Tsukiji Market has two sections: Tsukiji Inner Market and Tsukiji Outer Market.
The Tsukiji Inner Market was originally a wholesale fish market, which held the famous tuna auction in the wee morning hours before the sun rises, but has now moved to Toyosu Market.
The Tsukiji Outer Market (築地場外市場) still remains and has a selection of food and retail items to offer, from fresh seafood to seasonings to kitchenwares.
The market was bustling when we arrived, with people waiting in line for sushi restaurants to open and people queuing for snacks / finger food such as egg rolls. With our Singaporean spirit, we joined in one of the waiting lines for a sushi restaurant near the entrance we came in by. Luckily we joined the queue quick enough as we were the 2nd last couple to get seated when the restaurant opened.
For starter, we ordered a platter of sushi to share and a bowl of miso soup each. The main highlight was definitely sushi. They were marvellous; the freshness can actually be tasted in the mouth!
After our sushi breakfast, we went shopping around the market and bought some processed products to bring back home. We were super tempted to buy some crockery but we've already bought quite a few of them back in Kyoto, so we resisted getting them.
As we shopped, we also bought some snacks to munch on because they all looked so good and smelled so delicious!
Before leaving Tsukiji Market, we visited the Odawara-bashi Building and bought more sashimi to eat even though we were pretty much full from all the food we had earlier. They were too good to be missed. Plus, where else do we get the chance to indulge in such glorious seafood? To get the taste of the sea.
It was lunchtime by the time we left Tsukiji Market, and the market got a whole lot crowder, with queues longer than before. Our next stop for the day was what we looked forward to, the Tokyo One Piece Tower (東京ワンピースタワー)!!! *Inner screams!*
*Spoiler: We spent about 8 hours at the Tokyo One Piece Tower.
Prior to our trip, I bought our admission tickets together with the seats for the Live Show at 2pm from Klook. So, when we arrived, we were able to skip the queue and exchange our vouchers for our physical tickets at the counter located outside the attraction entrance on 3F.
The Tokyo One Piece Tower has attractions across 3 floors in the Tokyo Tower (3F, 4F, 5F), with the entrance and exit both on the 3F.
Upon entering, we were ushered into the first attraction, the 360 Log Theater, a room with a gigantic 360-degrees omnidirectional screen where we were welcomed and witnessed the most memorable scenes of the Straw Hat Crew's journey. Afterwhich, the doors of the theatre opened and led us to the main attractions area, with the 1st attraction in view being The Plaza of Origin, followed by the Straw Hat Crew's Autograph Area and the Straw Hat Crew's Great Feast.
There's a Tongari Store located next to the Straw Hat Crew's Great Feast, where merchandise and the stamp booklet (get a limited edition souvenir upon collecting all stamps) can be bought. Since each stamp booklet is entitled to one limited edition souvenir, we each bought a stamp booklet.
There are quite a number of games to play inside the Tokyo One Piece Tower, and these games stations are themed based on each member of the Straw Hat Crew. There is no limit to the number of rounds we want to play at each game station, it's just that after each round, we have to queue again. And yes, there were quite a bit of visitors but the crowd was still quite okay.
Because I spent so much time taking photos and doing my initial round across all three levels, sooner than we realised, it was time to head over to the One Piece Live Attraction on 5F for the live show, "Marionette". Definitely, no regrets paying extra for it!
Since we were hungry after watching the live show, we decided to head down to Sanji's Oresama Restuarant (サンジのおれ様レストラン) for our late lunch, and because it was almost 3pm by the time we went down, the lunch buffet has ended. So, we ordered off their ala carte menu instead.
After lunch, we went back up and completed more games, and attempted the Tone Treasure activity that costs ¥500 per gameplay.
Starting at the Tongari Tourist Information Center (4F), we were given an adventure memo and a voice terminal for the game. The time limit was 60 minutes, and the objective was to follow the leads to get to the password that opens the "treasure chest". Needless to say, we failed. It was way more difficult than we expected it to be, and we were stuck at finding Clue #3. So, we ended up drifting around and distracted by other attractions instead. Still, we got a sticker for participating ok! HAHAHA.
Since it was the 20th anniversary of the One Piece anime, an event called the "Cruise History" was held since the start of the year and it was now at its final season (3rd season).
Picking up from the last season, the setting at the Special Exhibition Area was the Straw Hat Crew's Whole Cake Island and Wano Country scenes. There was even a clip of the entire Straw Hat Crew's adventures, thus far, which brings up so much memories and feelings. One Piece for the win!
When we decided that we had enough fun at the Tokyo One Piece Tower, it was already 8pm. Although we haven't had our dinner, we weren't that hungry but our feets really hurt from all the walking. So, we went to Cafe Mugiwara for some desserts, and to rest our feet. Plus, while waiting for our food to be served, we were able to help ourselves to the One Piece comic books that were available.
After we were done with our dessert, we went over to the Mugiwara Store next door to shop for more One Piece merchandise. I was too excited and got caught up in all the shopping that... I LOST MY BOYFRIEND'S PHONE!
The Saga of Losing Boyfriend's Phone
I think I was too intrigued by everything in the store and left it somewhere. One moment it was in my hand, the next moment, it wasn't. I freaked out so bad and was about to cry because what are the odds in retrieving a lost phone overseas right? Whereas boyfriend was super calm about it and he had to comfort me when he was the one who had his phone lost.
We tried to retrace my footsteps, but we still didn't manage to find it, so we quickly went to the payment counter and informed the lady at the counter that we lost a phone. But due to the language barrier, we had difficulty getting the details of the phone across. Then, we remember - his phone lock screen was my face! We quickly told the lady about it and I showed the face I made in the lock screen, and that's when she went "Ahhh!", proceed to the backroom, and retrieved boyfriend's phone. TADAAA.
Who knew that putting my face on the lock screen would help in such a situation? Hahaha.
Thank goodness we are in Japan, a country where the culture has it for lost items to be returned at the lost and found counter. We were really lucky to be able to retrieve the phone. What a way to end our day man.
The next day, we spent the entire day shopping at (秋葉原) to make up for all the lost shopping time yesterday, and also because Akihabara was an anime town! We hopped from shops to shop looking for specific One Piece figurines to buy, spent a tonne on the gachapon machines (mostly me), and tried our skills at the UFO machines in the arcades. It was a shopping day done right, but we will return for more because we needed to do some research first before getting certain figurines.
No doubt that Akihabara is an anime paradise!
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