More about yesterday...

It was such a long day...I really don't know where to begin. I'll start with the fish market since that is where I first began this really long day.

We took a taxi from the hotel to the fish market. It was around 5:00am, so the subway wasn't running yet, so a taxi was the only option. Taxis here are pretty neat. When they pull up to let you in, the driver opens the door automatically using a lever inside the car. It felt very Night Rider-ish. The cabbie didnt' speak any English (apparently this is universal), so the bellman at the hotel told him where we wanted to go. From that point, we were at the mercy of the cab driver. It took us about 15 minutes and 1700 yen total to get there...that's around $17 or so. He was pretty reckless, so it was nice to get there. However, we had a slight crisis when we arrived because the cabbie dropped us off at the Tsukiji metro stop (the subway) and not the actual market. We had a 10-15 minute walk. It wasn't bad, but it was very busy and very crowded.

You would think that a fish market would smell fishy, but there was none of that. This is an extremely fresh market, and fresh fish doesn't stink. Fish are flown in here or shipped in from all over the world, and there were many varieties. We strolled through the market vending areas first. If you don't like the sight of blood, this would not have been the place for you. Eel was especially bloddy and nasty. To tell you the truth, the market is a bit disgusting. Everywhere you look someone is hacking into some piece of fish, and it was scary. There were knives everywhere! On top of that, there are motorized carts all over the place. I also got to see a live tuna auction, which was definitely entertaining and pretty cool. What you have to remember is that the fish market is a work environment; it is definitely not for tourists. As such, the guys driving the carts or pulling handcarts will run over/into you, and not care. And that is their right...this is there place of employment! They daily have to deal with a bunch of gawking tourists. I felt really bad about it, and was aware the entire time that maybe I shouldn't be there. It seems that most tourists are pretty inconsiderate too. I think the whole thing kind of made me sad and a little frustrated at how most of us don't think about what is going on around us. Anyway, here's a shot of some interesting stuff I found:



We took the subway back (my navigation skills were right on, but I did double check and ask if I had it right...we were pretty far from the hotel and I didn't want to mess things up). I came up and changed, and tried not to think about the fishy nastiness on the soles of my shoes. Sick. I had Japanese breakfast again. I am getting reaaly good at chopsticks, and can even pick up single grains of rice now. We had a series of sessions today on the Japanese education system, economy, and government. Most of you would have been bored beyond belief. It wasn't bad, but got a little tedious after a while. We've been moving so much that it was hard to sit still all day. The feet were happy though.

We have a bulletin board set up near our meeting rooms so that we can post notes on where we are going/would like to go and see if anyone else is interested. So far I am getting to do all that I want to do, so life is pretty good. There are 158 of us, after all...someone has to be interested in what is going on! I know I need to get to Yokohama at some point, but think that if I go, it won't be until the last week and that is if I have enough money. Tokyo is pretty expensive. I did manage to score two JFMF t-shirts today for 200 yen ($2), so that was cool. I asked for one but they gave me two. I love a good bargain. We were also presented with two Japanese storybooks today (in English, with Japanese translation). Very cool.

After the seminars ended, I came upstairs and changed quickly and headed back down to meet up with the crew interested in going to Disney. Since I had been on the subway, and since Disney was my idea, I was elected unofficial group leader and had the responsibility of getting everyone to the park. That meant teaching others how to buy tickets, read subway maps, figure out the right line to get on, how to transfer to other lines, and where to get tickets at the park. It got a little frustrating, but I managed. There were 15 of us, so it was a good crowd to watch over, plus we were at the beginning of rush hour, so it was crowded. My whole idea was that I would get you there, but you were responsible for getting back home. You just reverse the directions. However, once we made it to the park, it was decided that we would wait and go together. Ehh. Whatever. It didn't really matter because I was now at Disney and I was happy (a common occurrence). We walked around DisneySea for around 4 hours. It wasn't crowded at all...in fact, we never waited more than 5 minutes to get on a ride. The only problem was that there is not a lot of signage in the park, unlike at Disney World, so we kept getting turned around. Luckily we were a smaller group by that point, and my group was pretty cool about getting confused a lot (thanks to Mariellen, Rebecca, Kathy, and Kathy!). The Indiana Jones ride was fantastic! He spoke Japanese though, which was weird. In fact, all the rides were narrated in Japanese, so we never really knew what was going on. It was an interesting lesson of things being lost in translation!



We did some shopping, and I was a little disappointed to not find Minnie Mouse in a kimono. In fact, the souvenirs there were a little strange. Lots of washcloths (huge gift in Japan), cell phone charms (you clip them on your phone), and boxes of candy. Want a magnet? You're out of luck. Just randomness in the gift shops. I did get a souvenir popcorn bucket...popcorn there was in all kinds of flavors...strawberry, chocolate, sea salt, etc...I had the black pepper and it was pretty tasty. By this point, I was pretty cranky and tired, and my feet were in serious bad shape. We hopped back on the train and settled in for our one-hour trip back to the hotel. Some of us decided to go to McDonald's when we got back. We hadn't eaten dinner, and we were honestly craving some good American food, and only McDonald's could satisfy that. Unfortunately, the stupid sign outside said that they were open 24 hours, but they just happened to be closed. It truly was not good. I could have cried! I was starving, in pain, and I really wanted a double cheeseburger (by the way, no sweet tea here...and my close second, the Diet Coke, is also hard to find). We ended up stopping in the 7-11, where I bought some weird sandwich and thankfully, the first Diet Coke I have seen here. I came back to the room and crashed immediately. My feet still hurt this morning, but it isn't anything a few ibuprofen won't help. I'll write about today later on tonight (it's 7:00am Friday as I write this...you guys are probably watching the evening news for Thursday right about now, or at least you should be). Talk to you later!