Tokyo - Tsukiji

Ok folks, this is pretty cool. On 10/3/08 I went to the Tsikiji Fish Market. It's the largest fish market in the world. You have to get up super early to see this. The market opens up at 4 AM and I would recommend you get there around 5 AM. To get there that early you'll have to take a taxi. I would also recommend you go here on your first day if you're going straight to Japan as you'll be jetlagged.

I've already been in asia for 2 months, so I have already adjusted to the time. Because of that I got up late, 5:30 AM. I got to the market by 6:30 and the fish auction was already over. But since I missed it I looked it up on youtube, so here's what you'd see:






Anyway you want to enter here:



Be careful, it's a busy hectic place and workers drive little trucks all over the area. Watch out or you'll be run over.

tuna

diced tune

whole sale seafood, usually restaurants buy and bid at the fish market

There's also an area that sells veggies







There's also an area that has kitchen items, books, shirts, etc for sale:
There's a sign here that reads: US Dollar OK. Really? I don't think it's doing too hot but if you say so...

Here is the line for the most popular sushi place in the fish market: Sushi Dai. It doesn't seem so bad but the actual restaurant is just a little booth area that seats maybe 8 people at once.

The line is so long is stretches over to the side of the building. Is sushi really worth this wait?

I'm not a fan of sushi, so I didn't think so. But, I am in the Tokyo Fish Market where you can get the freshest sushi in the world.... so since I'm off trying new things I might as well give sushi a second shot. My book, The Rough Guide to Japan recommended Sushi Bun, considered one of the best and without all the tourists. I was the only tourist in there.

They did not allow pictures of their sushi so I had to take a picture of their sign. My sushi looked close to this.

Like I said, I'm not really a sushi fan, but when I ate the sushi here it wasn't that bad. I won't say I really like sushi now, but I ate it all and for someone that doesn't like sushi that means a lot. I highly recommend Sushi Bun to all you sushi lovers.
You'll need to memorize the Kanji on the right as there is no English sign for sushi bun.

location

some discussion about sushi bun at chowhound:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/424161