Last Tango in Tokyo

 I arrived back in Tokyo on Monday afternoon. This time I took the monorail from Haneda airport, before transferring to a couple of other train lines to eventually get to my destination. It was a lovely sunny day, and the views as the monorail followed along beside the river were very pleasant.

I was staying near the Tokyo Fish Market, because I had applied over a month ago to visit the inner sanctum of the daily tuna auction on a guided tour. There's no cost, but there are limited places, and you have to apply ahead of time through a lottery. There's still a viewing platform if you don't win a lottery place, but you're behind glass and don't actually get to see the fresh fish being auctioned. And you don't get lovely local volunteers explaining it all in English.

Needless to say, I had won the lottery, but the tour starts at 5:30 am, which is too early to take public transport there. So I stayed at a nearby hotel that I could walk from. The hotel was also right next door to another Tokyo attraction: TeamLab Planets. I'd booked a ticket to visit that for late Monday afternoon.

Once checked in to my hotel I headed next door for a truly sensory experience. This is a mixed media immersive visual, auditory and physical display, with a number of themes. It's quite extraordinary!

The nearby Lawson convenience store supplied my dinner, and I enjoyed a lovely long soak in the bath overlooking the Tokyo skyline. I was early to bed, as I had a very early start the next morning.

All was quiet as I headed over to the Fish Market. I and a small handful of people were welcomed (I suspect the lottery wasn't fully subscribed and everyone who had applied got a place) and guided across to a small area where we could watch the tuna being auctioned.

The fresh fish is auctioned first. Wholesalers purchase the fish here, and all the fish is destined only for the Tokyo market!! The auction is fast and furious, with buyers using hand signals to make their bids. Cool to watch, and over in a jiffy!

Next the frozen tuna is auctioned. There's a lot more of that on offer so it takes a bit longer. Meanwhile, factory workers are busy packaging up the fresh tuna into crates and packing them with ice. With forklifts of course!

After the auction I decided to have some fresh sashimi at one of the little restaurants on site. The prices were not exorbitant, and when in Rome right??

Then it was back to the hotel to checkout, back on the trains and monorail to Haneda Airport, and onto one more flight to Sapporo. My ski season was about to commence.

That's next...