Where on Earth are you, Katy?

Tokyo! There's a tropical storm today, so I'm stuck inside. Reading Cook's Illustrated (dot com) and drooling.

I've been here for a couple of weeks. I'm apartment-sitting. Derek is in Europe, waltzing in Vienna, sipping pilsner in Prague, feasting upon schnitzel in Berlin, and being illuminated in Paris, the City of Lights. Or so I assume. So I have his apartment for another two weeks. I've been splitting my time between relaxing, sightseeing, exercising (a bit), and cooking.

Immediately after Derek left, I headed for the fish market. And I do mean immediately; we both left for the train station around 5:30 AM. He had a 9:30 flight, and I had a fish market to visit. The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo is where they have the frantic tuna auction at 5:30 AM each morning. It's not open to the public anymore, but it's still interesting to walk around outside of the building and watch them packing up coolers full of fish, while watchfully avoiding the forklifts zooming back and forth.

Outside of the auction house there is an open-air market open to the public. There are also sushi restaurants scattered around. Long lines of tourists had already gathered by 7:00 AM. Each restaurant has only about 12 seats. By 7:30 most of the lines were gone. I chose a restaurant based on its attractive picture menu, and its one open seat. I ordered the setto, or breakfast set. For about US$21, I had the freshest, and most varied sushi that I've ever eaten. If you look closely at the picture, on the bottom left is my pair of mihashi, with my name engraved!

As far as other activities in Tokyo, I saw a kabuki play at the National Theater; I've been to the Ueno Zoo (a very good zoo, and only $6 admission); I saw a band from Okinawa that sings island music; and next Thursday I'm going to a tour of the Imperial Palace.

And now, from reading all the cooking articles, I've been inspired to make pizza tonight. I will take pictures, however I might not post pictures. I haven't been posting many lately. I'm not typing from my computer. Normally I upload to Picasa Web from Picasa on my computer. Sadly, my computer doesn't have a connection at the moment (no wireless). Since uploading photos one by one is a huge pain, you're stuck reading my blog with only one or two pictures to view.

Mmmm, pizza.