Spent the morning of April tenth (yeah, the reports are rather late) in and around the Tsukiji Fish Market.
Entry was not the most auspicious. Big warning signs along the way from the closest metro station stated that the market was temporarily off limits to “non-business” visitors.
Not so easily dissuaded, decided to go and see what was really going on. And it turned out that the warning was only about the tuna auctions held veruy early in the morning, not the whole market.
The first sight in the area was the massive number of ground-hugging transport vehicles zipping around the area. The flatbed cars were transporting the products to the vans of restaurants and shops that are not allowed to enter the halls.
The halls are vast, and absolutely packed with seafood of all descriptions – the selection ranged from the common (tuna) to truly obscure (sea cucumber) via the ugly (some deep sea crustaceans). Apart from the fish most of the wares were alive, so as to provide as fresh a dish as possible. Some critters were numerous (squid, mantis shrimp) whereas some were confined to one or two specimens on a single vendor’s table.
Photographed without aiming the camera much. The corridors were narrow, people were milling everywhere and the rapidly moving vehicles were a constant hazard and thus a free-ranging paparazzi mode was far easier to use.
While there were plenty of sales made in the halls of the market, it was the surrounding area that had the more consumer-friendly shops. And plenty of sushi restaurants.
Just had to have a breakfast in one – and got treated to likely the freshest sushi dish ever. And one of the cheapest. Close to twenty pieces (both nigiri and maki), a bowl of miso soup (with a bonus shrimp) and an infinite amount of green tea for the equivalent of ten euros is not a typical cost in Finland.
Picked up the second t-shirt of the trip (wrap-around stylized black tuna on white) and some sushi paraphernalia in the barracks next to the market.
A couple of blocks away the market turned a bit more conventional, but still very seafood-related. Ought to have picked up an industrial-sized pack of nori or tasted a proper japanese omelette, but was way too full for the latter and figured that Narita shops would have sources for the former.
