Fishy Frolic through the Tsukiji Fish Market

It was highly recommended by my former boss, Hiroko Brown, a Japanese native, to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the famous fish market in Tokyo where there is an auction of each daily fresh catch starting at 4am. It is advised to go at 3am to wait in line if you’re trying to see the auction take place. We decided to go around 9am/10am when the auction was over and the fish cutting was still going on before the market shops opened up.

 

We found that it was still quite busy when we arrived at the shops near the actual Tsukiji fish market. After meeting the sweetest soul, Vivi, at our Airbnb hostel, the NKK House, we all made a pact to wake up early and tour the market together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we arrived, we snapped many photos of the alleyways fluid in motion of hungry people and bumbling tourists. We spotted a few store fronts that provided samples of marinated oysters, fish, dried squid, tea; even smoked peanuts in which our perky appetites happily indulged on. We saw exquisite scallops and clams being grilled for people marching in a line past busy stalls. There was a stand we noticed selling something square and yellow on a stick for 100yen. “Ice cream?” we thought. We decided to buy one and taste what it was.

 

 

 

Tamago! I exclaimed after taking the first bite. Tamago in Japanese means egg, but it’s usually served as a sweet egg omelette. It is a popular street food that is also found in sushi restaurants. What makes tamago unique is that it’s usually made with dash stock, marin (a rice wine with lower alcohol content used for cooking), sugar and soy sauce. It’s by far the sweetest cooked egg creation I’ve ever tasted. If you are also a fan of slightly wet and fluffy eggs, then definitely be sure to try tamago.

 

 

 

After staggering through the busy store fronts, we asked where the fish warehouse was so we could see where all the fresh seafood was being processed. On our way to the warehouse, we were careful to look both ways and cross the parking areas since there’s a lot of trucks and moving vehicles going to and from the warehouse to the market place in order to distribute the fish. We crossed into the actual warehouse facility and took as many pictures as we could. There were open stalls separated by plastic sheets and counters where butchers were slicing up the large fish to sell in the open crates. Tuna that looked as though it would be 50lbs heavy if you tried to lift it and almost half the size of me were being cut into size able amounts for buyers. The prices for raw seafood being displayed was not too bad, considering how expensive ordinary seafood is that’s sold in stores. One thing that was obvious is how full of tourists it was and how you almost felt as though you were in the way. This shouldn’t deter you from going to one of the largest fish warehouses in the world, but it is good to be mindful of where you walk and what you can and can’t take pictures of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we decided to head to Odaiba, the technological island that houses museums and statues in Tokyo. It’s extremely touristy, but anyone will advise you to check it our especially at night time for the light show. Here are the photos of our Odaiba adventure we took:

 

 

 

This post is dedicated to Vivi, our new friend we met in Tokyo. Thank you so much for letting us share a great day with you and teaching us some Bahasa/Indonesian! It was great meeting another youngest sibling and a female who was traveling solo for the first time. We hope our paths cross with yours in the future, and when they do you will definitely be receiving a nice gift since we’re so thankful for the shirts you gave us from Bali 🙂 thanks, Vivi, you’re the best!