We headed to Tsukiji Market at 4:30 in the morning, so obviously did not eat any breakfast prior to heading out. After the auction tour was complete, we decided to stroll through the vegetable market as our travel buddies stepped into a sushi restaurant (their flight was leaving in a few hours, so they wanted to get in one last meal before heading out).

After checking out a local shrine and a couple of shops, we headed back to the sushi restaurant to pick up our friends. When we walked in, the owners quickly handed us a cup of green tea before we could tell them that we weren’t going to eat. Our friend (who conveniently could speak fluent Japanese) explained that we were vegetarian so didn’t want to eat, but the chef said he would make us a fully vegetarian meal – no dashi, no eggs, who could say no to that?

The food was great and it was such a treat – too bad we couldn’t have a personal interpreter with us our entire trip!

I especially loved the cups they served the tea in – I asked the owner if he would sell them to us, but I think he thought we were joking because the cups had the name of the restaurant on them. I found a decent substitute at another shop a little later in our trip.