Wow…what a weekend...

Yesterday, Saturday, Armin and I got up early in order to see the great fish market. I must say, that the moment I stepped out of the metro train, some 20 meters under the ground, my nose told me that this was no ordinary fish market. The smell was penetrating and grew in intensity as we neared the tube exist. Once outside the smell vanished leaving place to noise and total visual chaos. Everywhere small trucks and “Mighty Cars” were rushing about with their precious payload. No I have not gone crazy, this ,my dear friends, is the name of the thousands of curious-looking vehicles that flood the narrow streets and passageways around and in the great fish market of Tokyo. To care for one’s life represents a problem here: the “Might Cars” can take on incredible speeds.


I was unfortunately spellbound by this amazing place which compelled all my senses to give their very utmost and thus have only very few pictures to share. Armin seems have resisted the spell of the place better than I, and I will hopefully be able to extract some pictures from the videos he took.


We then had fish for breakfast!

Today, after having slept in, we made our way to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, whose exhibitions contain artefacts which lead the knowledge-hungry visitor through the Edo era and into modern times.

We also adventured into the Sumo-arena only to get lost in a very busy conference on some topic of unknown nature. We will have to wait until September to see the great Sumo wrestlers.

In the afternoon we headed to Shinjuku (one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo), which is a major commercial and administrative centre and houses the busiest train station in the world. According to wikipedia: “As of 2005, the ward has an estimated population of 305,352 and a density of 16,710 persons per km². The total area is 18.23 km².”

The people-density is overwhelming!

But Shinjuku is not just commerce and sky-scrapers. Leaving the main streets is an experience one must not let slip by. The pictures I am sharing with you are taken in the heart of Shinjuku and only a few streets away from the location of the previous picture.

A picture is worth a thousand words. I wish not to cloud your feelings with my own and will therefore leave these pictures uncommented.