Can’t wait to go home!
I miss Hawaii!
Sayonara!
Travel: Japan's Tokyo Tsukiji Market
it’s always been my dream to go to Tsukiji Market in tokyo. it happens to be the biggest and busiest fish market in the world. getting there is one thing, getting in is another. they limit only 2 groups of 60 people per day. the first group at 5:30am and the second at 5:50am. i got there at 4:15am this morning and just made it in the door. yeah, the door closed and that was it! 120 and that’s it! seen some disappointed tourists from all of the world getting turned away.
if i were 5 minutes later, i would have been disappointed too. lucky i have jet lag so i’m up at 3am every morning. haha.
tourists everywhere and sitting in this small waiting room is 120 of the lucky ones. i had to wait there for 1 hour 30 minutes before i got to finally get into the maguro auction!
most of tokyo is sleeping but not tsukiji market. people working hard everywhere!
then i saw my first big tuna! oh boy would i like to spear one of those things. i was so excited that i almost pissed in my pants. it was so exciting!
then the auction started and although i understand a lot of japanese, i couldn’t understand one word they said.
millions of dollars in transactions every day here at Tsukiji.
you go, you bid, you win, and you take it home. simple.
this is only 1/15th of the total market. it was huge!!!
these tunas go for big money. then from there, they get cut up, packaged, and sent all over the world. i seen the biggest ones sold that were caught in katsura, chiba.
after this, i went to the sushi restaurant next door and had my first ever sashimi donbori at 6:30am in the morning. i wanted to drink a beer too but didn’t.
some guys were there at 12 midnight waiting for their chance to get in. if you go, i would advise to get there by 4am. this historic market is going to close in 2016 and a huge part of japanese history will be gone forever. don’t miss it.
many more photos coming tomorrow. i gotta get to the airport and fly back to hawaii. have great memories on this wonderful trip in japan and wish i could stay here longer. but time to get back to work, surf, dive, yoga, and friends. see you all back home!
Kobochihama Oysters
i had a great time going back to the ocean in kobochihama. to see the progress of that wonderful fishing village getting back to normal was my dream since the first time i went there in 4/11. i seen the worst, and the worst is over. things are looking promising and this is a perfect example of one village that didn’t give up. Kimura-san took me out on this very same boat he sped out to sea on day of the tsunami. for japan fisherman, once there is a tsunami warning, the first thing is to take their boats out to sea. he was alone, no food, no water, and it was freezing cold. 2 days later he made his way back to a fishing port that was totally devastated. that must have been hard to see.
as everybody knows, i love everything about the ocean. and i love everything about japan culture. so experiencing it both at the same time was awesome. i watched everything Kimura-san did from controlling his 45′ boat to harvesting the oysters. he did it alone and just by watching that, i learned a lot. someday i want to be able to control a big boat and fish at the same time and now i have a lot more confidence.
from the sea to the mouth. in my whole entire life, i haven’t eating a fresh oyster like this before. the best in the world and the cool thing about it is that Kimura-san told me he will send some to me the next time i’m in japan. yeah!
when i first came here, the roads were full of debris that you couldn’t even walk. now it’s clean and the walk back to Kimura-san’s house is very pleasant. we took the oysters back and ate them all!
when you go to restaurants in hawaii, you will sometimes see “fresh oysters” on the menu. hawaii doesn’t have oysters so it’s not fresh. from the time the fisherman take it out of the sea, to processing, to shipping, to getting to the restaurant can take weeks. here in japan, fresh is fresh. now i know the true meaning of fresh! i can’t wait to eat some of these again.
want to thank Kimura-san for taking us out on his boat, teaching us the culture, and being such a positive person. he’s definitely a samurai in my eyes!
