Now it may sound weird to everyone who is not from Japan, but this is in fact a big deal and a main attraction in Tokyo. It is currently listed as the #1 thing to do by Lonely Planet and #3 on Tripadvisor.
Since I was afraid I would sleep through the fish auction, which is held Monday - Saturday between 5-6am, I didn't sleep the night before. Tsukiji recently added a few more rules to the fish auction. First, last year, they decided to limit the number of people to attend each auction. So now, they only admit 120 people total everyday, 60 people to attend the auction. Second, they now only allow 2 auctions visitors can watch.
This means it is actually very difficult to see the tuna fish auction. But I had a plan. I was going to get there by 4am, wait in line and hope that I would be one of the lucky 120 people allowed in.
And thankfully, I was. But I cut it too close. Within 10 minutes, the doors closed and people were turned away.
After the excitement of knowing I will be able to watch a live tuna auction, I settled into the waiting area and waited. It was actually a pretty long wait, about 90 minutes as I was part of the second group.
Here's a picture of the waiting area, with my awesome neon blue vest and so jealous I didn't wear a green vest, especially as they were getting up to go to the fish auction :(
And FINALLY, it was my turn. We were led outside, through a huge open docking / warehouse area, with many tow trucks driving past. We should have signed a safety waiver because these truck drivers DO NOT yield to pedestrians. Pedestrians have to watch where they are going! Here's a nice security officer telling us to be careful and to watch out for the drivers.
And we're inside the auction area. It looks just like another warehouse, except it was freezing inside, probably to keep the tuna fresh. It was a huge space, with many tuna fish lined up row by row, for the buyers to examine. Notice how the fin is partially cut. This is to show the colour of the meat and it also allows the buyers to pick it to feel its texture. They even smelled it, yet no one tasted it. Weird.
This is my "I am here at the Tsukiji fish auction" picture.
And the auction begins. There were 3 auctioneers and their styles could not have been more different. Unfortunately, they all started at the far end of the warehouse, so we weren't able to hear what was going on (Not that I'm so fluent as to understand anyway). The one auctioneer yelled until his face grew red, the second barely uttered a sound and was using hand gestures instead, and the third was somewhere in the middle - enthusiastic, shouted out numbers, and pointed at the person when his bid was accepted. I liked him the best.
Here's the video of my favourite auctioneer in action:
And then it was over. It was short, but it was all worth it. Next up was to walk around the market. The Tsukiji market is similar to any other market in Japan. The rows are divided into food types - so you'll have one "street" selling only meat, another selling only fruits and vegetables and so on.
These are only a fraction of the people waiting in line for Sushi Dai. It's supposed to be excellent, but waiting in line for 3 hours for a couple pieces of sushi?! No thank you!
I prefer this guy. A standing sushi, excellent sushi made to order. The line was still long, but not as long, and the patrons were ALL Japanese people, which is a major stamp of quality sushi in my eyes.
Tsukiji Fish Market - Cool experience! Would definitely go back. Highly recommended.
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