Japan: Day 14 (Tsukiji Fish Market, Hama-rikyu Gardens and Japanese Baseball!)

Day 14 was our last full day in Japan. We woke up early to check out the Tsukiji Market - it's the largest fish and seafood market in the world. We left the hotel at 7AM but apparently all of the real action starts at 3AM (no thanks) - this is when they have the live tuna auction. The market is fairly large - lots of people driving on forklifts buying fresh seafood - tuna, fish, eels, octopus, crab, lobster, etc. Overall, the market felt very clean. In fact, we saw some food inspectors walking around.

Dave: "It was crazy." (referring to the fast pace of the market).

There were lots of rows with different vendors.

The market was very well organized.

Eels.

Octopus.

OK - I didn't know tuna was that big!

Tuna.

Our view, leaving the market.

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We then went to the Hama-rikyu Garden by the fish market. It was a medium size park in the middle of the city.

It was very hot & humid.

I think the picture is funny because I look mad but I'm just waiting in the shade.

The park was not crowded - probably because you have to pay to enter.

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It only made sense that our last thing-to-do in Japan was to attend a Japanese baseball game - Yomiuri Giants vs Yokohama BayStars. Japanese love baseball! There's lots of energy throughout the entire game. The crowd cheers the entire time their team is at bat. The fans sweat from cheering so much - the crowd really gets into the game! It was an awesome experience.

We wore our red Yellow Cheese t-shirts to the game. Yellow Cheese, waiting to cross the street (#1, #36 and #9).

Tokyo Dome.

This is not the Metrodome...

Walking around the rotunda area to get to our seats.

We sat in left field. The Yomiuri Giants is a Tokyo based team - there were lots of Giants fans and this is their home stadium. It may look like the Metrodome but definitly isn't...FYI - the Giants logo looks very similar to the San Francisco Giants logo.

Lets play ball!


Neat picture of BayStar's left fielder.

Giants fans.

We ate dinner at the Tokyo Dome and the food was disappointing because there was not much variety. Dave ate a shrimp sandwich and I ate chicken wings. We also go chocolate covered almonds.

We sat in the fan section of the Yokohama BayStars (most of the fans were Giants fans). This fan was hardcore...always cheering, singing and making noise with those sticks.

Alex Ramirez, plays for the Giants, is quite the character. The fans love him (he's not Japanese). He waves to his fans between innings - I don't think that happens in the Major Leagues. He's supposed to be really good but he struck out all three times we saw him bat!

Julie's holding her nose because it smelled bad (B.O.) from all of the fans cheering. We think the smell came from this guy in front of us. It smelled really bad when he fanned himself with the program...

Picture of the Yellow Cheese All-Stars.
(not really, just seeing if the rest of the team reads this)

Yokohama BayStars cheering! I repeat, this is NOT the Metrodome.

Raising the roof at Tokyo Dome! By the way, the final score was 2-0, Giants.

After the game, we took some artsy pictures of Yellow Cheese outside.

After the game and taking artsy pictures, we stopped at a restaurant on our way back to the hotel. We then went to lounge and played 500. :)