Chicken of the Sea, My Ass

We checked out "Electric Town" yesterday and it wasn't quite what I'd had in mind. It was just a bunch of stores selling cameras and cell phones and stuff. Nothing you couldn't find in any of those nameless electronics shops all over New York City. The only thing different about this place was the incredible number of Japanese porn stores everywhere, which, contrary to what I'd heard, is relatively tame. They're not even allowed to show a penis without pixellation.

However, this morning (at four fucking thirty) we went to the Tsukijimo Fish Market because Fiona had seen it on TV and it looked crazy. It was absolute madness. This one market supplies all of Tokyo with fish, and believe me when I say that's a LOT of fish. Tokyoites eat approximately six times the amount of fish as the average American, and the king of them all is tuna.

These monstrous tunas are auctioned off every morning in a frenzy of yelling and arm-waving that must be seen to be believed. Each one goes for between 10 and 20 thousand US dollars, and after sale the fresh ones are immediately taken away for consumption. The frozen ones, on the other hand, are sent over to enormous band saws to be hacked into pieces.

We bought a half kilo of raw tuna for 500 yen (5USD) and ate it right there. I had no idea that tuna could taste so good. It just melts away in your mouth like fish-flavored chocolate and leaves you with a few delightful hours of tuna burps, which is great fun during the rush-hour subway ride home.

Posted by flow Frazao on July 13, 2005 at 01:05 AM in Japan | Permalink