Globe Corner Blogs

Tuna at Tsukiji market

As almost anyone will tell you, the Tsukiji fish market is a must for your first, jet-lagged morning in Tokyo. The subway starts running around 5:30am, so by 6:00 we were surprisingly awake and already weaving through endless rows of oysters, sea urchins, crabs, and various other sea creatures I had never even heard of. We were lucky to catch the tail-end of the tuna auction, watching successful bidders haul off fish more than twice their size–we later observed the enormous fish being halved and quartered into manageable chunks with a chain saw. We also stopped to admire an old man slicing eels from head to tail in one smooth motion, the fish still wriggling as he nailed them down. I must say I have never been more impressed by a market (and I am a fan of markets in general). Perhaps most impressive is that the innumerable heaps of seafood will be gone in just a couple hours, bought up by wholesalers and restaurants–the market will be completely empty by 1pm. And while tourists are a common sight at Tsukiji, the market is not a show for visitors (unlike, say, the floating market near Bangkok); if anything, bewildered foreigners are a nuisance, always barely avoiding getting run over by the little motor-powered fish-transporting carts. Continue Reading »