Also probably aptly titled: the one place for jet lagged foreign tourists to go to at 4am.
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I’m not a fish market obsessed person. I also dislike waking up before the sun comes up. A visit to Tsukiji Fish Market required me to put both of those inhibitions aside. Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the world, and has been around in some form since the Tokugawa period.
The internet made it also seem like we would be hard pressed to get in to see the tuna auction, cautioning that you should stay near the fish market if you really want to get in (the trains aren’t running at 4am), and that things could get crowded quickly, leaving you unable to get the tour.
Fortunately, I can tell you those websites may be somewhat dated, or at least written before Uber arrived in Tokyo. We stayed in Suidobashi (quite a ways away), but we were able to catch a 3:45 am Uber and make it down to the fish market with plenty of time to get in the tour group for the tuna auction.
There’s plenty to see, experience, and photograph while in the market. People are zipping all over the place, and the tuna auction itself happens lightning fast. You are left feeling a bit herded by the guides, but it’s all being done out of kindness to keep you from getting run over.
In all, this ended up being a much more fun and interesting place to take pictures in Japan than I expected. I wouldn’t wake up before dawn to go a second time, but it was definitely worth a visit.
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