Tempting Tokyo

Tokyo was quiet as we checked into our hotel.  It was a few days before the Golden Week holiday, but it seemed like a lot of the locals had an early start for their long weekend. It was a pleasure to walk along uncrowded sidewalks and travel on trains without the usual crush of people. The streets and highways were a breeze to drive around and the restaurants yielded easy seating.

One of the major attractions in Tokyo is the centrally located Tsukiji Market. Known mainly for its tuna auctions, it is also a wholesale center for vegetables and fruits. There are actually two sections of the market, the inner one where the wholesale business is done and a smaller outdoor section, which contains the smaller retail stores, restaurants and stands.

We were there to watch the famed “tuna-buying spectacle” and woke up at 2:30 a.m. to queue for three of the only 120 allotted tickets per day.

A short 10-minute cab ride deposited us on a sidewalk where a line had already formed to the office window. We were numbers 31, 32 and 33 and happy to know we had made the cut-off. By 3:30 a.m., the maximum number was reached and we patiently waited till the office opened at 5 a.m.

The line started moving a little after 5 a.m. and we were ushered into a large room and divided into two groups of 60. We were told that the first group of 60 visitors would be admitted to the auction between 5:25 a.m. and 5:50 a.m., while the second group of 60 visitors would be admitted between 5:50 a.m. and 6:15 a.m.

We had to walk to the auction center with our guides who helped us navigate through the narrow paths and roadways that were bustling with delivery trucks and motorized pallet movers that zoomed in and out with Styrofoam boxes filled with fish, crustaceans and every other imaginable edible marine species.

We were herded into the center aisle of a refrigerated warehouse and told not to move around and to just observe what was going on. Frozen tuna torsos were lined up neatly in rows and the prospective buyers would stop at the ones that interested them. The tail ends of the tunas were sliced so that they could nick off a small piece to roll between their fingers. Everyone also carried a flashlight, the better to inspect the flesh.

After the inspection period, an auctioneer stood on a crate and started the auction in a loud singsong voice. Buyers milled around him and the sale proceeded with hand signals. It was over very quickly and the tuna was whisked away by a forklift.

We went back to our hotel for a nap and returned at 12 noon to the outdoor portion of the market. Needless to say, there was an abundance of sushi restaurants. Melt-in-your-mouth toro, hamachi and other delectably sliced slivers of fish made up our lunch.

The storefronts were a sight to behold. It would be a perfect walking food tour. One had braziers of red hot coals where palm-sized scallop shells were roasting — plump meat seating cheek by jowl with a large dab of rich butter. A display of the triangular and round rice balls in different flavors caught our eye, as well as a shop where people were lined up to buy the tamagoyaki — which is a  Japanese type of omelet in which cooked egg is rolled into several layers. These, too, came in different varieties. Some had bits of chopped green onion, some had squid and so on.

There were also sushi and sashimi stalls for those who wanted to take home the precious packets of fish. We watched a fish butcher expertly convert half-a-meter long fish first into large, uniform slabs and then slicing them into uniform, mouth-sized pieces.

We stopped at a store that sold different kinds of marinated pickles and seafood and loaded up on vacuum-sealed bags of mushrooms, clams and radish. Just as we were leaving, we had a whiff of the rich aroma of cooking meat. My nose led us to a stand where two big vats of beef were simmering. I asked one of the customers what the difference was and I was told one vat had meat, while the other had liver.

By the time I was the second in line, the owner told the person in front of me they were closed for the day. I tried pleading my case to no avail. Even though they still had a lot, apparently they still had to close at 2:30 p.m. because that was the rule of the market.

We assuaged our disappointed tummies later that evening at a noodle place, which was a hole-in-the-wall across from the train tracks. When we walked in, we could see customers huddled at the counter, slurping tsukemen noodles that they had dipped into a thick broth before transferring it noisily into their mouths. We pointed at the same noodles when the chef-cum-waiter looked our way. He smiled and walked out, beckoning us to go with him. There, by the door, was a machine that had Japanese characters and a money slot. And he showed us how to use the vendo machine to order the items we wanted. The noodles were thick and almost had a rubbery crunch. Two pots of thick broth bubbled merrily away on the stove top just a few feet before us. It was so good we went back for a second serving.

The next day, we hopped on five different train lines until we got to the Ashikagashi Station. There were a lot of shuttle buses to the park but we decided to take a cab.

Ashikaga Flower Park is located in Ashikaga City, about two and a half hours by train from Tokyo. Although it is open year round with eight floral seasons throughout, it is most famous for the Wisteria Festival from mid-April to mid-May. Six species of Wisteria, locally known as Fuji, have been planted strategically around the nine-hectare park. The first to bloom in mid-April is the pink variety. This is followed by the three purple ones — the short, long and double-petalled wisteria, then white. The last and widely acknowledged as the most difficult to grow is the yellow wisteria.

There are several wisteria-covered paths and one is from a “tree” that is over a hundred years old. Wisterias grow actually from vines but can be intertwined to look like a thick tree trunk.

Paths meander through the park, along with the 350 wisteria tree and vine-covered trellises. There are also azaleas competing for space along with several other flowers. We oohed and aaahed our way around the gardens and wen were able to grab a table near the food stands that served everything — from gyoza, ramen, yakitori sticks to korroke. All these in the shade of an enormous half dome where the long petals of purple wisteria dipped like candle wax.

On certain evenings during the season, they have night illuminations. Sadly we missed this, which is why we will be returning next year.

Tokyo was still quiet when we left. But there were these celebratory voices inside us. We “heard” the city and its outskirts all the more in its quiescence.

* * *

Email me at miladay.star@gmail.com.