Sushiiii Oishi!

We got up early to go to Tsukiji fish market, but not early enough to see much market activity or the popular bluefin tuna auction. That takes place around 0500 in the morning. We did walk around the wholesale market area and found Sushi Dai, the most popular sushi-ya inside the market, but there was a line there and we went elsewhere to kaiten zushi (that's conveyor belt sushi but the chef was right in front of us making it.) That was a branch of Sushi Zanmai, a giant sushi chain reknowned for spending way too much money at the bluefin tuna auctions: up to millions of US dollars for a single fish. It was easily the best kaitenzushi, but not the best sushi we've ever had.

That was located in the outer market (not the wholesale market - these stalls also sell to private individuals) and Leia bought a bento box that she liked, stackable and painted to look like a little geisha. We later came back to buy one for me, painted like a little samurai.

Then we went back for second breakfast to stand in line at Sushi Yamazaki, a couple doors down from Sushi Dai with a much shorter line. We finished our meal of the best sushi we've ever had or will ever have again before our turn would have come up for Sushi Dai. That was around noon. They wouldn't respond to "omakase" - that is, chef's choice - so we ordered a couple of set menus and a few more things we liked, and they were all fresh and delicious. The chef asked us if we wanted wasabe, and if he could brush shoyu (soy sauce) onto our sushi for us rather than having us dip it. They did have a list of "recommendations of the day", none of which were on the menu, so I ordered the bonito as nothing else even sounded like fish to me. Leia was too stuffed by then to have more. The bonito like everything else was doubtless caught that morning, and it ran out right after I and the people next to us ordered it - they removed it from the board. It was garnished with shavings of green onion and lemon, and the taste was just indescribable. I don't remember ever having any whole meal or single piece of food as perfectly flavorful as this little slice of raw fish, and I might never have such good sushi again, certainly not outside of Tokyo. I wanted to give up eating altogether because I'd never match that nigiri.

Tsukiji is actually named for a Buddhist temple there, located right outside the subway station. The name means "reclaimed land" and it's called so because the temple, which was originally in another location, burned down and was assigned some "land" off the coast of Tokyo. They had to dredge the land out of the ocean, and the wholesale market grew up around the temple and the famous sushi restaurants. We visited that temple which was quite big and nice to see.

The Tsukiji waterfront is not too far south of the center of Tokyo, so we took a subway from there to the Imperial castle. This was formerly the Shogun's castle at Edo, but given to Emperor Meiji during the restoration and it's now the main Imperial castle. We walked around parts of the castle that you can see without a tour, but it wasn't that interesting: just felt like a very large park. We did tag along for a couple of minutes with a tour group that passed by, but we still weren't too interested in the collections of trees that represent each province of Japan.

We took the subway again a short way to Ginza district, the most overpriced shopping area, and found the exit that leads to Yodabashi Jiro: the famous 3-Michelin starred sushi restaurant featured in the film "Jiro Dreams of Sushi." We were invited in, but declined because we had no reservation nor vast personal fortunes. They had big "please no photographs" signs so we contented ourselves with peeking at the small restaurant and kitchen with busily working sushi chefs.

For dinner we went back to Sushi Zanmai at their main store right around the corner from where we had breakfast, and it was better than the kaiten zushi, not as good as in the market, but still in the top two or three of sushi we've ever had or are ever likely to have again. At the end of the day I proclaimed that I don't see any reason to ever eat anything besides sushi again.

Leia and I split up for a bit so she could window-shop in Ginza on her own, and I could search in vain there and in Akihabara for a cover for my glow-Nook. Neither of us found what we were looking for and we met back late in the hotel.