Pittsburgh and Beyond 2023

This day was a bit of a wash; we spent too much extra time on public transportation because I had messed up the logistics a bit. T had a cubing meeting in the morning for Day 4, so we thought to switch the itineraries between Day 3 and 4. I had forgotten that my tickets for the Teamlabs museum admitted entry at a specific date/time. It wasn’t until we had gotten there that I realized this. Frustrating!

Today, we went to Tsukiji outer fish market, Toyosu fish market, Akihabara, and then to a Michelin-starred restaurant, Guchokuni.

Tsukiji outer market is pretty cool. It’s in the Ginza district, adjacent to the seaport of Tokyo and it consists of mostly stalls with street food, produce, and restaurants. This used to be where the tuna auctions were held and the fish were sold, before they moved it to a new facility and man-made island, Toyusu market. We totally did not trust that we were getting a good deal when we saw that the soft drinks you could get from the vending machine were marked up 100-300%. We had a fish cake, unagi (eel), soft serve ice cream, and scallops.

Tsukiji opened in 1935 and till 2018, it used to be the largest seafood wholesale market in the world, before operations moved to Toyosu market (less friendly to tourists). Toyosu seemed modern, but not very tourist friendly. The sales of the fish were on an inaccessible floor that you could view through very narrow viewports. I think if you were to go here, it would be better to come with a tour group with expanded access.

After Toyosu market, we went to Akihabara, the anime/arcade district of Tokyo! I’ve never seen a place like this before. It was packed with a younger crowd with high rises full of anime paraphernalia, and crane machines. Hundreds of crane machines where you can insert money to win prizes, mostly featuring scantily clad anime dolls. T and I played a taiko drumming game that was pretty fun.

Later, we went to dinner near Shinjuku, where I had the best meal of my life! That one deserves its own post!