(SHIBUYA CROSSING, TOKYO)
One of the main draws for me when I was considering living and working in Korea was the relative vicinity to other places in Asia that seem to be a world away when you're living in the States. For me, Japan in particular has always had a special allure. Japan figured out a long time ago that their biggest and most affecting export could be their culture and I truly believe that things like anime, sushi, and video games have managed to forever saturate the consciousness of an untold amount of Americans. My own particular story, being a singular and slightly disaffected youth growing up in South Carolina, involves my finding of and reveling in Japanese culture. Everything from the more well-known anime markers of Dragonball Z and Miyazaki films, to J-Pop music (thanks to a show on WUSC when I was in high school), and of course, video games like the Final Fantasy series. I was a religious follower of the original Iron Chef, their epic culinary battles and emphasis on thoughtful, expertly-crafted food no doubt stoking the fire of my love of the culinary arts today. I was even touched by the strange and unique world of puroresu (or Japanese pro-wrestling). Having always been a wrestling fan growing up thanks to my uncles great love of the pseudo-sport, I saw in the Japanese strain something identifiable but ultimately alien. I'm not ashamed to admit to having spent hours and hours online, pouring over tape reviews and purchasing said VHS tapes of the latest or the most legendary battles. Amongst all these influences (and thats not even getting into sushi!), Japan has ultimately had me in the palm of its hand for a long, long time.
Everyone's vacations are structured differently here in Korea based on the specific contract you have with your school. I essentially have four opportunities to travel throughout my year here. One passed with the January 1st New Year holiday. The second is Chinese New Year (also celebrated in Korea). The third time is a summer break at the end of July and the fourth chance all the way at the end of September for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). Tokyo is the easiest trip to make from Korea, only a two hour flight, but also the consensus most expensive bit of traveling that you can do while in east Asia. So, I scraped together all the money I'd managed to accumulate so far in Korea and decided to make the pilgrimage I'd always wanted to do.
Looking back on it, I maybe should have flown, but instead I chose to do a boat/train combination that, while taking a bit longer to reach Tokyo, would allow me to see the country from a train window. It was only a three hour ride on the hydrofoil ferry from Busan to Fukuoka, just enough time for a quick nap and to try and net the butterflies in my stomach about the trip ahead.
From the ferry terminal to the main train station in Fukuoka was a short fifteen minute bus ride. Before leaving, I had used a well-known website called Hyperdia to look into cheaper ways to get around Japan than buying the JR Rail Pass, which can be purchased for almost unlimited travel around Japan for a span of two weeks. I chose not to go that route because I was only going to be in the country for the better part of four days and you couldn't use it with the Nozomi Express Shinkansen (bullet train) from Fukuoka to Tokyo. Turns out that I had to take the Nozomi anyway as the information I showed to the JR customer service folks apparently wasn't correct. "OK", I said, "No problem. I may have almost wiped out my entire train budget by taking the Nozomi but I'm really in a hurry to get to Tokyo!!! I'll just find a cheaper way back". The fact that Hyperdia had failed me was an ominous sign of things to come, but more on that later.
After about six hours on the Shinkansen, having passed through Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, and a few other large Japanese cities, I finally arrived at Shinagawa Station. When the website of my hostel said there would be only one exit at Shinagawa, I expected a smallish station, especially since, at least to my eyes, Shinagawa looked to be a little "out of the way", nestled in the far southwest corner of the city. As it turns out, Shinagawa is far from removed and is known to be a particularly business-oriented (see: upmarket) part of the city. What I found was a massive, bustling station with labyrinthine twists and turns. Situations like this can sometimes leave me a bit flustered but I bought a cold, refreshing bottle of oolong tea (Tea's Tea!) from a kiosk and collected myself. A short fifteen minute walk later, I found my hostel nestled away in a quiet and cozy side street.
