.My Daily Life.: .Japan Trip - Day 3 - Tsukiji + Akihabara + Ginza.

We were supposed to visit Tsukiji in early morning and then headed to Imperial Garden but because we just had a long day before, we overslept T^T We skipped the garden and straight to Tsukiji for some breakfast! It's one of the highlight on our trip, to taste the real sushi, straight from the market in the morning. Btw, sorry for the photos, Mr Chubby forgot to bring the camera hiks..

image from here

Do remember that the nearest station to reach tsukiji is Tsukijishijo (not the Tsukiji station). We reached Tsukijishijo around 9:30 AM via Toei Subway Oedo Line. We start wandering around the outside market, and by the time we reach the restaurant area , the queue is already forming a very long line T^T

knives everywhere

There's many tamago (japanese omelette) specialty shop in the tsukiji. The tamago here is unlike in Indonesia, they mixed it with many sauce and fillings. We tried several options but I stick to the original one. Nice and healthy snack! :)

tamago for 100 yen yummeh! :D

Another product that seems everywhere is seaweed. The seller provide many samples for you to chose, and they are very good! I bought several packs of seaweed snack. At first I thought it's gonna be like the one my grandmother used to bought from China, you know...they are a bit tasteless. But here's, it crispy and tasty like tae koi noi, with less MSG of course, but not as bland as the chinese one. So this is fresh seaweed taste, crispy yet addictive.

seaweed snack

BEAUTIFUL strawberries!

Mochi shop

We also found a shop selling beautiful mochi, If Indonesian has kue basah seller, then this is Japanese version of it hehe... The mochi is pretty! They also had strawberry mochi, which is filled with 1 huge juicy strawberry and red bean. I saw this mochi so much in the comic, especially time limit (anyone still reading this series? ). The mochi is good, but I prefer it without the red bean haha!

Also bought this cute momo (peach) mochi for 130 yen

After the outer market, we set our feet to the seafood wholesale area. Since it's already noon and almost all of the stall has closed, we don't browse much :(

scallop only for 1300 yen!

The seafood varieties is amazing! Some of the seafood is freaking cheap (1500 yen for a box of uni!) but with no doubt, the seafood quality is very different from Indonesia. And don't forget to mention, the cleanliness and neatness! It's a wet market, but I walked out from the market with clean shoes, maybe because it has circular area on the floor (so the water doesn't run anywhere outside the ring).

clean shoes on wet market? a girl's must!

Next, the vegetable and fruit area! I think it's the biggest fruit market I ever seen! It's HUGE too be exact. And thank God, some of the stalls are still open (yayyy)

it's only the storage area (not the market)

Fruits. Vegetable. everywhere. I was prepared to see fresh product placed like in Indonesian market, but in here, each of them is beautifully packaged, some even too beautiful to be eaten. Like flower on the left (pictured above). It's even better than Food Hall or All Fresh!

Is is a market or supermarket?

Left : real wasabi for 30K yen! Right : are you sure this is vegetable?

Even apple got special treatment! Some of the fruits price are crazy, like musk melon or this pineberry. 15 berry = 6000 yen, that means 1 berry = 400 yen = almost 45K rupiah! -__- Too bad we didn't try any pineberry. I surely wan't to try one of this on our next trip!

pineberry

they also sold individually at 700 yen

Because the fruit in season are orange and strawberry, you can find them everywhere with cheap price. We bought a box of super juicy and sweet strawberry only for 650 yen, it's not cheap if you exchange it with rupiah but surely cheaper than a box of japanese / korean strawberry in the Indonesian supermarket (usually more than 100K). Also got ourself a box of blueberries for breakfast ;)

Left : blueberry and raspberry, Right : orange everywhere!

Strawberry 650 yen

The queue was very long, especially for well-known restaurant like Sushi Dai or Daiwa. But I read that most of the restaurant here are good, so I picked the one with less queue, Yamazaki. Their price is higher than the next restaurant (I think the next restaurant is Sushi Dai), as you can see below, for 3600 Yen you got 12 pcs sushi + 3 tuna roll + 1 unagi. As for Yamazaki, they charged 3675 Yen for 11 pcs sushi + miso soup.

Next shop menu

Yamazaki menu

The restaurant itself is not big, it's only have 10 person capacity. No wonder people queue that long. We were given hot ocha whilst waiting for our turn (nice gesture!), which is about 1 hour. I can't imagined how long the queue on the next restaurant....-_-

Well anyway upon our arrival, we were greeted by this nice old lady and she assists us with hot towel and ocha. The chef kindly explain to us how to order and asking for our preference. The chef will be asking if we want to have our sushi with the wasabi inside (a no-no for me). The soy sauce already spread on top of the fish, so I don't use any soy sauce. To be honest, this is the only sushi experience we had in Japan, it's weird I know, visiting Japan without eating sushi much...but I think japan's culinary is more than just sushi.

