Upon arriving at the market the stench was so potent that it made your nostrils flair. Reaching the market was madness, little trolleys coming and going with no certain order, so I was just happy when I arrived in what appeared to be a trolley-free zone. As I began to walk I came upon the largest tuna fish I had ever seen in my life - it probably weighed close to 350lbs. Most 
of the tuna was frozen so after the workers thawed them out with water they would use a buzz saw to cut them in half. Two men would hold a long knife on either side and cut the backbone out and from there they would take out the rest of the bones with a smaller knife. Finally they would cut the fish into sections and sell it to passer byers. If tuna is not you thing, you could get anything at this market...octopus, squid, crab, swordfish, you name it they had it. This market was probably 6 or 7 rows deep and each row went on for about a mile an a half...it was huge.After the market, needless to say, breakfast was not quite on my mind.
I wondered around for until I came across what was supposed to be one of the busiest intersections in the world. It was 8;30 so I decided to grab a coffee and wait for the madness to start...never happened. I don`t quite know why it didn`t happen but nothing. After strolling around for a little longer I came upon the Imperial Palace which was quite a sight. You could not go inside but the moat and castle were pretty impressive. After a little stroll I went to the Museum of Modern Art and saw some pretty awesome art.The final stop of the afternoon was a shrine which I cannot remember the name of, I will get back to you on it, which is the most controversial shine in all of Japan. Basically whoever built the shrine decided to bring all the ashes and bodies of all the warriors and soldiers that have died in battle here and make a shrine. The reason it is controversial is because 8 class A war criminals that persecuted the Chinese and Korean people in the early 1900s are also within the shrine because at the time they were honorable soldiers.
After a nice rest I met up with a friend of a friend...Masa. We went to what he called Japanese BBQ. It was a nice restaurant where we sat down and there was a hole in the middle of the table and a charcoal BBQ. It was the Japanese equivalent to fondue. So he ordered drinks and food and we ate a lot and conversed in the best English he had to offer, broken at best, but loved the company. I tried things I never thought I would eat and most of it wasn`t half bad. Cow tongue, squid, cow stomach, octopus. I wish I had my camera or else I would have taken pictures. On a side note, I am getting pretty handy with chopsticks. Well, that is enough for one day, it was a fabulous day indeed.
