Day 1

The first destination of our family trip was Tsukiji Market, where we got up at half 4 in the morning to catch the early market bustle. We arrived just before 6, but by then the tuna auctioning had finished and people were busy carting away their trophies - Even so, we weren't allowed to set foot in the area, nor were we allowed any flash-photography.


We spent an hour, or so, wandering through the market, getting in peoples' way, absorbing the sights and smells of hundreds of fresh fish vendors and scanning for potential bargains. Dad spotted a large box of tuna belly off-cuts being sold for ¥500 and we quickly snapped it up, lest someone else got there first. Man, did it taste good!... but even so, the thought of eating a whole box of raw tuna without anything to dip it in made me (and probably the rest of us) a little queasy. We couldn't find anywhere that sold small packets of soy sauce or wasabi, so when we sat down for breakfast, I covered the waitress' line of site whilst dad tipped the whole box out onto our plate of nicely prepared sushi! It was literally a massive pile of fish! Not suspicious looking at all! (But it did save us thousands of yen if we had originally wanted to eat that much tuna sashimi!)


After two breakfasts and more shopping in the outdoor section of Tsukiji market we set off towards Akihabara, where I bought myself some handy pepper spray; we observed Final Fantasy Dissidia brand soft drinks; ate a beef (omg!!) doner kebab; and shook hands with a guy dressed as a mobile phone...


We then went to Ikebukuro and fried our own okonomiyaki and yakisoba; watched mum buy boots; laughed at the stupid toys in Tokyu hands; and rode an extremely fast lift in Sunshine City!...

Much fun was had by all, but man were we tired...