Who knows what fishes I’m looking at! The Tsukiji market has so many strange and wild things!
The Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market – where to even begin??! It’s such a strange and wonderful place that it should be on the top of the list for anyone visiting Tokyo. Full of chaos, wonder, and really strange things there is a reason so many people should go see it.
Not wanting to get up at 4am and catch a taxi to see the tuna auction (I’ll leave that for next time – some say it’s worth it and others say it’s not), we decided to instead wake up at the much later 6am to be at the market closer to 7am. Which, in reality, was a little too early. After grabbing an incredible sushi breakfast at Daiwa-Zushi, we still had about 45 minutes to kill before the markets opened to the public at 9am. Perfect time to grab a quick cup of joe though – much needed after getting up so early!
A man carving frozen tuna at the Tokyo Fish Market
However, be ready though – if one wants to visit the main grounds do so no later then 9am. As the market is just open to the public at that time, it’s been open to wholesalers for quite some time by that point. Many sellers had already started packing up by the time we entered and a good quarter of the market was cleared out as we were leaving around 9:30~10am! The lines for the sushi stands at that point had also almost tripled in size so I’d highly recommend visiting the sushi stands first before entering the market at 9am – so maybe getting up so early was not a bad idea after all?
Wandering around the market was quite a joy, and it was fun to be among the hustle and bustle of the most famous fish market in the world. Being able to look down at things caught from all over the world was simply amazing, even if I didn’t understand what half of the things I was looking at! For any sort of seafood fan, the Tokyo Tsukiji Market should be at the top of your list of places to visit while in Tokyo!