tsukijiTsukiji fish market (築地市場) is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. The market opens at 3AM and fish auctions start at 5AM. I got there a little before 8AM when is is the most busy as the fish starts to be loaded onto trucks or small carts and moved to the many shops located there. In 1923 some 20 private markets in Tokyo were destroyed almost completely by the Great Kanto Earthquake. After the earthquake, Tokyo City as it then was undertook to construct a central wholesale market on the bases of the Central Wholesale Market Law which had been promulgated in the same year. As a result, the market of Tsukiji was founded.

rikugienAfter the fist market, direction north of central Tokyo to Rikugien garden, which means “six poems garden” and reproduces in miniature 88 scenes from famous poems. Rikugien is all a traditional Japanese garden should be: manicured grass, artfully contorted pine trees held up by wooden supports, wooden tea houses and moss-encrusted stone lanterns, crooked rustic bridges over gurgling streams, a lake filled with carp and tiny turtles. This garden must be perfect during spring blossom and late fall. Unfortunately the sky was completely covered, resulting in a very dull lighting.

nezu old houseWalking south, you fall on Nezu – a surprising neighborhood. Old style, small wood houses make you think more of a small town than a mega city. A little more further the Ueno Onshi park is surrounded by skyscrappers (the hotel shown here has a a very odd structure especially given very strict construction rules because of earthquakes).

Meiji Jingu shrine in western Tokyo is dedicated to the souls of Emperor Meiji(-1912) and his wife, Empress Shoken(-1914). The outer preccint is used today for traditional Shinto weddings.

See also:

or go to the Tokyo 2006 gallery.