In Tokyo, world's biggest fish market
By Kathryn Tolbert
Washington Post
Tsukiji is the world's largest fish market.
Tsukiji is also the world's finest fish theater, a daily drama you can witness free. Even if you have only one day in Tokyo, you should spend part of the morning here. (It is closed on Sundays and some Wednesdays.) Seafood is at the heart of Japanese cuisine, and Tsukiji anchors a vast distribution system that delivers more than 2,200 tons of it every night. The immense bounty turns into daintily wrapped supermarket packages of two or three slices of perfect salmon or arrives at restaurant sushi counters by lunchtime.
The market's operations are staggering. Throughout the night, the seafood arrives from all over the world, delivered by tankers and trucks from other ports and the airport. More than 40,000 people buy and sell about 450 species and varieties of fish at the market's more than 1,500 stalls.
The lure of Tsukiji, however, is not so much its size — the market covers 57 acres — and importance but the live theater you can walk right through. The inner market is a maze of stalls. You squeeze through the aisles, surrounded by tubs and tanks and plastic-foam trays filled with wriggling, glistening creatures from the sea, along with the frozen tuna that is being sawed into pieces for wholesale customers, and other fish being pulled from tanks onto chopping blocks. People yell to each other, water squirts up from clams and crustaceans, hoses send streams of water across the concrete floors. Buyers fill their wicker baskets.
Tsukiji is a serious place of business, and yet the people who work there are remarkably tolerant of tourists. The tuna auction is the most popular with tourists, and the market is ready for them, with a "Visitor Area Entrance" sign in English hanging over a warehouse door.
Be sure to obey the rules posted in English at the market entrance: Watch for trucks and trolleys, don't go in groups of more than five, don't carry large bags that will get in the way, wear closed-toe shoes (and no high heels) and refrain from touching the fish. It is up to you to get out of the way of careening carts and the occasional escaped eel.
Save time for the outer market, which covers several blocks near the wholesale market. Sushi shops and tempura and noodle stalls are scattered throughout. If you're serious about trying the best sushi, look for a line and join it. The outer market is the place to shop. You can buy pottery and kitchenware, including ladles, small grills, pots and pans, mortars, teapots and chopsticks.
Getting there: The market is in the Tsukiji district of Tokyo's Chuo ward, within walking distance of the Ginza shopping district.
Nearest subway stations: Tsukiji on the Hibiya line; Tsukijishijo on the Toei Oedo line. Both bring you within a block of the market's main entrance.
