Tokyo Weekend - Toukyou no shuumatsu (東京の週末）

I just came back from a lovely weekend in Tokyo and after taking my writing and reading exam Kansai Gaidai decides to cancel classes and because of the Swine Influenza. Everyone in Japan is very panicky about this. School is canceled for a week in the Kansai region for middle and high school because a middle scholar in Kobe had the swine flu supposedly. Now I guess universities are also closing down for a week too.

This is really tough for the international students because this week is their last two weeks of the semester. Because of the cancellation we can't take our exams, go on the school grounds, have the graduation ceremony and some people are leaving earlier so there is no chance of saying goodbye. What a sad ending for my semester in Japan.

>>>Anyways, I decided to impulsively go to Tokyo the weekend before finals mainly because I wanted to see my boyfriend. I booked a ticket through an English speaking bus company called 123bus. I left from Umeda Station in Osaka to Tokyo on a night bus. It was bit awkward for me because I never took a night bus before and everything was in normal paced (too fast for me to understand) Japanese. So I felt really dumb. The ride there was 6-7 hours. I had problems sleeping because I had an aisle seat and the guy in front of me put his seat really far back.

So I arrived in Tokyo, at first I had no idea where they dropped me off. My only problem with the 123 bus company is that they fail to tell you this in the email confirmation they send you. So my boyfriend was not only late but didn't know how to find me because he was at a different station. Lots of mixed ups but three hours later everything was fine. What I learned is that Tokyo metro stations are huge and confusing because of multiple train lines and exits. Luckily, my boyfriend is really good at getting around Tokyo.

-Tsukiji Market

This place is the most famous fish market in the world. To see the real fish market you need to be here at like 5AM but my boyfriend and I did not have the energy for that. We came here for lunch because there are also so many sushi restaurants here. The fish market is still alive in the afternoon but mainly people were just cleaning up their shops. It was quite dangerous to walk to the market because there were so many people on bikes and cars driving by. You had to be very careful.

(You can imagine the smell)(Hotate? This is a fish lover paradise.)

Sushi around Tsukiji is expensive but well worth it. It is really unlike any sushi I have eaten before. Its so fresh and natural. After paying to eat really good sushi, I now know why people love it. We went to a restaurant were the guy made the sushi in front of us. I really have no idea what I ate. What matters is that I ate it and it was umai (amazingly good.) While waiting for my food, I made it a goal to learn the all the kanji for fish so I can read a sushi menu. My boyfriend informed me that there are fish in Japan that do not even have English names.

(It is one of the things in Japan that I'll remember the taste of)

Going to eat in Tsukiji was well worth the trip. We saw a lot of foreigners. The market was crazy crowded and small. But I'll definitely remember the sushi:)