I happen to live about a 10 minute walk from Tsukiji, which basically means that I live next door to the fish market that people travel from all corners of the globe to visit. This also means that I am quite often wandering around the streets of Tsukiji at various hours of the day, and I get to see it when the market area is empty or when the late night bustle before the next morning begins. In general, I love markets: I love the energy, I love all the shops and stalls, and I love the connections that buyers and sellers form (whether they are short, intense, connections that last only the duration of the transaction or connections that last years and years and are renewed with each visit).

I am in Tsukiji so often that I now tend to take photos only of the things that most people wouldn’t notice or would not really be interested in for their souvenir photo albums (what this really means is that I skulk around the narrow streets at night and look for atmospheric shots).

So…the other night, LY and I were coming out of our regular, local, sushi spot and a had a funny little exchange in the back alley (behind the sushi shop). I had stopped to take a photo of something that looked pretty nondescript and dilapidated:

behind the scenes at Tsukiji

As I was doing so, one of the sushi chefs from the restaurant we’d just eaten at came out into the back alley and said (in Japanese) something to the effect of: “ehhhhh…why are you taking a photo of THAT…???!!!” and I replied: “..it’s interesting…” and he said: “…it’s not interesting, I’m interesting…” and we all laughed just as one of his colleagues came out into the alley as well and the chef said: “take OUR picture instead”; so I did:

One of those great moments…a very Japan moment…

Oh, let’s go crazy and do a blog post two days in a row…

I was on my way to the subway this morning to meet a friend for lunch, and I saw this – a Far Side just begging to be written:

It then reminded me that a few weeks ago I’d seen this – all the traditional Japanese Autumn symbols set up for some portraits at a local dog boutique (jugo-ya full moon, tsukimi dango, pampas grass or could be bush clover – both are traditional Autumn symbols and I can’t tell from the photo but would guess the former):

The former surprised me a lot less than the latter. I suppose it’s because when I first came to Japan, it was not very usual to see a dog that was not a “traditional” Japanese dog (Shiba or Akita, etc.); and the dogs you did see were usually chained up outside the family house on a chain or rope that always seemed just a little bit too short. Now, of course, only several years later, you can barely go for a walk without tripping over a pack of long-haired dachshunds or several chihuahuas and you are then at the other extreme with scenes like this (and, in case you are wondering, there is no baby):