Tokyo - Day 3

 On day 3 I convinced everyone to get up at 3:30 a.m. to go to the Tsukiji fish market. Every tour book I looked at about sights to see in Tokyo said this was high on the list of things to do. It was SUPER crazy getting everyone up and over there since it was in the middle of the night. This is the 13 of us standing outside the market and Emery was clearly not happy.  The market has a fish auction every morning and only about 100 tickets are given out to tourists each morning. Despite getting there an hour before the auction started (at the recommendation of the tour books), we missed out on tickets to the auction. I was kind of bummed but we got to walk through the market and see so many amazing things so it was definitely worth it. Plus, it's a great story to tell of our crazy international adventures.

 The market was full of open stalls selling all kind of produce and fish. I also loved all the tiny noodle restaurants that were operating and PACKED full of people in the middle of the night. It was a true slice of Japanese life.

 Teeny, tiny squids

The workers in the market drove these little carts around and they went pretty fast. I've never seen anything like them!

A beautiful mushroom:

Huge edamame pods. These were each several inches long. Much bigger than the pods we have eaten:

After walking around at the market for a couple hours we headed back to the hotel for breakfast and naps. This phone booth was near the hotel and on the way to the subway station. The kids loved cramming into it whenever we walked by

 After breakfast we put the little kids down for naps and a movie on for the older kids and dashed up to the temple to attend a session together. It was awesome to hear the session in Japanese even when we had headphones with the English translation. I loved the decor of this temple. It was very, very sparse and simple but beautiful.

 After the temple we picked up the kids at the hotel and headed out to get some lunch. Elizabeth told me that one of their favorite things to do is pick up food to eat at the "conveni"which is short for convenience store. We bought a ton of different things to try and the food was fantastic! We LOVED the food in Japan and everything was so fresh and delicious. It was definitely different than US convenience store food. It was super interesting that there are convenience stores on almost every block in Tokyo. You might recognize this:

All of us with some of the fun things we got to eat:

Dried fish is a sold everywhere in Japan. We did not try it but it similar to jerky. This was octopus:

 Loved these - rice roll wrapped in seaweed paper and filled with different things. We loved the tuna roll.

My favorite were the shrimp spring rolls:

The warning on this chopstick packaging made us laugh so hard!

After eating lunch we took the subway to the Tokyo tower. It looks similar to the Eiffel tower in Paris and you can go up to the top to get a better view of the city.

When we got to the tower there was a lady outside doing a show with her monkey. We sat and watched her for a long time and it was absolutely delightful. The monkey did all sorts of tricks (walking on stilts, doing tricks, etc). It was so lucky that we were able see the show:

Kids with the monkey after the show. It was so much fun!

At the top of the observation deck they had glass portions in the floor that you could look through. It was super cool and kind of scary!

We loved pretending we were falling!

 The view from the top of the tower! It was so fun to see the cherry trees from up high

Our kids really loved riding all the trains and subways. Emery and Addison especially loved hanging on the straps!

Our final stop of the day was the Imperial Palace. We arrived just as the sun started to set and it was absolutely beautiful. This is one of the palaces that the emperor stays in. I'm so glad we took the time to see it. We got some of the best pictures of this trip at the palace. Loved it!

 After we returned to the hotel and got the kids fed and to bed, the adults went out for a fancy dinner. It was so fun to get some more time together. The food was good and we tried lots of new things. I got a rare tuna steak topped with caviar on a bed of green tea noodles. I loved the tuna but am not exactly a fan of caviar. I did try it though! It must be an acquired taste! Allen had quail and thought it was "interesting." We always love to try new foods and sometimes there are hits and misses. It was such a fun evening and way to wrap up a LONG day!