So, the tokyo trip was a success. The morning was spent in the Tsukiji fish market, the largest fish market in the world, both by volume of fish sold daily and number of workers in a single market. I had been told that it was the 11th wonder of the world and well, it lived up to my expectations.
After that it was a trip to SUMO land to get tickets for the day's matches. After aquiring the tickets and checking out the amateur rounds, we went to visit Yasukuni Shrine. Had you been keeping up on your Japan/China/Korea/Taiwan politics you would know that this is the shrine dedicated to Japan's war dead. Prime Minister Koizumi has made yearly visits to the shrine in order to pay respects to the Japanese killed in foreign conflict. The problem with this is that the shrine is not only dedicated to the victims of the war, but also to a couple dozen Class-A war criminals. Why a country would think to dedicate a shrine to war criminals, I don't know.

After seeing the infamous but visually unremarkable shrine, we returned to the sumo arena for the real action. We were not able to see the Yokozuna, Asashoryu, but we saw some of the somewhat lower ranked Maegashira wrestlers pushing eachother around.

In the evening we went out to a lovely dinner at a restaurant headed by some guy from New York. I would rate the meal as one of the top five that I've ever eaten in my life. Everything was perfect. The scallops were seared to perfection. The grilled pepper crusted tuna was perfect. The beer was perfect. The creme brulee was perfect. If you're ever in Tokyo and you are looking for a romantic dinner on the water's edge and you are not worried about a $50 per person tab (but really, let's face it, if you're looking for budget travel you're not going to be in Japan in the first place) I recommend the T.Y. Harbor Brewing Co.

Oh yeah, and we got to ride the bullet train twice in a day. Sweeeeeet!