Day 39, Tuesday: Fish Market & kabuki

This morning we woke up early (5:30) to head down to the Tsukiji fish market. This market is one of the busiest in the world, and provides much of Tokyo and Japan with their source of outstanding-quality fish. We knew it would be bustling, and we were not disappointed as motorized carts whizzed past us, power saws cut up large frozen tunas, and sea cucumbers floated in tanks. It was a sight to see (and smell!)

Some you buy whole:

And some need a little prepping before they're ready:

This guy was pushing with all his might to get that fish through the saw.

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see 80% of the market. It went on for what seemed like miles--main aisles to buy and transport the fish, and small aisles where you could see the workers cutting.
After wandering through the aisles, we wanted to have a sushi breakfast. "The freshest sushi in the world!" we'd been told, so we were excited. Whoops. None of the restaurants admit small children. Disappointed, we headed back to Tokyo station to sit on a bench and eat yogurt and bread.

We purposefully avoided the museums yesterday, as Monday is the day most are closed. Today, then, we headed to Ueno Park, where the Tokyo zoo and National Museum are, amongst others. After stepping out of the train station we saw a large sign that said ZOO CLOSED TODAY. Doh! We headed then to the National Museum, which was also closed! Doh again! Turns out yesterday had been a holiday, so they were all actually open yesterday but closed TODAY. Three strikes against us!

I (Joe) had tickets to see a Kabuki performance at the National Theater, so I separated from Kate and the boys at this point and headed off to see it. Having learned from Kate's Bunraku experience, I brought along a bento box for lunch. (And at intermission, the sound in the theater was of several hundred plastic bags being pulled from under chairs--and then people booked to get a seat in the lobby.) The performance was apparently an unusual one--a new kabuki play based on a more recent novel by "Edogawa Ranpo" (1894-1965), who took his name, I'm not kidding, from Edgar Allen Poe. It was one of his detective stories about a half man/half leopard with the "lust and bloodthirsty tastes of an animal." (The play was "Edo no yami ayashi no kagizume," possibly translated as "A leopard in human shape.") The details may have been a bit unusual, but the themes were the same found in art everywhere--human nature, good versus evil, social strife, etc. The theater was somewhat smaller than most major U.S. theaters but utilized space in neat ways--a runway down the aisle that was used for many entrances; two different drops in the floor; a rotating stage; a pulley system running both the width and length of the theater. I really enjoyed it.
We met up again after the theater, and went to Roppongi neighborhood for dinner, where we tumbled (out of more rain) into a small shop that had some great noodle dishes. So tasty! We have to remember for our own cooking back in East Lansing how much can be done with some broth, small pieces of meat, and lots of vegetables and noodles.