After a brief stop at a shrine, we walked through the external market area. The energy level is quite high for this time of morning: workers were zipping around in these motorized cargo movers, forklifts and scooters. They criss-crossed the narrow streets and laneways while my guides nonchalantly walked in front of them, often missing getting hit by inches.
As we entered the refrigerated buildings where inspections of fish and other seafood were being done, I could not believe the sheer size and number of fish that I saw neatly arranged on the floor. There were people dumping hot water to soften the tails, others using axes and knives to cut them open, men painting ID numbers on the tuna, and buyers using flashlights to inspect the meat.
We were able to watch several auctions of tuna and other seafood. Some are held with middlemen buyers standing or sitting while the fresh tuna auction is done by walking around the actual fish. An old-fashioned handbell signals the start of the auction: hand signs are used to indicate numbers and the whole thing is over quite quickly.
After the auction is over, workers use big hooks to pull the giant tuna onto carts to transport them onto trucks. Some of the butchering is done in the outer area. Here, the president of the middlemen association is using a big saw to behead and then cut the fish up.
The tour isn't cheap, but I don't think you can see half as much as what we did without a knowledgeable guide. Most of the tourists showed up around 06:00 when all the auctions are over (many ignoring the prohibition against flash photography, which can startle the workers wielding very sharp tools). We walked right into buildings that said "Authorized Personnel Only" and we had no trouble wandering into all areas, getting shown an octopus in a big lifted out of a styrofoam container or chatting with a seller who showed us various kinds of shrimp. It helps to know where to stand and how not to get in the way. Nakamura-san and Yoshino-san are quite knowledeable, answering all my questions and were great to talk to.
Of course, the only way to cap off such an exciting excursion is to have breakfast at a sushi bar. I skipped past Sushi Daiwa, as the lineup was enormous, and went to one of the places my guides recommended, Sushi-bun. There was a small lineup but I was seated within 15 minutes. It's very tiny, maybe a dozen seats at a bar; you even have to put the warm towel underneath the counter on a ledge. I ordered the mid-priced omakase set and the chefs set to work preparing the sushi and placing them on a leaf in front of you. Everyone else was using their hands to eat, which was definitely a lot easier than trying to pick each item up with chopsticks. My favourite was the anago, a tender sea eel brushed with housemade sweet sauce; the chef even told me not to dip this one in soy sauce.Back at the inn, I took a nap and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day as my feet and legs have been really feeling the effects of all the walking I've been doing the last week. I took the subway to Shibuya station, then switched to a train on the Tokyu Toyoko Line to get to Jiyugaoka station.
A note about narrow field of vision: I mistakenly bought a round trip ticket to Yokohama (520 yen) because I didn't see the adjacent map showing what the actual cost was from Shibuya to Jiyugaoka. One suggestion I've read is to just buy the cheapest ticket so you can get on the train, then at your destination, use a fare adjustment machine to calculate the actual cost and pay the difference.
If you go to Tokyo and need to find an address, I highly recommend bringing along a map like "Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide" published by Kodansha or "Tokyo Metropolitan Atlas" published by Shobunsha. I bought the latter on the Japanese bookstore floor of Sogo in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Both help you navigate the incredibly confusing address system.
Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest (2-25-7 Midorigaoka, Meguro-ku) is a themed dessert destination with a whole floor outfitted in fake trees and recorded bird chirps. The entire La Coeur building is food-related with a Williams-Sonoma-like store on the ground level, the Sweets Forest floor, and then more restaurants on the upper patio level. The most popular shop was one selling custom-made ice cream with your choice of mixins. 
The cakes and chocolate stores didn't interest me (!) but I did sit down to enjoy a superb soufflé at Le Soufflé. They make them to order so there's a 20-30 minute wait. By the way, skip the tea (600 yen): it was possibly the worst cuppa I've ever had in a restaurant. I watched the two chefs making the souffles: they whip the egg whites in a small Kitchenaid mixer, then hand beat it with a premade yolk mixture. They didn't seem too careful with folding everything in, they must have beat it vigorously for about two minutes. The batter went into greased and sugar-dusted ramekins and into a hot oven. English writeup here
In the evening, I had dinner at the Ginza branch of Umenohana (it's in the building next to the big ABC Mart). The restaurant is very spacious, taking up the entire floor of a building, and is what one thinks of as "Japanese": water trickling over rocks, paper sliding doors, wood everywhere. The 4500 yen set dinner I had included 13 different items, most made with tofu or yuba (tofu skin). Highly recommended. I wish I could have taken home the frozen shumai dumplings they were selling out front, worth the price of admission alone.
Afterwards, I dropped into the flagship store of Muji, as I liked the little outlet I went to in Hong Kong. The first floor is like a Future Shop meets Toys R Us. The second floor is a weird hybrid of IKEA rolled with Old Navy and Staples: I saw clothes, desk organizers, an optician, seamstress and cafeteria. More furniture on the third floor. There were no labels on anything. Great store.
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