The Tsukiji Fish Market is largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. It’s a must see if you’re visiting Japan.
Little restaurants selling sashimi, sushi and ramen line the streets catering to both visitors and the workers themselves.
The market opens before the crack of dawn and it dies down at about 8 a.m. – so get there as early as possible to catch the action.
Tsukiji is famous for auctioning off tons of frozen tuna, but besides tuna just about every fish known to mankind can be found.
In addition to the seafood market there’s a huge produce market – that’s fresh wasabi pictured above.
The tuna auctions start at around 5:20 a.m. Once it’s sold then it’s time to redistribute.
Brokers buy the tuna, label it, cut it into pieces and then resell it to local restaurants or other resellers.
Distribution within the market itself, before the fish even hits the streets, is an incredible thing to observe.
Hand trucks with metal wheels and wooden handles are used to move tuna.
Turret trucks are used to transport other goods around the market.
This guy looks nice… but don’t let that smile fool you. Get in his way and he’ll run you slap over.
Roughly 30 years behind the wheel and he’s still got the eye of the tiger.
Be very careful of the drivers. Tsukiji is a dangerous place and you should be alert at all times.
The picture speaks for itself…
For some crazy reason, all of the fish is transported in styrofoam which is piled up and disposed of at the end of the day. Styrofoam is bad stuff.
At around 7-8 a.m. there’s usually a line-up of foreigners at a couple of the popular sushi / sashimi restaurants.
I met this nice Thai lady in the alley behind her restaurant while she was taking a smoke break. I chatted with her and she brought me into her place which had seating available immediately.
This is what all of the hype is about – high grade ootoro or fatty tuna.
The tuna was excellent as I expected… and the miso soup was out of this world – delicious! 1,500 JPY for the meal.
Photos taken with a Nikon D80 DSLR camera.
Good pictures & nice closed up. Relate to actual scenes of the market. I like
Cheers
This is a great post, though when is the market moving? I thought they were closing it and setting up somewhere bigger..
Ryan,
Thanks for reading! I have no idea if they’re planning to move the market or not. I read something about it but I didn’t pay much attention.
It’s a real shame, I’ve been living in Yokohama for a number of years and still I haven’t visited this market. All because the trains don’t start early enough. I’d still like to visit but without having to stay at a hotel in Tokyo for the night. What are your recommendations?
Brian,
Without getting a hotel you maybe you should just go to a club and do the grind until the wee hours of the morning. If that’s not you’re thing… then take the last train to Tokyo, hit an internet cafe for a few hours to waste some time then hit the market bright and early. The earlier the better!
oh my!
I got INSTANTLY hungry when I saw your plate of food.
Looks amazing.
I have a couple of friends who ventured to the fish market during their stay in Japan.
Everyone says “it has to be seen!!”
Tsukiji wasn’t on my radar of places to visit during my stay, but I think after this post it has become a blip on the screen.
These are some really great shots. I cant wait to check it out when I visit from Okinawa in a week.
amazing images, I so want to experience this
about to watch the video now
Great photos. It makes me want to eat sashimi but not get run over by a little truck!! lol