On my current trip to Japan, I have the opportunity to spend a couple of weekends exploring Tokyo. Today, it was cold but sunny, and I decided to head out first to the Tsukiji fish market. From my hotel, I headed over to the train station, a rather large terminal called Kinshicho Station:
It seemed like a simple enough trip, although my purchase of a Tokinai pass was a bit of a mistake. This little ticket costs 750 yen and should have allowed me to travel to 23 districts for the day. But I found out you have to stick to certain lines (JR train line, and not the subway system).
Even though I thought I had mapped it out correctly, after 1 stop I found myself in a subway station not affiliated with JR rail, and the ticket no longer worked. Hint; just but the pass you need between points. It’s a complicated transit system, study up.
So when I arrived, I found myself in a crowded set of blocks with lots of tourists, and lots of activity;
Crowded, with people checking out a variety of merchandise. Fish… and some meat;
And as you wandered around, you found more people selling fish products. This place had a super fishy smell;
Lots of dried goods…
And other interesting sites like this fish head:
Still, all the dried fish was interesting…. but very retail and seemed sort of geared toward tourists. I kept walking around and wandered into a building. This felt a little less gimmicky, more like a market:
Fish and various seafood on ice, feeling more like a market:
Although it still had a commercial feel:
And more dried product. Yum yum, dried squid!
But there seemed to also be a mix of fresh product, like this tuna below:
Table after table of interesting displays:
I didn’t see the “no photography” sign until after I was filming. Oh well!
More interesting than the street vendors, but still, this didn’t feel like some world famous fish market.
So I kept wandering around. And that’s what you have to do… wander to places you don’t look like you’re supposed to go. You must avoid being run over by trucks, but if you find your way deeper into the market, you’ll be rewarded. This doesn’t look “tourist friendly”… but this is where you need to go!
A few feet into this place and I realize I’ve struck wholesale fish gold. This is an actual wholesale market, the largest in the world. You could spend hours wandering around this complex, getting in the way of people trying to do real business. This market is not only the largest wholesale fish market but also considered one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind.
Fish in every direction and this complex is huge. Visitor entry into the interior wholesale markets is prohibited until after 10AM. I showed up shortly after that, there was still plenty of activity, but you could tell they’re wrapping up their day already. The don’t want visitors while they’re slinging their product, as I’m sure tourists just get in the way
I tried to stay out of the way, but had one guy actually push me as I was checking out his fish;
He was getting one of these guys out of a cage and killing it for sale.
It’s a true market, with people lined up for the accounting half of the work (notice the abacus).
And there was tuna! The tuna auctions are supposed to be amazing, but you have to get there at 3:30am and even then, they only let in a limited number of viewers. Plenty of pieces of tuna to view here though;
This creature took the award for the strangest. I still haven’t figured out what exactly this is:
Plenty of fish to keep looking at as you walk around including some live squid:
The market is amazing. According to Wikipedia; “The market handles more than 400 different types of seafood from cheap seaweed to the most expensive caviar, and from tiny sardines to 300 kg tuna and controversial whale species. Overall, more than 700,000 metric tons of seafood are handled every year at the three seafood markets in Tokyo, with a total value in excess of 600 billion yen (approximately 5.9 billion US dollars on November 24, 2013). The number of registered employees as of 25 January 2010 varies from 60,000 to 65,000, including wholesalers, accountants, auctioneers, company officials, and distributors.”
It certainly felt that impressive. One of the more impressive places I’ve visited in the food arena – make an effort to check it out if you are visiting Tokyo.
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