Tsukiji, Ginza and Yasukuni Shrine

We've had a very busy day so far today -- I think that we walked nearly 15 to 20 km's!

Since we were up so early this morning, we decided to make a trip down to the Tsukiji fish market. After a fairly uneventful train ride down to Ginza, we knew that we were in the right place given that the smell of fish hit us as soon as the train door opened and there were lots of old men walking around in rubber boots -- not a common fashion statement in Japan. 

I knew that this place would be busy but nothing could have prepared me for how busy and chaotic this market actually was. This was pure commerce in action. Probably the best way to describe it would be well-orchestrated chaos. Fish merchants running all over the place. Trucks coming and going constantly. Small vehicles going to and fro with seemingly no rules in place with respect to traffic! It really is a wonder we weren't run over in the hour or so that we were inside the market.

Almost every conceivable type of seafood was available in Tsukiji. In fact, it is hard to imagine that there is anything left in the ocean. The tuna were the most impressive -- these fish are huge and there were tons of them in the market . Bottom line -- whatever your taste in seafood, you're bound to find it at Tsukiji.

After leaving the market, we decided to take a stroll through Ginza -- a very expensive shopping area of Tokyo. Unfortunately, we were here so early that nothing was open. I was really looking forward to going to the Sony showroom at the Sony head office but we would have had to wait about three hours for it to open. This was too long so we looked at some of the buildings in Ginza then decided to walk all the way to the Yasukuni Shrine.

No doubt you have heard of the Yasikuni Shrine in the news. Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi visited this shrine on several occasions over the past five years and this always caused quite a stir with Korea and China. Yasukuni is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Japan's war dead. It is a very impressive shrine and there is an excellent war museum at the site. It was absolutely fascinating to look at the war exhibits and read the perspective of the museum with respect to Japan's war history (many of the exhibits have explanations in English). Japan's ancient war history is interesting but things really pick up when you get to the mid-1800's and Japan's modernization and the lead up to World War II. 

The exhibits are very well done but it must be pointed out that the explanations have a very Japanese viewpoint (as any country would have with respect to its history). Needless to say many historical points that we learn about in North America are left out of the narrative. I was a bit turned off by this but I do understand the perspective of the people who run the museum. Regardless of your point of view, it was a fascinating trip through history that we took this morning. Besides, there were exhibits of actual war hardware from the Second World War, including two real Mitsubishi zero-sens.

We logged a ton of miles and finally decided to return to our hotel -- with severely aching feet and legs. It feels like late evening even though it is only early afternoon.