I am somewhat refreshed after an almost regular weekend. I missed the memo on not working on Saturday, so I got up early and arrived for the 730am meeting which no one showed up for. Nothing doing, I decided to go to Tsukiji. But I missed the auction, as it ends around 930am or so. There were guys loading trucks with their styrofoam boxes, still a few vendors open in the fish market. I didn't really know where I could and couldn't go, so I tried to stay close to families with babies, as I figured they'd be safe wherever they went in there. It is amazing, you get off the train at Tsukiji station, and you can smell the fish. The market is right behind the station. I was determined to at least eat sushi, and see the market. I worried at first that because the auction was over there would be no one around, but I turned a corner and there were hundreds of people-tourists, visitors, hawkers, everyone. There are small sushi stalls in a small area right next to the hangar docks where the styrofoam was being loaded into trucks. 3 alleys, about 25 or so stalls. Each advertised some sort of specialty set or food. There were two-whose menus I could not see/read-which had lines of at least 100 people each, snaking in a semi-organized way out into the street. I got into a shorter line, and still waited over an hour to get in to eat. There were only about 12 seats. The fish was super fresh. What I am assuming was flounder was even a tad crunchy-thats fresh. I even ate some kind of raw clam that had green oozing out, but I could not ask for a replacement, because I only practiced how to ask for things"without shrimp", and they made big noise when I asked for it without shrimp, and I had to strain to figure out he was asking me what I wanted as a replacement, and I was not sure what kind of clam it was, so i kept my mouth shut. It was good, though. The ikura I was disappointed in. I have had better. Afterwards I perused the Central Wholesale market, which was like a giant Chinatown. It was nice-there was a stand that sold scallops in shell, and they roasted it for you, another had fresh sea urchins-you scoop the uni out yourself, fresh oysters, and everyone had fish, crab, lobsters. There were vendors with only dried foods, some with only knives-beautiful expensive knives, kitchenware...It was also exahausting, but I wanted to see the river, so I wound my way to the Sumida-gawa river. That was nice. People walking their dogs, the sound of the water...I am definitely not a big city person, that has been solidified.
Sunday I got ditched. My coworkers said they were probably going to go to Ueno, they would give me a call. I waited in the morning, then called them, feeling the day wasting. No answer, so I left them a message that I went ahead to Ueno. Ah well, another day solo sightseeing. It was a madhouse. I got off the station at Ueno, and like the fish at Tsukiji station, as soon as the doors open you smell nothing but sugary treats. I stopped to put some money on my train card, and when I turned back around to go out of the turnstiles, there appeared-almost silently-a crowd of about 300 people all pushing their way through the turnstiles. This was to be the majority of my day. There were thousands of people in the area. Thousands at the zoo. For 600yen, I could not resist going to the Ueno Park Zoo. They normally have giant pandas, but not yesterday. But there were still thousands of people in there. I have never been shoved by so many grandparents carrying grandkids. While the Japanese are super polite-they apologize profusely if they bump you in the train while standing-when it comes to moving on and off the trains, getting through turnstiles, or trying to see the Japanese Field Mouse in his cage at the zoo, all bets are off, grandmothers and teenagers alike will shove you, especially if you aren't shoving the people before you. There are so many people here, I can see why they do it. If not you get left in the lurch. You don't get to see the Japanese Field Mouse cleaning himself, you get pushed right along to the dwarf mongoose, whose cage is so big, you can't miss them, and whose faces are apparently not so "kawaii", they get almost scoffed at. Well, I gave up really trying to see the exhibits, and marvelled at the people instead. I only wanted to see the raccoon dog, "tanuki". I did, and was disappointed it only slept and looked like a small raccoon. As usual I felt my pangs of guilt at caging the animals, particularly because their enclosures were so small for the most part. There was a gorilla that was bent forward with a burlap sack covering his head, as the children banged on the glass in unison screaming at the top of their lungs. I would have given the gorilla a pistol, had I one in my posession-he looked that bad. Meeting time. Pictures later.