Tsukiji fish market

Tokyo has been a total blast and I've had some unforgettable experiences.

Went to the very first sushi bar that Brian ever ate at, and ate often at, in his first neighborhood in Tokyo 30 years ago. To our delight and surprise he was well and affectionately remembered, and they took excellent care of us. Their modest little neighborhood place seats 1o, and at a squeeze. Husband and wife care for their guests with attention and perfectionism and it was amazing, Brian, Kako and I ate very well. Another surprise - their son went off to Montreal to make sushi, and worked for several years under the very respected Junichi at Soto Montreal in its prime, in the late 90s. His mother was so surprised that I knew this restaurant well that they got him on the phone and we had a conversation. We ate a truly gorgeous spread, including lots of fish I'd never had the occasion to try.

One that I loved were these tiny little glass minnows. About two inches long, but only about a centimeter and a half wide, served whole. Colorless and truly transparent as glass, save for the black and white spot of eye. In a tiny bowl of shaved daikon wit h some grated ginger and green onions. I took a fantastic picture of these with my camera on macro and will post it when I'm home, they're beautiful. Sweet, not even remotely fishy, slippery and cool, with a little pop of salty jelly when you chew them, somehow you could call them refreshing. I was later told that they're somewhat rare.

I'm trying all the fish and "challenging" seafood presented to me in sashimi form...I've loved it all.

Yesterday we got up super early and we stumbled out the door by 6:30 with a sizeable sake hangover to hit Tsukiji, the world famous fish market. I had high expectations for Tsukiji, but it far surpassed them. A few years ago we would have been there for about 6am to watch the maguro auctions, but due to an oppressive number of tourists these are now closed to the public, you must be a participant to get in. The wholesale market is still astounding. Brian's fluent Japanese got us some treats from a lot of vendors who would otherwise have dismissed us as yet more gaijin gawkers. Imagine a city within a city, there are alleys and "streets" within a giant warehouse. Look it up on Wiki...it's insane. The wholesale market was still very busy when we arrived at 8, and you have to be constantly on your most alert to not be in the way of zooming flatbed trucks of fish and people with enormous knives.

At one point we were watching some guys sectioning a whole red tuna loin, blood red, about as long as my l eg...we were rapt, and it was simultaneously happening in easily 300 other vending stations around us. Understand that this is kind of like porn to me. We were salivating at the fish when an older man who appeared to be the owner of that particular vending booth, supervising it all walked over to us and handed us a huge hunk about the size of a small honeydew melon. Scrap, but full of good stuff to eat. Perhaps they were trying to shock us, see our reaction...and totally laughed enthusiastically when we shrieked and started tearing hunks of it off and eating it with our bare hands. Then they brought over a tiny little plastic bottle of soy sauce, and some wet wipes for our fishy hands, and a foil wrapped ball of rice that was clearly from their own breakfast. We all beamed at each other and we loved every minute of it. Beyond delicious. There are photos of this.

The men. Some seriously beautiful men. I find someone wielding a big knife with total confidence sexy. So take a beautiful young Japanese man, sleeves rolled up, strong forearms wielding an enormous knife with total kinetic ease, speed and calm, gliding through an enormous loin of tuna... HOT. It requires total mindfulness, these knives were the length of my arm. By the way, I noticed they were mostly carbon steel knives, not stainless. Anyway, can a fishmonger covered in a thin film of fish blood be sexy? Absolutely. Feed me raw fish with your bare hands and I'm all yours.

Watched someone reach his bare arm into a pen of live snapping eels and confidently g rab one behind its head and pull it out. It was about three feet longing and furious. He efficiently held it firm to a cutting board and made a cut through its spine, killing it instantly. It was wild, the snapping jaws were rather scary. There are photos o f this as well.

The market didn't smell like fish at all, by the way. It smelled like the ocean. Japan catches so much fish that 1/3 of the worlds commercially traded seafood passes through this market. As Brian pointed out, the world could not sustain 2 Japans. It's debatable whether it can even sustain one, really.

After Tsukiji we went out to the beach at Hayama and had a fantastic lunch with Gan and Hide, old friends of Brian and Rumi, and a totally serene stroll through their rice paddy on a piece of land not far from their home. Such nice people, I really enjoyed the visit.

Fantastic lunch, superlative fish. The only one that was a bit intense was the tiny firefly squid about an inch long, raw, sitting in a little bowl of murky sludge that is essentially black ink and squid guts. Like a dark shadow of concentrated ocean, like seawater x10, plus a taste of shadows and depth, the way only an animal with the capacity to survive in dark depth can have, with a bizarre slippery sleekness that's hard to chew and just wants to slide down your throat unchewed. Yeah, that was weird.

Oh! and I just got news that my sister found us a place. Commercial drive and 3rd, top floor of a house. Hardwood floors, big bedrooms. Slightly more than we wanted to spend but she loves it and thinks I will as well. I gave her total executive control on the choice of a place for us and I'm certain it'll be great.