As promised, woke up at 3:30am. My dorm mates Bobby (Slovenian doctor) and Paul (German guy) set off in the dead of night to Tsukiji, for spots at the coveted tuna auction. When we got there, we were told that reservations were done for the day, that they're filled at 2am. Ironically, we joked about this during the taxi ride. We're not happy.
Since it's too early for the subway to run (that's why we had to take a taxi and wasted 1400¥ each), going back now wasn't an option. To salvage our morning, we pulled a gaijin smash and got into the market through the back gate. It wasn't like we put effort into sneak in; we just strolled past the security guard. Given, we knew tourists aren't allowed until 9am.
Afterwards, we had breakfast at a nearby Yoshinoya. We pulled a second gaijin smash and checked out the market more thoroughly. Many times we almost became casualties of the dollies zigzagging around.
I set off for Kamakura after a mid-morning nap. Kamakura is a temple & shrine Mecca; if you like temples and shrines, this is "the" town to visit. My only interests were the big Buddha and maybe a nice vista of the town.
On the way down from big Buddha, I ate at a kebab shop that I spotted earlier. This's probably the highlight of my day. The kebab's great, but what followed was the best part. The owner, nicknamed "papa", is an old Moroccan guy who's been here 31 years. Fluently in English and Japanese, he's rolling an intelligent conversation about politics and success of democracy worldwide, between him, me, and a Japanese couple. Best hour spent in the day; too bad he ran out of Turkish ice.
I was struggling to find things to do; with 1200¥ one-way, I'm not going to Kamakura to see temples or nothing. Enoshima seemed like a happening place. A popular beach spot in the area, the locals tried to make it a Hawaiian resort. Rest of the day was just another trail of tears, walking up and down stairs & hills to take pictures.
I ran into Bobby at the hostel later that night, and went to the 24-hr sushi place that was near my last Asakusa hostel. Sushi probably came from a stall we visited earlier at the market, or 2-day old stale fish reserved for ignorant foreigners.
Verdict: OK sushi. But coming from Miyako, I can get much fresher sushi for much cheaper (7 pcs with beer here cost almost 2000¥).
Met some new dorm mates, a pair of Indonesian students in Japan. From all the people I met lately, I get lots of wows when I told them I work in Japan, and questions start to fly. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
One more day to go...
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