Asia

It is our last day here in Tokyo/Asia and it seems strange that our adventure started only 3 weeks ago. Time flies when you are having fun. I think we all are ready to sleep in our own beds and get in touch with the rest of the world. However, it is going to be sad to leave Asia as we all have grown and learned a lot about so many different countries and cultures. Hopefully we all connected with at least one place and will return in the near future.

This morning came early, a wake up call at 3:00am got us all going. What were we doing at that time in the morning? Well that is when the world's largest fish market, Tiskiji is in full swing. Also, this is where Ernie wanted to spend his 25th birthday, a very unique choice :) Tiskiji is considered the worlds largest not just based on sheer volume of fish bought and sold and market size (this place is huge) but based on revenue generated each day. Currently daily revenues start out at 20 million yen plus all the side business (herring roe trade with Canada for example) which generate millions more.


Frozen tuna being inspected, I think Ernie is drooling	Auction action at its finest	Pick your mollusk

So we departed by Taxi at 3:15am and met up with our guide at our selected meeting spot. We then proceeded to a Shinto shrine which the fisherman visit and pray for a good catch. Our guide said a prayer for us to have a great tour and safe travels home. Our guide had intimate knowledge of the fish market because he worked there for a number of years and best of all spoke perfect English! Most tourists get to the fish market by 5:30am to see what generates the most money and interest, the Tuna auction, both fresh (costing 20 percent more) and frozen, but what we got to experience was much more amazing than just seeing the Auction. We actually got to see many other auctions and the entire process from unloading frozen tuna, cutting the gills out and chopping the tails (done so quality can be observed by the wholesellers), the tuna auction, and the processing of the sold tuna. . We also got to see a lot of strange and unusual sea creatures.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing the sea urchin auction where the yellow inner flesh of the spiny urchin is considered a delicacy and can command a high price. Depending on taste these small boxes of urchin can go from 10 dollars for a 7 X 3inch 1 layer box to $250 a box. Talk about expensive when you consider this is just for a handful of urchin meat and is wholesale price! Looking at that auction we probably saw thousands of these wooden boxes. These boxes were so cool that our resident gringo, Rusty, puzzled the Japanese when he asked about where he could purchase just the box :) They had to explain the boxes are not sold separately.


Now those are some big fish!	Live fish waiting to meet their maker	These guys are the ones sending them on their way. Sherry is in tears at this point

After the Sea Urchin auction, a lot of animation and yelling, we got observe the shrimp auction, live fish auction, and of course the Tuna auction. Some of these Tuna were huge, weighing between 400-600 pounds! These big fish also generated some serious money. The large ones sold for $20,000 US a piece!!! The Tuna auction was pretty fun to watch as this is where a lot of people were and the auctioneers did funny dances and yelling in Japanese our guide couldn't understand.

We also got to see a Japanese process for killing fish. The process consisted of cutting the head and tail to bleed the fish, but also consisted of inserting a large wire into the spine/ nervous system of the fish. By doing so our guide said the fish would prevent rigamortis for an additional 8 hours thus making the fish flesh softer for longer. It was brutal to watch, as I think Sherry was about to cry or alert green peace.


Can't you just taste the deep fried rings with marinara already?	This is a small section of the market. Sherry is busy blocking shots as usual	No unauthorized entry... maybe that's why we had to leave

Another thing we saw were giant live squid and the deadly puffer fish. The blowfish can only be prepared by licensed fish mongers because one false cut will send poison through out the meat and kill the consumer. Ernie wished he could of tried the fish, if it wasn't done right he would have at least gone out on his birthday on a high note.

We proceeded back to the hotel and arrived at 7:15am. Sherry and Ernie slept until 10:00am while Rusty and Andrew did what boys do, watch Sumo and the news. I think they got a little sleep as well. 10:00am came and by 11:00 Rusty, Ernie, and Sherry were out the door for last minute souvenirs. The proceeded to the Oriental Bizarre a few stations away and a really unique toy store called kiddy land. The highlight of this shopping excursion was the people watching. The shops were located where the young Japanese hang out and display their unique sense of fashion. We all stopped for a quick bite at McDonald's (yeah yeah at least Ernie got a Big Mac that had an egg on it) and watched the strange people in costumes stroll by. When I say strange think of some people dressed like they came out of a horror movie, 2 fat chicks dressed as dead babies, boots that were 5-6 inches tall, strange hats/makeup and the ultimate nightmare material a white dude in full black cloak and boots, sporting a long blond mullet with the sides of his head shaved, and full black eye contacts. When you looked at him his entire eye was black. It was truly freaky. After some great people watching we returned to the hotel to finish packing and checkout.

Our hotel service came through again (not sure if we mentioned this but the Japanese service at our hotel was crazy good. The attention to detail was amazing) when we opened our door at 2:00pm (when we said we would checkout) a Japanese girl was waiting for us with a cart for our luggage. She proceeded to take our luggage downstairs (8 pieces), process it for the bus to the airport (each bag has to be tagged), and then she took it out to the street to wait for the bus while she personally guarded it while we checked out at the front desk. Truly seamless and a great way to set off to the airport.

So we made it to the airport with no problems and are now on the airplane making our way to Dallas. Only a 10 hour flight which seems short compared to what we are used to. Once in Dallas we all will go our separate ways. It is going to be different not being around the same group day in and day out. Maybe Rusty will even cry, but if he does it will probably be from the smell of his and Andrews hotel sink washed socks and undies which I'm sure are a bit ripe by now.