Tsukiji Fish Market & Imperial Palace East Gardens

We woke up at 430a.m. in Japan to catch the most exhilarating auction experience ever at Tsukiji Fish Market.

Alas, vanity manifested itself at the wrong hour, hence we took longer than expected to arrive at the market. Grace had been eagerly awaiting for this day but by the time we arrived, the auction had ended and there were only 2 pathetic pieces of tuna left in the room!!!

With disappointment written all over our faces, we reluctantly took out our cameras to capture what was left of the auction earlier on.

Oh well, better than nothing right? :P

The fish market is just like the wet markets you find in Singapore, except that you see a lot of interesting seafood here as well.

I especially like the picture of the fish roe!! Looks gross but I love it with sushi!!


Check out the clams! Each of them was the size of a fist!

Next up were yummy sea urchins. I first tasted sea urchin during my last trip to Tokyo during dinner at Nogawa Restaurant and I absolutely adored the taste! We were served by the owner of Nogawa Restaurant in a private room, and he prepared all the dishes in front of us. Apparently, Nogawa is MM Lee's favourite Japanese restaurant, and he would definitely make it a point to have a meal there whenever he is in Tokyo.

The prawns were humungous as well. Don't be deceived by the photo....they were as long as our forearm!!Queuing up to get into Daiwa Sushi (5-2-1 Tsukiji Central Ward 6, Tsukiji Fish Market 03-3547-6807) which was highly recommended by Lonely Planet.

Many of these motorized vehicles whizzed past us in multiple directions, threatening to knock us over at any minute. It was quite scary having to navigate in such an environment!!

The wait was mighty long, so we resorted to cam-whoring to while our time away.

Finally got in! The chef was a very kind and friendly old gentleman who allowed us to take photographs although there was this grumpy old woman who kept coming over to remind us that photos were prohibited. I guess she wanted us to finish up the food quickly and leave so that she can attend to more customers.

This shows perhaps just 70% of what we ate. Imagine having to eat such a huge portion for breakfast! We got sooo full thereafter that both of us ended up with indigestion!

We had the set menu, which cost us 3500 yen per person (approximate SGD 55), definitely our most expensive breakfast ever :P Here's what the set consisted of: hot green tea (duh!) miso soup with tiny clams, a small rosy pile of pickled ginger, nigiri sushi of 2x Toro (fatty tuna), Ama ebi (raw prawn), Uni (sea urchin), Anago (grilled eel), Tamago (sweet egg) and 3 small pieces of maguro maki (tuna roll) and Ikura (salmon roe).

After a hearty breakfast, it was time for us to work our asses off by taking a stroll at the Imperial Palace East Gardens (Kokyo Higashi Gyoen).

Haha I forced Grace to take a pic with me while she was happily chatting with her mum.

We also had great fun posing with the trees, autumn leaves, and cute little Japanese kids!

This little girl was so obliging. We asked her mum if we could take a photo and the girl literally just walked into our laps with a smile. On the contrary, her sis ran away, petrified. :P

Grace was exhausted after playing with cute Jap kids...hahaha
Resting on a walkway. Autumn leaves provide such a fantastic backdrop.

Silly us secretly took some photos on this prohibited plot of land because the view was too pretty to resist! We got shooed by a security guard once, but we turned a deaf ear to him and continued to camwhore. Boy were we shameless hahaha!!