As expected, a somewhat fitful night’s sleep on our first night in Tokyo.  And, as expected, I slept better than Akemi who woke up at 2 am and stayed awake until 4 am before dozing off for another hour.  In any case, we were both up and 5:30 a.m. and, by 6:00 a.m., heading to Tsukiji Market.

By the time we got there, at 6:30 a.m., there was already a line-up for my favorite breakfast place – a little shop that serves up, among other things, a horumon-gutsu bowl (aka offal stew on rice).

Dr. Blackjack had hers with an onsen tamago.  Akemi went with the nikku-dofu bowl instead.

We spent the next couple of hours strolling through the relatively quiet fish market, Akemi taking note of all of the dried mushrooms, bonito, and sea kelp she wants to pick up before our return flight.

There’s a place that offers five different types of sea urchin.  I wanted to check it out, but a tour group beat us to the seating.  I didn’t feel like waiting so we ended up grabbing one of these instead, a milkshake made with egg yolk, white chocolate, and vanilla beans.  Pretty tasty!

The shops wouldn’t open for another two hours, so we strolled back to our hotel, admiring the sights along the way.

We have discussed the possibility of moving to Japan for a few months.  In that case, maybe I would get a part-time job.  I wonder if Dandy House is hiring.

Check out the absolutely adorable Peanuts-themed luggage.

Alas, the carry-on case I have my eye on would set me back a cool 250 000 yen (roughly $2500) so I think I’ll stick with what I got.

Following a brief stop at the hotel so that Akemi could do her stretches while I started up dating this blog, we headed out for more shopping (Akemi has her eye on some dress which is a big deal as she rarely ever buys herself nice things) and lunch at Sushi Taichi.

But first, a quick stop to check out the Police Museum…

20 pieces of sushi at Sushi Taichi…

Followed by a double chocolate Mannekin pre-dessert…

Followed by dessert at Toshi Yoroizuki…

After heading back to our hotel for a little R&R, we set out once again as Akemi needed dress boots to go along with her new dresses.  She picked them up at the nearby Takashimaya and then we grabbed dinner – oden for her, scallop tempura and soba for me.

We walked the Tokyo Station basement…

Came across this rice gallery that was, unfortunately, closed for the day…

Came across this ice cream shop that features five flavors of sake ice cream…

And finally headed back to the hotel for the night…where we sampled this rich pistachio dessert we purchased at Takashimaya’s Pista & Tokyo…

Sharky, meanwhile, has settled in nicely at his vacation home and is being all sorts of spoiled.  He may went to extend his stay!