Something is fishy here....

Kendra:

Lots of really interesting stuff has been happening guys. It's pretty neat-o being over here, not going to lie. Yesterday we had the great fortune of going to visit this company called Pasamo O2, they are kind of like a job finding organization here in Japan but they do sooooo much more for the person. They also raise a lot interest in agricultural issues by having the underground farm! We got to tour the underground farm and visit their new headquarters which was in the most expensive office buildings in Tokyo. It just opened and the price to have offices there was mind- boggling. Here is a look at the artificial rice patty and hydroponically grown lettuce:

They also fed us some of their food and it was so oishii! (delicious)

After that some of us Fulbrighters walked to a new park in downtown Tokyo and romped around there for a while, very cool. It had lots of neat art work that Aaron loves, here's a shot of some:

Then, this morning we got up at 4:45 am so we could visit the amazing Tsukiji fish market. It's one of the biggest in the world and it was intense. There are men on motor carts whizzing by everywhere (we almost got hit about 600 times) and they are all carrying big blocks or boxes of all kinds of seafood. The coolest thing was the tuna auction. They haul these HUGE- I mean really big fish here- frozen tuna onto the floor and this guy auctions them in some odd form of Japanese numbers and...well...none of us could make out what he was saying. Retail fish buyers then come by and poke at the tuna with metal sticks and check out the goods before placing bids on them. Some of these fish are just gigantic, easily way bigger than I am. Plus, there are lots of stalls selling any kind of seafood you could think of; clams, shrimp, eels, squid, abalone, shark, some kind of fish with big, ugly eyes, and we even saw fugu (blowfish) the kind that can kill you if you eat a poorly prepared fish. Here's some of what we saw:

The rest of today is mainly just relaxing before we hop on the shinkansen (bullet train) and head to Kobe tomorrow. So, internet may not be around for a while, who knows. Hopefully we will have internet shortly at our new place but who knows! So, you might not hear from us for a while. Till then, ja ne!