Hi! We’re having a great time. Very tired, over stimulated and getting used to the subways. Overall, the country is very clean, safe and friendly. We can get coffee, beer or whiskey at any time from vending machines! Brilliant.
Today was AMAZING. Chris insisted we get up before the crack of dawn and go to the Fish Market. [Chris adds: up at 3:30am, at fish market at 5:30; Japan doesn’t do daylight saving time so the sky was brightening by 6am]. The Tsukiji Fish Market is a colossal wholesale market where the fish are brought in from the ocean directly to the docks and unloaded. 
It’s row after row of vendors selling all kinds of creatures just dragged in from the sea, fresh and frozen. Much of it I couldn’t recognize. There’s also a vegetable market. The restaurants come here to get their ingredients for the day. A tuna auction is held with the frozen tuna right off the boats. The fish have an end flap opened up so the vendors can check the fattiness and freshness of the fish (with a flashlight!) The red paint is used to mark the fish purchase by painting right on the fish.
I had no idea tuna was so huge.
After all the fish is unpacked this is what is left — a mountain of styrofoam crates. They recycle it somehow, as they do everything. Again, small country, lots of people. They figure out a way to make it fit.
After that we went to a Kabuki theater and saw an act of a play. It was beautiful and much more tolerable than I expected. I’ll let the boy give you the details on that. [the boy adds: much like Chinese Opera, especially the music; different stage layout, more subtle choreography, huge audience (at 11am on a weekday!) occasionally shouting out the names of acting schools, or something like that. Sorry we couldn’t stay for the whole 4 hour show!]
THEN. We went to the Dog/Cat/Ferret park, but the ferrets weren’t there or at least no one could tell us where they were. The deal with the Dog/Cat park is that people in Tokyo don’t have enough room/money to keep pets. Most live in rented apartments and the landlord won’t let them keep them. So there are “stores” and parks where people go to pet and hang out with cats and dogs.
The cats are in little individual rooms and rotated among a bigger room where people can go and pet them and play with them.
The dog park is right
next door and you can “check out” a dog and take it for a walk. You can also go in a big pen where they run around and just pet a bunch of them. It was charming and bizarre. You should have seen the gift shop! Chris wishes he hadn’t.
Tomorrow, Puroland, home of Hello Kitty. Wish Chris luck. [Chris adds: Wish me luck? Pray for my sanity! At least I might get some mountain scenery out of it, it’s in the western Tama region.]