I meant to post this earlier but I spent all day recovering from touring around Tokyo yesterday. Being drugged up with hay fever medicine didn’t help either, I’ve been in a drowsy stupor since I got up. On Friday, a VIP from the NY office was visiting Tokyo and he wanted to see the fish market so me, another colleague and the VIP got up at 4am Saturday morning and heading out there. Tsukiji is one of those places that tourists go to. Most people living in Japan (both foreign and Japanese) probably couldn’t be bothered to wake up so early to go there. If it wasn’t for the VIP I probably would have never made the trip. Was it worth it? The answer is Yes!! I definitely recommend a visit at least once.

(1) We arrived just in time to watch the tuna auctions (about 6am) which is the most interesting part. I read somewhere that they closed the auctions off from tourists last May but it turned out that they just had a section roped off for visitors to watch. The tuna auctions are held warehouses to the rear of the market. There were about 4 or 5 of these warehouses but only one where they allowed visitors to enter (2) The tunas were laid out in neat rows grouped by size. The ones near us were pretty small but I could see some big suckers at the other end of the warehouse (3) The fish were cut precisely in the exact same way with a slice off the tail part for people to examine. Before the auctions started the bidders would wander around picking out the tuna they would bid for (4) Sometimes they would take a pick and tap on the fish or knock on it like a melon.

(1) The auctions didn’t seem as formal as I had seen on TV. It was quite chaotic and I could not figure out how the guy running the auction could keep track of the bidding. They would start at the front row and some guy would stand on a step and ring a handbell. Then he started crying out numbers or something and waving his hands around. (2) The small tuna were not as popular and did not attract many bidders (3) There were larger crowds around the big fish when it came time to bid on them (4) All the people wore the same rubber boots and carried the same red flashlight and little pick.

The auctions lasted about 30 minutes and afterwards we walked around in the market. The place is an endless maze of shops selling all kinds of fish and sea creatures. It’s huge. Imagine Tokyo Dome filled with fish stalls. It’s also very dangerous. There are people running about, dumping buckets, spraying with hoses and most dangerous of all were the guys driving small 3 wheeled flatbed trucks. They would speed through the tiny aisles and if you weren’t careful you could be run over. It was impossible for me to take my time and get a good photo because of this.

I was impressed by how much styrofoam they had here. Literally tons and tons and tons of styrofoam filled the entire place. Oh yeah and lots of fish too. I walked by a bucket of clams and suddenly one of them spewed a stream of water all over my foot. Don’t wear nice shoes to Tsukiji.

(1) Here they were cutting the frozen tuna with a table saw and axe (2) Most of the workers in Tsukiji are used to all the tourists and generally just ignore you. But some people are very nice. At this stall they gave us tea and explained how to tell which part of the fish the tuna cut came from (3) The market outside was also lots of fun, they sold fresh vegetables, knives, kitchen ware etc and while it was only 7am the whole place was crowded with shoppers (4) These guys on the 3 wheeled flatbeds were taking a break. You can turn the front wheel 360 degrees and go in any direction. Looked like fun to ride.

You can’t go to Tsukiji without eating sushi obviously. It seemed like there were 2 main sushi restaurants that were popular (1) This one (2) And this one, which is the one we lined up for. You have to line up crunched up even though there is space because those guys driving the flatbeds will run you over. And I swear I almost got hit a few times (3) This is the inside of the sushi restaurant while we waited outside. It only fit about 10 people. After 90 minutes we finally got it. The sushi chefs were extraordinarily friendly and talked to us like old friends. It was kinda weird (4) The sushi was very good as expected. This was the highlight though, shirako or cod fish sperm. mmmmm…

After we left Tsukiji we went to Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza and then I headed to Roppongi to meet a friend. I didn’t even check my email when I got home I was that tired.