Sansui fishing shops
I finally managed to make some time to go exploring some of the fishing shops in Tokyo. My first shop was the Sansui fishing shops in Shibuyu.






There are actually 4 shops spread around the block each of them the size of a large tackle store in Australia and specializing in its own area. There is a deep sea fishing shop (only 1 floor), a fresh water shop (3 floors), a bass and plug shop (2 floors) and a fly and lure shop (2 floors).


Like a lot of shops these guys weren’t all that happy about someone taking photos of their merchandise so I had to be a little careful.

I went down to Shibuyu with the intent of finding the fly fishing shop and managed to walk out of that shop after a couple of hours of looking at some of the most crazy gadgets that I just managed to resist (there were a lot of things that I just needed and started to wonder how I had managed to live without them in my vest).


I then headed to the freshwater shop and spent way too much time there. There was a whole wall containing an array of 2 piece bamboo rods like the guys were using in the local pond (along with the rod holders and the floats). Sorry for the quality of the pictures – a little rushed in taking them.




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The Aquarium
We went to one of the many aquariums in the Tokyo area on the weekend. This one was only 30 minutes away from where we are staying and in the middle of some large hotels and shopping centers. Once inside the aquarium it was easy to forget that you were in the middle of this huge city.


There were dolphin and seal shows in huge auditoriums and a walk through arch full of sting rays and sharks. The pengiums were a favourite with huge Perspex windows to see them swimming around underwater. There were also tanks full of fish and jelly fish.

When the dolphin show finished they ushered in a wedding party with the bride and groom getting married on the edge of the dolphin pool. Of course the dolphins jumped and clapped to celebrate the wedding as well as “singing” congratulatory songs to the bride and groom.


It was amazing to hear the bride go down the “aisle” to the first verse of Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion and even stranger to hear the first verse of Cyndi Lauper’s Manic Monday as the tune chosen to leave as man and wife.








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Japanese meat pies
I went down to the local patisserie to get something to eat for lunch during the week. One of the things I never expected when I came to Tokyo was the amazing number of French patisseries – every train station and shopping district seems to have at least 3.



When I was looking around the shop the Australian fussion influence on the Tokyo based French patisserie became obvious – a curried meat pie (with a soft boiled egg inside for good measure).


Getting into the Japanese way I took a few pictures before I had my lunch. One thing about these shops is the way that they wrap each of the pastries individually in paper and plastic before they go in the big plastic bag.











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The Ueno zoo
So opening weekend of the trout season happened in the Snowy mountains and as my attendance at this annual event would be somewhat questionable we ended up going to the Ueno zoo in Tokyo and it only cost ¥600 (about $8) to get in.




The weather was a little on the damp side, it was opening weekend after all, but this kept the number of people down to a manageable level and access to the animals was very easy. The zoo is only a 15 minute train ride away from where we are staying and is located in the heart of the urban jungle with museums and art galleries in the same precinct. However, as we are learning the designers of this city are able to take what little green space is available and make it feel like you have many acres of space.




There were apartments overlooking the zoo and you can only imagine what it would be like to be living in one of the most populous cities in the world and waking to the sound of lions roaring, elephants trumpeting and monkeys screeching.







There was a huge range of animals in the zoo including all the usual suspects and a little something else for others.



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Dominos pizza becomes a luxury item?
You may have heard that living in Japan, and Tokyo, is prohibitively expensive. Well there is no denying the fact that, compared to Australia, it is expensive to buy food here but nothing that is way too expensive and falls into the “luxury” class.


There was a hankering in the household last night for some pizza, so I headed out to a domino’s pizza store and picked up a couple of large pizza’s (sounds so easy when you write it in a dozen words).



Now while the pizza was good, especially with beer, and the I didn’t realise how much I was missing melted cheese until the smell of the pizza’s hit me on the walk home some quick calculation highlighted that each of the pizza’s was approximate 35 Australian dollars. Not unexpected for a “gourmet” pizza in Australia but this was a domino’s pizza with no goats cheese, prosciutto or artichoke hearts in sight. But of course, when the need arises, we will be getting some more!
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