Sushi time

Packed both brollies this morning and so we've enjoyed two rain free days. Hope it keeps working that way!
We were up pretty early again on Saturday: destination - The Tsukiji Fish Market.
We didn't bother to do the early, early shift to watch the auction but rather the more leisurely 8 o'clock shift to still get a feel for the bustle of a wholesale market and of course to have sushi for breakfast knowing that fish any fresher (than what we're eating) is still swimming in the sea. The market itself was unbelievable. There are little motorised carts with massive steering wheels zooting all over the place so you need eyes in the back of your head. The range of fish and sea life for sale is staggering and saddening at the same time. I can't believe that there is anything left in our overfished oceans when you see the array of squid, crabs, scallops, sea urchins, massive tunas, fresh and frozen, soles, you name it, that passes through this market.
Even BW with her sensitive nose didn't complain about the fishy smell, because actually there isn't one. We watched them slicing, cutting, filleting, washing fish and even passing massive ice blocks through a machine that chops them into ice blocks for packing fish!
Anyway off to find sushi. The places with the long queues outside had no English but luckily we chanced upon Tsukiji Sushi YAMAZAKI, a tiny place with about 12 seats and a local/foreign clientele as well as a menu that let you choose individual pieces instead of the usual exhorbitantly priced (well, to us budget travellers anyway) platters. We stuck to our comfort zones and skipped the clams, urchins, fish roe and eggcake in favour of tuna and salmon, nigiri and maki style. It was delicious. It was served with miso soup and green tea so for breakfast it was a feast.
From the market we headed for Shinjuku station, pretty busy during the week with about 2 million people passing through daily. I think they were there on Saturday too. It was busy!
We stopped outside the station for elevenses: coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts.
In the station, we exchanged our Japan Rail Pass vouchers for the actual tickets and also reserved our seats on the various bullet trains up until we get to Hiroshima on 23/6. From the station we headed into the skyscraper district where we took the lift in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings to the 45 th floor where they have a free observatory. (Free, so we went up both the north and south towers!) It is only when you are 200 metres up that you get any idea of the size of this city. Even if you spent an entire 10 day trip just in Tokyo you would battle to do more than scratch the surface. We then plotted a course for the Meiji Jingu, a shinto shrine and gardens. It looked pretty close from the observatory but instead it took quite a while to get to on foot. The forest surrounding the shrine was a cool and welcome relief after pounding the streets. There was an amazing bonsai exhibition and a couple of wedding parties. The brides and some of the guests were wearing traditional dress. Even the taxi's roof opened to accommodate one of the brides intricate headgear while she was sitting down. Amazing!
We continued down to the Shibuyu fashion district where we stopped for coffee in Starbucks which has a birds-eye view of the busiest intersection in Tokyo: Shibuyu Crossing. A mass of humanity crosses the road with every change of the lights, the ebb and flow is absolutely relentless. We then caught the subway back to our neighbourhood, Asakusa, and had teriyaki burgers for supper. I'm sure they count as Japanese food. Anyway, Rebecca loves them so they do count! Walked back to K's through Senso-ji to see it all lit up at night. Kaz got on with some washing, BW and I went supermarket shopping and back to watch the football in bed. A full day indeed.