We didn't know where the markets were exactly but it didn't take us long to work out they were just next to the station. We wandered around amongst the darting tray trucks and found the small outer market where they sold an amazing array of knives and other goods. From there we managed to weave our way without getting killed by the trucks into the cavernous market section.
Ross and I have never seen so much or so many varieties of seafood. It was quite amazing. One of the first sights that greeted us was a guy with a hand trolley stacked with 6 massive deep frozen tuna. We wandered among the stalls taking photos and just watching in amazement at the frenetic activity that was going on. We bought some tuna sashimi and worked our way back again to the outer market to hunt down a sushi place for breakfast.
We entered this tiny little sushi bar and picked a relatively small sample plate of sushi to share. It was freezing cold (I had 5 layers on) so the warm green tea was welcome. The old man behind the counter prepared each piece of sushi by hand and tried to show us on the menu what we were eating (he didn't speak any English but when we said we were from Australia he said "Skiing" so maybe he thought we were from Austria). It was surprisingly delicious. Nothing tasted too fishy or slimy - except for the raw prawn. Perhaps that's where the saying 'Don't come the raw prawn with me!" comes from :-)
After sushi, we found this little stall selling ceramic dishes and bowls and I went a bit nuts. The downside was we had to carry it all home. But it wasn't too bad and before we knew it we were walking from Tama station to Warren and Julie's place for brunch. Sue, Julie and the boys were home when we arrived. Mark soon followed along with Dee and Lyndell. We tucked into Julie's awesome brunch of pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, eggs, quiche and the raw tuna we bought at the fish market. I also scoffed a bunch of the amazing Japanese strawberries - the sweetest strawberries I have ever had.
Just as we were finishing up, Steve Histler, a guy we taught with in Kuwait turned up. It was great to catch up with him. I hadn't seen him for about 6 years. About 11.30, Ross, Dee, Lyndell and I made our way back to the house to pack up our stuff and make our way back into town for the night. The people who stayed in the house would be back from their ski trip tonight so we had to move out before they arrived. Ross and I left our suitcases at the place for Warren and Julie to pick up while Lyndell and Dee dragged theirs to the train station.
The trains were chock-o-block and Lyndell only just managed to get on by straddling her suitcase. In Shinjuku, we left the girls as they were staying nearby for the night and Ross and I made our way to Shibuya. We finally found our way to the Cerulean Tokyo Tower Hotel - a fancy 5-star joint - and checked into our room. It was so nice to have such a big room and our own space!
We were both pretty tired but we forced ourselves to go and walk around and ended up in a big department store called Q-Tokyu. On the top floor were a bunch of art galleries which we wandered through before making our way out onto the roof top via the cute pet store. It was a beautiful afternoon so we soaked up the sun before heading back inside and working our way down the various levels of the department store. We walked back to the hotel where I had a bath before crawling into bed for a power nap. I woke up soon enough and started getting ready for the night out. Ross finally woke up and before long we were ready to head out again to meet up with everyone for dinner.
We walked to the restuarant and passed an amazing boot store on the way. Every kind of boot imaginable was on sale - it was quite incredible. Eventually we found the restaurant and ran into Warren outside. We went upstairs and met up with Julie at the table and before long Dee, Lyndell and their friend Simon showed up too. We ordered appertisers while we waited for Sue and Mark to turn up. We enjoyed our meal and then headed downstairs to another bar for a couple of drinks. Warren and Julie wisely left us then as we slowly started to degenerate into the usual drunken night out.
From that bar we moved to an expat bar called The Hub which was super crowded and smoky but at this stage we didn't care. We had one round with Mark and Sue before they had to head back to catch the last train. Ross, Dee, Lyndell, Simon and I were the last ones standing and numerous rounds of vodka, soda and lime were consumed. Ross made mates with some locals one of which was getting married. The rest of us were kept amused by Lyndell's game of stuffing matchboxes in everyone's pockets.
Later in the night, Simon's mate Carlos arrived and the girls had quite a crush on him - pity he has a girlfriend. About 2am, someone had the sense to call time and we struggled up the stairs and put everyone in a cab before Ross and I walked back to the hotel with a slight detour at McDonald's (again!).
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