Something fishy - Tsukiji Market Tokyo

When you google at 'top things to do in Tokyo' you can almost be sure that Tsukiji fish market will pop up, most notably the tuna auction.
Being a food market lover myself, I really wanted to go there. But... the tuna auction starts at 6 am. And only a limited number of tourists are allowed to attend, so you have to queue at around 4 am. There is no public transport at that time of night (oddly enough Tokyo's public transport stops around midnight?!) so you have to either walk there, take a cab, or wait over a few drinks at one of the nearby pubs.  We opted out of attending the tuna auction, bad tourists...I know!

One of the small stalls

At around 8 am the rest of the inner market opens up to visitors, so there we were. Surrounded by tour groups, we entered the public space.

And now I hear you wondering...How was it??? First impression: way more tourists  than expected, and at the same time less of a tourist trap than expected.  First and foremost, this is a place where people work, no signs which way to go or defined routes. This also means that you have to be carefull not to be overrun by one of the funny, and very fast, carts. Even  though there is hardly any room to walk in between the stalls, the carts race past!

Tuna waiting for a buyer

The fish and seafood they sell is simply amazingly fresh and varies from extraordinary to bizar.  And it is a lot.  The sheer number of sea creatures on sale was mindblowing. It really made us wonder how much longer it takes to empty the oceans.

Super size mollusc

Of course there was an abundance of tuna. Al tuna arrives deeply frozen. Did you know that those beautifull slices of sashimi are precut in to blocks, while frozen, with a industrial band saw? I didn't!

I saw the biggest mussles I ever saw: at least 3 times the size of my hands. Crates of roe, alien crustaceans, unknown molluscs, vibrant octopi and fish in alls size and sorts inlcuding some wiggly, still alive, skewered fish.

Sawing sashimi blocks

The traditional thing to do after visiting the Tsukiji Market is to eat fresh sushi. Most people try to do that in the inner market, but the outer market makes a good alternative if you want somwhere (slightly) less busy.  We didn't do that either... we were such lousy tourists, I know! But the massacre we had just witnessed satiated or need for animal protein.

Vibrant octopi