Tokyo Disney Family Trip Day 3: The Real Tsukiji Market Experience (2009.12.10)

Minasan, have you ever watched the Japanese food show "Dotch Cooking Show"??

You have heard of Tokyo's Tsukiji Market, right!!

This day was supposed to be just one lunch stop inside our Tokyo Disney family trip. We took the JR and then the subway from Disney to Tsukiji, thinking that since we were already in Tokyo, we might as well try something properly local. In the end, that meal turned into a very real Tsukiji experience: the wrong shop, the wrong bowl, and a raw-seafood test I did not exactly volunteer for.

My target was clear. While planning the itinerary, I had read a blog post at http://www.wretch.cc/blog/vivianchiu/6151234 that introduced Tsukiji Donburi Ichiba's "maguro hoho-niku steak don" - grilled tuna cheek steak over rice. The photo looked so good that I decided on the spot: we had to eat this. So Tsukiji Donburi Ichiba became the lunch plan for day three.

Did My Last-Minute Japanese Actually Help?

Getting from Disney to Tsukiji went smoothly enough. But once we arrived near the market, everyone was already hungry, and I did not feel like slowly figuring out the streets. So I took the address and asked a passerby, "Sumimasen, ano, kono jusho wa doko desu ka? (Excuse me... uh... where is this address?)"

Inside, I was secretly pleased. See, that last-minute Japanese cramming was useful after all... ha.

The woman was genuinely kind. She led our family of four through the market, with us holding the older child and pushing the younger one in the stroller. We kept weaving deeper and deeper, from the main street into small alleys, until it really felt like we were inside a traditional fish market.

By then, something felt wrong. @.@'" Wait a minute... the blog post clearly showed the place on a main road. But she kept helping us ask the fish sellers, and finally pointed to a shop inside the alley: here, this is the one!!

I Came for Grilled Tuna, Then Asked for Pork Cutlet Rice

I looked at that shop and still felt it did not quite match. So I asked the staff, "Are you Tsukiji Donburi Ichiba?" They nodded very firmly and said yes ~.~

Fine, then. I would like the "maguro hoho-niku steak don" - grilled tuna cheek steak over rice!!

What? You do not have it now?? @.@』"

At this point the kids were finally too hungry to stay calm, and I started losing my own rhythm too. So I asked, "Then... do you have katsu-don?"

That immediately drew a small laugh. This was a fish market, and the biggest one in the Kanto region at that. I had just asked whether they served pork cutlet rice. Heh... even I felt like I must have been tired out of my mind. I quickly changed the question: "Osusume ryori wa nan desu ka? (What do you recommend?)"

What came out in the end was two bowls of "market don" seafood rice.

A Tsukiji seafood rice bowl with sashimi, sea urchin, salmon roe, and miso soup. — The seafood bowl that became the price of forgiveness for the failed lunch plan.

A Seafood Bowl in Exchange for Forgiveness

My wife had already been tired and unhappy. Now that there was no hot meal, her eyes were almost shooting fire.

But when the seafood bowls arrived, she laughed on the spot. She said, if you - yes, me . - finish this whole bowl, I will let this terrible itinerary go.

For serious food lovers, this was probably delicious. For me, it was torture. I never eat anything uncooked... and so, with tears in my eyes, I gave my first raw-seafood experience to a Tsukiji seafood bowl... @.@

To be fair, it really was fresh. After adding a lot of wasabi, I could get it down without too much trouble. Still, when it comes to things that have not been cooked, I think I will respectfully keep my distance from now on~~

Also, if you ask me what that lump of sea urchin tasted like, and you do not actually want to know, please stop reading here, turn off the computer, and go to sleep. Do not say I did not warn you~~

Sea urchin, to me, felt like... the smell of a floss pick after I have finished cleaning my teeth. Really. Smell it yourself next time... hahaha~~~

The Real Shop Was Just Outside the Alley

The postscript was the real final blow.

After we finished eating and walked out of the alley, my heart took a heavy hit. "Tsukiji Donburi Ichiba" suddenly appeared right in front of me. It... had been... the shop outside the alley all along... not the one inside the alley.

I... should... just... stand... aside... now...

Exterior of Tsukiji Donburi Ichiba with menu photos above the counter. — The real Tsukiji Donburi Ichiba was outside the alley after all.

This Tsukiji lunch turned out nothing like the plan, and I never got the grilled tuna cheek steak bowl. But maybe that is why the memory stayed. It was exactly the kind of awkward family-travel moment that happens when the adults are hungry, the kids are restless, the Japanese is only half-working, and one seafood bowl becomes the price of temporary forgiveness.