Cold weather + hot ocha = blissful!

Interior

Mr Chubby chose Premium Chirashi Sushi set 3150 Yen. The chef quickly prepared the dish and when it served, I was amazed. Look at all the sashimi!!

Premium Chirashi Sushi set 3150 Yen

Here you got tamago, salmon, prawn, tuna (ootoro!), scallop (hotate!), squid, octopus, crab (kani), and other ocean goodness.

Box #1

As for the other box, we got rice topped with seaweed and ikura (salmon roe) and the glorious uni!

Box #2

As for me, I chose the Sakura sushi set (9 pcs + miso soup) for 3150 Yen. The chef would prepare each sushi one by one and served it along your eating pace. The sushi is served using a leaf (looks like daun bakcang for me). So sorry I don't have full set menu and even forgot to take some, I guess having food coma makes you forget anything :P

Scallop (Hotate)

Horse Mackarel (Aji)

Look at the tuna size!

The glorious Uni!

I would say everything is ultra fresh and a very dreamy experience (effect of food coma). I usually got my sashimi crave fixed in Umaku, and here, it was totally difference experience, not only by its taste but also the texture. Most of all are firmer and sweeter (doh! of course!).

Salmon Roe (Ikura) - I don't particularly fond of ikura, but the ikura here is sweeter and it's liquid is thinner.

Salmon - a bit firmer, but it's the same for me (speaking as a non fans of salmon)

Tuna - surprise, surprise, the tuna is not so different in term of texture, but the sweetness level is higher.

Crab - when I first pick the crab, I thought it was kani stick haha..But it's a real crab, and it's a HUGE crab to have flesh that big!

Squid and Octopus - tastier!

Scallop (Hotate) - mannn....It's big, sweet and chewy! It's even bouncy a bit when you bite it! Damn now hotate never taste the same anymore T^T

Prawn (Ama-ebi) - it was the first time I tried raw prawn. The taste is crazy, beyond my belief.

Sea Urchin (Uni) - I forbid myself to order this in Indonesia, because I'm saving myself to try it in Japan. And it's worth the wait. Dangggg if I can explain the taste : the taste of ocean. And God bless Mr Chubby for not liking this, more for me! yay!

Giant Clam (Shako) - much a like lobster with but less sweet

Horse Mackarel (Aji) - very much a like what you got in Take Bali.

We also tried a mysterious clam that has spiral shape (Box #1) , and it's very crunchy! I know crunchy is a weird way to describe a clam. But it is! it's like eating chicken cartilage! Yum!

Want to try the Abalone..but we're super full :(

Tsukiji

I'm glad we went to Tsukiji, it's one of my bucket list and I finally make it yayy! All of the experience are super worth the ride! (and your arteries ^^)

Next stop, Ginza! :D We didn't do much there since most of it are high-end store, but we went there just for the Sony Building hoho..the store is cool, it has several floors and I love the showroom! Recommended if you're into latest technologies :)

found this vending machine on the way there

Saw this PS4 AR (Augmented Reality) robots! You can multiply it just with a swap on the joystick, they can mimic your motion, and they are cute!! hehe..

Robots!

We also finally tried this virtual reality headset on 3D!!! Me want!!

Assassin's Creed on virtual

Need to match your joystick with your outfit?

After Sony Building, we went straight to Akihabara. It was amazing, there's duty free shop and pachinko everywhere, and don't forget all the anime shops. This is the place to buy second-hand gadget, especially Apple products. Mr Chubby bought a mint condition iphone 4 32GB for 13500 yen only! ^^ Do remember that most of iphone here is locked with japan simcard, unlocked phone only available for iphone 4s/5/5s.

Do visit this 7-story store if you want to see "amazing"things haha!

M's store

This maybe the only common looked thing in this store

We found many interesting things during our visit :)

Pachinko everywhere

PS1 in mint condition

if only I can read japanese...

it seems easy to learn java from this book :P

many many manyyy "amazing" videos

Almost impulsively buying this Master Keaton series by sensei Urasawa Naoki. Imho, the best mangaka ever! This series is the one who had me hooked with his works, if you love suspense / thriller / psychological manga, then go read his work. My favorite was Monster :)

Another store that we love, I call it Mr Chubby's Disneyland : Yodobashi :D We find several yodobashi branches, but this one was the first that we entered. And I am amazed (again). 8-stores building, and it sells almost everything! Too bad they don't sale kuchipaku anymore :(