It's our last day in Tokyo (and Japan) and I am going
to see the Fish Market even if it kills me! I set the alarm for
5am and sure enough got up. I was dressed and ready to go at 5:30,
as were Andrea and David - Mark was smart enough to keep
sleeping. We went down to the subway and were walking around the
market by 6am. And it was busy!
We
didn't really have a clue where we were going (other than "the Market")
so the first bit of market we stumbled into we explored. The
Market services Tokyo's massive restaurant industry with sea food so
it's both a volume and diverse affair - much larger than the Granville
Island market where I shop. Most stalls were specialized (knife
shop, fresh fish, fresh tuna, shell fish and so), but any specialty
would have several representatives. The diversity of products
available was amazing - most fish I didn't recognize, all of the shell
fish was new to me. It was a massive sensory overload.
This area seemed dedicated to
reselling. Products that had been auctioned earlier in the day
were broken into restaurant sized lots and sold to buyers who were
walking around without carying product. The floors (cobble stone)
were wet but clean and fish was everywhere. 
The market is most famous for it's Tuna
sales. Massive tuna are auctioned earlier in the morning (5 am
apparently) and sold to these smaller retailers (some fish cost more
than ten thousand dollars). They cut the fish into the different
cuts and sell those meats to restaurants, who then cut the meat to
sashimi or nigiri sized chunkes. The fish are so heavy, a whole
team of men lift them to the cutting block where they are butured.
It turns out I'm a market nut. I love
markets. The life and vigor (and death) going on in the market was
amazing to see. I was a little worried I'd get yelled at for
entering the markets (I'm not going to buy anything), but everyone was
friendly, and even curious about what I was taking pictures of and what
camera I brought in. For me, this was one of the highlights of the
trip.
Wonderful shots and range of stuff and just the right level of comments! Just came across this site while trying to sketch out a plan for going back to Japan -It's been a long time since I was in Japan and going through to decide where needs a visit is tough - just a few pictures here though and I am convinced I almost missed half opf the place before!
James G
Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 08:16:48