Saturday – Fish markets and Roppongi

Awake early again, but feeling like we might be getting on top of the time change (hah!) we decided to make the most of it and head out to the early morning fish markets – full of drama and fish throwing as well as plenty of food stalls.

Funny to be up and about so early – we both kept saying ‘wow, can you believe its only… 9.05′ etc when it felt like midday. The markets were great. We didn’t see any of the auctions, but all the people and carts, and flying buggies and stalls selling all sorts of sea-y things. We got breakfast of some fried stuff at one of the stalls, and then walked around gawking at everything. No great photos of it, must have been the early hour.

After that we walked and walked up to another part of town, through the quiet Saturday morning streets. We were looking for a bank – can you believe that in this country not many business take credit cards?? And only two types of banks take foreign ATM cards??? Crazy huh? I would have thought this was the hub of electronic finance. Just one of the interesting things.

We visited a beautiful paper shop – lots of handmade paper (washi I think) and cards etc. And then went into a fabled department store basements – they are the food areas and sell ALL sorts of things – many pastries and chocolatey things as well as salads, noodles etc etc. All very pristine and beautiful. After that it was to the Kite Museum (once we found it that is, the book could have said the entrance was up a lift inside a restaurant!!) which was tiny but packed to the rafters with kites and kiting paraphenalia of all kinds. Great place. Then, exhausted, it was home for a rest before heading out for the evening to Roppongi.

Roppongi is one of the ritzy areas, maybe a little too ritzy for us, we were hoping for something a bit more buzzing, but it was interesting enough – saw a giant spider statue, and got ourselves some tasty dinner in a cramped little place. Eating is on the hard side here, just because you need the place to either have English on the menu or at least pictures, to have any chance of knowing what you are ordering (and let’s face it, with abalone, pig’s ear and other such delicacies so common, I for one am keen to know).

[By the way, I have remembered what we had for dinner on Friday - weak with hunger we had... hamburgers!! No wonder I couldn't remember. It was a nice place though, and the chips were a bit tempura vegetable-like, very tasty. Not overly Japanese, but what can you do when your blood sugar is in your shoes??]