life I nearly got on the wrong plane.

The only levity to the situation was the hysterical mass confusion of two Bay Area bound flights trying to make sense of this madness. People were actually yelling to the attendants that "this system sucks" or that "we hate this!".

Someone's gonna get fired over this one.

A Slice of New York (in San Jose) [updated]

This place offers a serious NY slice o' pie (that's pepperoni, not blueberry), and what is this "Manhattan Special"? An amazing coffee soda, imported from NY and reputedly impossible to find in CA. Except here.

Name: A Slice of New York
Address: 3443 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose CA 95117
Tel: +1 (408) 247-5423
URL: http://www.asliceofnewyork.com/


View Larger Map

rating: 4 feet
verdict: Real good, real authentic. The boys at the oven are from Brooklyn. Tributes to heroes of 9/11 on the wall. Feels like the real thing.

Mad in Manhattan

Apparently the only reason this place has been in business for 30
years is it takes that long to get served. Reservation for seven at
7:00. Menu arrived upon request at 7:40. 8:00 saw us walking out the
door. Seriously, no one wants to take our order? Good bye.

A nice surprise at SFO; Yankee Pier, T3

Due to a changed flight I had a long wait at SFO last night, and so ventured out for a proper sit-down meal. The receptionist at the Admirals Club advised either a sushi place that was "excellent", or just past that a place that did fresh fish that was also "very, very good". Since I knew I'd be dining at Le Bernardin the next night, reputed to have some of the best fish in the world (and certainly in NYC), I figured I'd skip the cooked fish and have it raw instead.

The sushi restaurant was unfortunately just a counter, with only pre-packaged arrangements and not a-la-carte. Not looking appealing, I moved on towards Yankee Pier to see what the fresh fish looked like.

What a brilliant plan that was. Yankee Pier is very, very good – being in an airport not withstanding. The waiter informed me of what was fresh that night, including one not on the menu – rainbow trout. I opted for that and a glass of wine (no half-bottles), and a small green salad.

Unfortunately, and this is the only area where the restaurant fell down, after probably at least minutes and my first glass of wine, the salad still hadn't arrived, so I flagged the waiter to ensure they arrived separately (I really find it irritating when a restaurant delivers the starter and the main together). He ran off to check it and came back apologizing that my order had fallen off the board. Oops. Had I been rushing to a flight, this would have been the end of diner, but fortunately I had time to spare.

The salad came quickly after, a simple green salad with oil and vinegar. No dressing options, which I can appreciate as I wouldn't want my dinner guests palettes tainted by an erroneous choice of Blue Cheese or 1,000 Island dressing before presenting a perfectly cooked and delicate fish.

Shortly after (but not too quick; the timing was good) the fish came. And I have to say, it was superb. Not just airport-food superb, but truly superb. The trout was butterflied and grilled, simple and pure. Served over a bed of sautéd squash and red potatoes, with a wedge of lemon, and a dish of tartar sauce (which I ignored). It was cooked perfectly. I relish in the slightly tougher 'jerky' edges you get when you grill a fat fish and the edges are inevitably overdone; to me these are almost a delicacy in themselves.

Yankee Pier
San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Terminal 3
+1 650-821-8938
http://www.yankeepier.com/

rating: 4 feet
verdict: If you have time to kill in SFO, I can't think of a better place to do it.

'Nieuw Amsterdam', here I come

Tomorrow night redeye to JFK, followed by the Lucie Awards Monday night, and a string of planned dinners including Le Bernardin, Gascogne, Flor de Sol, and Domenico's.

It's gonna be a blogtastic week.