This is going to be a long one, maybe I'll use headers.

Hi.

My pops and I were up at about 1 am in the morning because we somehow decided we would sleep through the entire day with no alarm clock to stop us. 

We decided at 3:30 am that we'd go to the Tokyo Tsukiji tuna market.

TSUKIJI TUNA MARKET

Took a cab EARLY in the morning to the market. This place is really tight, and I actually mean that literally. They only let 140 people in per day and people line up at like 4 am, while the doors open 5 am. We got in the first wave of 70 people and got to watch tuna experts inspect these GIGANTIC imported tuna fish. We watched some introductory video about how these tuna bidders show up way early in the morning to inspect tuna, and then participate in auctions to buy these huuuge tuna. The best quality tuna can sell at 14500 Yen per kilogram. That's like $145 USD for you. My dad said some of these huge fish go for $10 grand USD. This market is like the NYSE of fish exchange. The auction we watched was really intense with Japanese guys screaming for about 5 minutes at a time as they auction off these mammoth tuna. In the video, they were talking about a young up and coming tuna buying expert who was gaining a lot of respect in the industry. He's 45. Real young. Afterwards, pops and I had sushi and sashimi (or just raw fish in a bowl of rice, whatever that's called) at some tiny local joint at 6 am. 

EMPEROR'S PALACE

We sat around in a bunch of random park benches for like 20 minutes at a time because nothing was open at 6 am. Then we walked by the Emperor's Palace. And took a picture. That's really it. Anticlimactic, I know. Most of our time was spent walking as I snapped pictures of everything, like Ichiro.

Emperor was probably sleeping...

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

The University of Tokyo, according to my dad, is the best university in the Eastern hemisphere. He said there were like 7 Nobel Prize winners in Japan (3 at U of Tokyo, I think). UChicago has 7, taste it Eastern hemisphere. Campus was really cool though, and really kinda antique. Had a nice academic feel to it, but really deserted, since even Japanese people celebrate summer vacation and turn off their brains sometimes.

ELECTRONIC DISTRICT

I think this part of Tokyo is called Akihabara. We just walked into one gigantic store, which took like over an hour to traverse the 9 floors of. And we're not just talking technology. We're talking appliances, refrigerators with like 7 doors, fans that don't have blades, and all the crazy accessories you can dress your iPod with. They even had a golf shop on the 9th floor. And like every other multifloor shopping building in Japan, one of the top floors was dedicated to food. We had curry on the 8th floor with all you can eat Naan the size of your head. I had two. 

THE REAL JAPAN (according to my dad)

This place was called Asakusa. This is where there are ton of tiny shops and Japan doesn't look like it's in the 29th century. Looks more 19th-ish with some improvements and a whole lot of tiny shops scattering the street. As usual, we bought nothing and walked around as Japanese people kept talking to me, and I looked at them and smiled, as my dad told me to ignore them. SO MANY STORES. I can't emphasize that enough. This was also nearby to where Japan is building it's highest building, what they want to be their CN tower, the Tokyo Sky Tree. It looks pretty cool, and tall, also. 

So after that, we finally came back to the hotel after like 12 hours of running around the city.

Quite possibly the craziest thing about Tokyo? The train system. In Chicago, the El seems pretty intimidating. Lots of stations, kinda confusing at first. In Japan they have the El times 4 times 2 (that's times 8 for you, estimated of course). Their one rail system is crazy and not navigable. This is the Tokyo Metro. Then they have another layer that kinda goes over it and under it and around it. This is the JR line (Japan Railway, according to Google, I was hoping for a cool Japanese name). It runs all the way to the airport, which was like an hour and a half away by car. 

Tokyo Metro.

JR Line

Yeah, try reading that and understanding it. Tokyo does public transit right. In Chicago, I could sit at a station and read a novel because the CTA is broke as shit and sends a train every like 30 minutes. I miss a train in Chicago, and I just want to sit and sulk as I watch it pull away. In Tokyo, I like to twiddle my thumbs a couple rotations, and the next one is here. I think 3 minutes was the longest I waited for a train here, and we rode lots of trains today. And it's crowded as shit. Good thing its also...oh, AIR CONDITIONED. Another cool fact about Japan: EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED. I got off the train, and underground connected to the train station is a shopping mall that goes another 9 floors up at least, so you can hop and shop all day. Woman's paradise really, rich women I guess, since everything here is also really expensive. 

Now, more bonus observation about Japan that slipped my mind earlier.

-Upon walking around for the first few minutes in Japan (literally in the airport), I saw a woman with a mask on (the SARS kind), and I was like uh oh, some outbreak in Japan? But my pops told me that Japanese people are so respectful, that if they have a cold, they just get a mask and wear it around so they don't transmit germs and get other people sick. I dunno if I fully believe that but I've seen LOTS of people with masks walking around, so it's gotta have some truth to it. 

-Tones. On the Subways, in shopping malls, on the street, where ever, even ambulances. In the US, it seems like every time people need you notified, they play obnoxious loud noises that undoubtably get your attention. In Japan, they place nice arpeggios and little melodies in the subway stations, and the ambulance alternates a major third interval or something, rather than blaring the friggin horn. And people still get out of the way for you. It's so much more pleasant when the daily sounds of walking through the city are nice arpeggios and chord progressions instead of random bleeping bells that don't make any sense. 

I think that's all. Rots of pictures. Check them out on the Facebooks. (RECURSIVE LINK TO FACEBOOK AFTER FACEBOOK LINKED YOU TO THE BLOG). 

Bai.