November 29, 2006 - page 2

pandas at Ueno Zoo. There’s no end to the variety.

My personal favorite destination was the Tsukiji fish market, the world’s largest fish market. As I’ve learned three times a day for the last two months, fish is a huge part of Japanese culture, not to mention the economy. Tsukiji is the center of it all, processing over 2000 tons of fresh fish every morning, and visiting it is a little like trying to stand in the middle of the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (assuming the traders were rushing around in rubber boots carrying huge

boxes of fish, that is). I felt constantly in the way as we dodged purposeful looking fishermen, buyers, trucks, forklifts, fish heads, etc. The sheer array of exotic looking sea creatures was eye opening. I must confess, however,