Off to Tsukiji Market we go! Thanks to a pretty late sleeping time the previous night (due to robot restaurant ending relatively late), we decided not to do the whole, 'wake up at 3am and queue for auction' nonsense. In fact we couldn't even be bothered to wake up early enough to do the 3-4 hour queue for the "big 2" sushi shops 寿司大 (Sushidai) and 大和寿司 (Daiwa Sushi). Of course, the fact that we had already visited those in previous trips might have also played a part

Write-ups of previous trips a few years ago here if you're interested:

Dai: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2011...ai-tokyos.html
Daiwa: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2011...iji-tokyo.html
Auction: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2013...hree-days.html



Anyways, we've noticed in our three trips to the market over the last 3-4 years that the tourist popularity has gone through the roof. In our first visit only the "big 2" shops had long queues; now it seems every single seafood place in the inner market has a queue:



Not wanting to bother with a queue of any sort, we head to the outer market instead to try out a shop named 築地虎杖 魚河岸千両 (sorry I don't know what the english name is).



Their specialty is the ひつまぶし海鮮丼 (hitsumabushi kaisen don) which is "three-ways" seafood rice bowl.

1st way: seafood with rice like a normal kaisen don
2nd way: stir like crazy until the uni's 'melted' and 'dissolved' into the rice, making everything yellow, sticky and sweet.
3rd way: add dashi stock and drink soup rice.



If that's not your cup of tea of course other seafood bowls are available too. Price range: ¥2000-¥4000 (inclusive of tea and bowl of crab miso soup)



We then head to Asakusa, so that our parents-and-brothers can visit the shopping street and the sensojii temple.



My wife and I don't bother with re-visiting the temple, though; we're here just for our favorite melon pan of all time from Kagetsudo Asakusa 花月堂. If you're planning a trip to Tokyo, you'll probably be visiting Sensojii. If you are, make sure you seek out this shop and order and eat a freshly baked, hot melon pan. It's fluffy, warm, soft bread with a sweet, crisp cookie dough top layer. Possibly the best melon pan in Tokyo.



Depending on your pace, you might have a lot of extra time here to slot in something extra -- for example, maybe a side track to ameyoko (another shopping street not too far away), or the Tokyo Sky Tree (also quite nearby). But for us because we started the day late, and spent a LONG time shopping in tsukiji's markets, it was already late afternoon and time to head to Tokyo DisneySea for our starlight (after 6pm) entry ticket.



TDS closes at 10pm; so the ticket only allows 4 hours to explore the park. It's not worth the travelling time and entry cost, in our opinion; as you can't take advantage of fast passes for the popular rides, so you end up not really riding that many rides. If you want to come Disneyland/Disneysea you should really do an entire day.



Hilariously, their "Halloween special event" is ... *drum roll* ... fireworks with 'scary music' playing over the loudspeakers. Like really?!?



Anyways, our main objective really is to pick up a couple (ok, a whole suitcase full) of a prime example of Disney Japan's superb marketing skills: Duffy and Shellie-Mae teddy bears (sold ONLY in TDS, nowhere else in Japan).



The wife, like thousands of other japanese girls and ladies, is a huge fan of these bears and does the whole "pose and take photos and post on instagram" thing. You can check out her teddybear photo account here:

https://instagram.com/chiaki_bear/

~ Day 3 end ~