Tokyo

We arrive in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo in the dark of night. As Laura and I walk down the streets of this urban center on that first evening we have not yet gotten a sense of its size and scale. It is said that Tokyo has the largest urban population of any place on earth, currently estimated at thirty-eight million people. Much like the country of Japan itself, this is a city of ancient rituals dancing with the modern ways of today’s world.

We spent most of the morning visiting the world-famous Tokyo fish market where we were awed by its sights, sounds and sheer size. The cramped spaces with business executed at a hectic pace were impossible to ignore. The Japanese people are one of the largest fish consuming populations on the planet and most of their catch comes through this market which is unlike anywhere else in the world. The scale of this seemingly chaotic scene, where processing the harvest of our earth’s oceans plays out is another example of ancient ways fitting into a modern world.