Tsukiji Market

I have been wanting to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market since I arrived in Tokyo and with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law visiting, it was the perfect opportunity to experience this classic (and unique) Tokyo destination. The market is the largest in the world and one of the oldest; it’s original location was in Nihombashi until the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 forced the market to relocate to its current home in Tsukiji where it has remained.

While you are able to explore the outer market until the shops close down around 1pm, the main attraction is the bluefin tuna auction where these prized sea creatures consistently sell for over $30,000 (the record in 2013 was nearly $2,000,000). If you’re interested in learning more, here is an interesting article from January 2014 published in the Atlantic on Sushinomics.

The market limits the tours to two groups of sixty people each day that the market is open. The tours last twenty-five minutes with the first beginning at 5:25 and the second at 5:50. We jumped in a taxi at 3:30am (the market opens at 3am for professionals) and while we missed joining the first tour by a few people, we solidified our position in the second tour – waiting two hours in a small room with our matching vests and 117 of our new friends:While we enjoyed chatting, others decided to sleep, including this fellow who almost missed the tour departing:

When we finally started our tour, it was an overwhelming experience. Vehicles have the right-of-way and they are all over the place – honking as they nearly nip your heels:

As we entered one of the auction rooms, licensed professionals who participate in the auction were walking around and assessing the shipment for the day using flashlights, picks, their fingers, and a notepad to test, feel, and document their selections for the day (excuse the quality of the photos – we were unable to use flash):

This went on for most of the 25 minutes, so we had some fun before the auction started:

Once the auction started it was a new kind of chaos (well, chaos to us, I’m sure it wasn’t chaotic at all to the participants). The auctioneer (gent on the left in that next picture) stood atop his wooden crate taking bids before moving onto the next row of bluefins.

Once each fish had been auctioned, they tagged them and ushered them away:

As we left the auction, carefully dodging more vehicles, we saw heaps of used styrofoam. Having lived in San Francisco for the last three years I haven’t seen one piece of styrofoam in a long time let alone a mountain of it (East Coast friends – think about this when you’re enjoying that hot beverage from Dunkin next fall and consider bringing your own mug). Some of it was being picked out to be reused but a majority of it was being crushed and went to waste. It was kind of disturbing to be honest!

We spent the next part of the morning meandering around the outer market and opted to skip the over-priced sushi meals. Most of the restaurants right in the market price an omekase (chef’s choice) meal between ¥5,000-¥6,000, which is roughly $40-$50. Nearly all restaurants in Tokyo buy their fish from Tsukiji so if you want a truly delicious and memorable omekase experience, skip the immediate rush of the morning at Tsukiji and instead opt for lunch at Kyubey or Yasuda.

Since we skipped the three hour wait at Sushi Dai and Sushi Daiwai, we instead traveled back towards our apartment and stopped at a Denny’s for the Japanese interpretation of a western-style breakfast (yum):

In preparation for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the Tsukiji market is being relocated in November 2016 to Toyosu, Koto – if you find yourself in Tokyo in the next year, I highly recommend visiting the market in it’s prime real estate before the move!