Japan '06

Guten Morgen! Auf zum Tokio Fischmarkt. Tausende von Leuten mit Handwaagen,E-Karren meist auch mit Dieselmotor,Fahrraedern und Fisch. Lebend,tot,gefroren,gross,klein,bunt,noch nie gesehen. Es war ein Schauspiel wie noch nie gesehen. Allerdings wuerde die Hygeneinspetion total durchdrehen. Wir hattten riesen Spass.
Was kommt nach Fischmarkt? Toyota Town(Stadt). Mit einer fuehrerlosen Elektrobahn ueber Tokio hinweg auf eine Insel. Hier wird ich nur amuesiert in neuster Technik und bizarrer modernster Architektur. Toyota hat hier eine Austellung,nett zu sehen. Kein MB am Salzufer aber einige gute Similatoren die ich testete. Auf dem Rueckweg stopten wir am Sony Center und haben uns die neuste Elektronik angeschaut (8Etagen Ausstellung). Abendbrot essen gabs heute mal aus dem Automaten. Das war ein Nudelrestaurant und du mustest vorher Esenmarken am Automaten kaufen,die dem Koch geben und dann bekamst du dein Essen. War lecker. Aber mal wieder alles auf Japanesisch geschrieben.

This morning we got up early and headed out to the Tsukji fish market - the world's largest! Over $30 million worth of fish and seafood go through this market each day. We arrived at 8:30am which was basically the end of the day for the market (it starts at 3am). It was still pretty busy and there were plenty of fish. I was amazed. The quantity and diversity of seafood was incredible. Many things were still alive and twitching - either in water or on ice. There were many people doing their business and we had to be careful that we weren't mowed down by electric carts and bikes balancing their cargo. After that experience we took a monorail out to Odaiba island in Tokyo bay and visited Toyota town. The island is man-made and supposed to be a residential and office complex. The market apparently didn't bite and instead there are a few skyscrappers and some typical examples of Tokyo's bizzare entertainment complexes. Toyota town was OK. We took a mini-electric car ride and a Formula 1 racing car simulator ride. Overall it was a huge contrast to the organic experience from the morning. Later on we wandered through the Ginza district and stopped in to see the latest gadgets at the Sony building. The highlight of the day was ordering our dinner from a vending machine. We spotted this noodle shop on the corner near our hotel and decided to try it for dinner. We walked in and sat at the counter, but the server pointed us to the vending machine. Confused we went over and saw that all of our choices were in Japanese. Luckily the guy came over and after I pointed to various words for tofu and chicken in the dictionary we made our choice. It was totally yummy - udon with chicken, scallion, and mushrooms.