(SHINAGAWA, TOKYO)
(SHINAGAWA-SHUKU GUESTHOUSE)
Having arrived at my hostel around 9pm, tired, starving, and a little exasperated, I decided to not run the risk of heading out to Shibuya or Shinjuku and missing the last train back. Trains in Tokyo stop running at 1am and just to set foot in a taxi will cost you 800 yen (almost $10) instantly. So, I had a nice, cheap sushi meal (still very delicious!) next to the hostel, and chose to stay in and drink a few beers with some of the other hostel guests and staff. Getting an early start the next morning was of the utmost importance because I was about to strike something off my life's to-do list -- sushi breakfast at the world famous Tsukiji Fish Market.
When traveling alone in a new city, there's a definite advantage to staying in hostels. They're almost always cheaper than hotels and you're not totally isolated from other fellow travelers so its normally very easy to find like-minded people with which to explore. I met two such Australians, one girl who teaches about two hours from Tokyo, and her friend, who had just gotten off a flight from "down under". They were staying at Shinagawa Guesthouse and we agreed to join forces for the early morning to come.
Its recommended that you arrive at Tsukiji extremely early, especially if you want to witness the spectacle of the tuna auction, where fish can sometimes command hundreds of thousands of dollars. As it turned out, 5am was too big of an ask but we weren't really bothered, happy to hit the subway around 8am and to hopefully beat the early lunch crowds that often congest the better sushi restaurants surrounding the market. These sushi spots also happen to be incredibly tiny with an average of only 10-20 seats.
When you view Tsukiji from Google Earth, its looks like a city unto itself. Its a massive, disorienting place, with so many strange, wonderful things to see that you just have to let yourself drift along, all the while trying to stay out of the way of the busy bee workers and many types of transport vehicles whizzing by. The one major difference that I noted between Tsukiji and Seoul's Noryanjin Fish Market (aside from hours of operation, Tsukiji shuts down early, Noryangjin trucks on into the night) is the difference in the types of sea products on offer. In Tokyo, there were more recognizable, perhaps more widely desired animals such as abalone, scallops, sea urchin, and, of course, huge red hunks of tuna. At Noryangjin, there are many stalls whose creatures more so resemble science fiction than anything edible. Koreans are known for "dragging the bottom of the ocean" and eating almost anything they find, an admirable quality that certainly has to do with their long history of being economically destitute. The fact that they still eat these things, even though the country is now an economic powerhouse, should definitely be applauded, but Japan has been more affluent for a longer period of time and that may be reflected in their predilections when it comes to seafood. What I'm trying to say here is that you can see the histories of the two countries as reflected in their respective fish markets.
My traveling companions and I explored the vendors for a bit before heeding the call of hunger and locating the restaurant area. I had a couple of spots in mind, namely Daiwa and Sushi Dai, two of the more famous sushi bars surrounding the market, but, as my traveling companions were watching their wallet and the lines were already a little ridiculous, we chose another place just around the corner. Needless to say, the sushi was immaculate, a set menu consisting of seven nigiri (fish and rice) pieces: fatty tuna, tuna, yellowtail tuna, shrimp, sea eel, roe, and sea urchin, as well as six rolls, three otoro (fatty tuna) and three of some kind of shellfish. Luckily, my Australian friends weren't wild about roe or urchin and I scored their pieces. I'd never really appreciated either one of these constant sushi characters until eating them here. I'd heard that they are better in Japan due to the freshness, and you'd be hard pressed to find fresher, more legit sushi than eating at Tsukiji. |
(fatty tuna [otoro], buri [yellowtail tuna], maguro [tuna) |
(AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS AND I)
(UNI! SEA URCHIN NEVER TASTED SO GOOD!)
(OUR CHEF/DICTATOR)
So, after a sushi breakfast for a reasonable 2,700 yen ($35) including hot tea and a carafe of sake, we all left our comfortable sushi nook and ventured out into the daylight. It was an incredibly pleasant morning, feeling more like early fall than early February. My hostel friends had to go do some shopping and I chose to take a power nap before setting out for Shibuya that night to meet my friend, James, who also lives here in Ulsan.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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