Tokyo Day 5 - 2nd August 2012

Today is Tsukiji day!! Yan Ting and I woke up at 2:45am in the morning and got ourselves ready as the taxi we booked came and fetch us at 3:20am to Tsukiji Market. When we reached there, we were directed to the queue that was already formed and there were around 15 people ahead of us. We waited from 3:45am to about 4:20am before we were brought into a waiting room and given a map and a vest. The vest was a safety vest that we were to wear at all times so that the workers and security officers in the auction area knew that we are allowed to be in there. Soon, it was 5:25am, and we were brought to the auction area. The area was the size of two basketball courts and we were standing in a straight line in the middle. As we were the first batch of visitors, only the right side of the place was conducting auctions. The left side would conduct auctions during the second phase of the auctioning period. The tunas there were huge and flash-frozen, and there were many lying around on the floor. The staff had sliced part of the tuna's tail area so that the buyers can inspect for quality. Not long later, our visiting hours were over and we were herded to the shopping/eating area on the other side of the market. Yan Ting and I headed to Masamoto's Knife Shop where I made my purchase of three kitchen knives. As they sharpened the knives and engraved my name on it, we headed for the market and explored the place. It was simply amazing seeing the many unique kinds of seafood for sale and for most of the time, they were huge and the place was surprisingly stench-free! After a long tour of the market, we headed back to the foodstalls where we had some simple breakfast before collecting my knives. We then headed to one of the sushi stalls to have our pre-planned sushi brunch. Coincidentally, we met two Singaporean girls, Amanda and Yanni, and chatted with them before and during our brunch. Yan Ting ordered a single maguro sushi (which she hated) and 6 tamago sushi (which she loved)  for 700yen while I order a toro sushi (which was heavenly), a maguro sushi (which I enjoyed), a tamago sushi (which was delicious) and a tai sushi (which I hated) for1800yen. We then took a photo with Amanda and Yanni before we headed for Ginza while they walked around the market.The walk to Ginza was a really hot and long one as we took a longer route. Eventually we reached Ginza, where we stoned at McDonalds for two hours as we were suffering from lack of sleep. We walked around Ginza, visited many boutiques and departmental stores, were wowed by how big the whole place was and even felt that Ginza loses to Orchard Road when it comes to appearance and facade. Each luxury brand had its' own building in Ginza and Sony even had a digital aquarium and a real sea-water aquarium in it's own building! We then had lunch at Yashinoya, which was really yummy and cheap, before walking around somemore. Soon, it was getting tiring to walk and we headed for McDonalds where we could rest our legs and HTHT in an air-conditioned place. We met Jerrine, Eng Chiew, Li Qian and MJ at Higashi-Ginza where we had dinner at a quiet Japanese/Italian gastro-pub. The food was good and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and laughter.