"Tsukiji ni ikimasu" Sushi Breakfast in Tsukiji fish market

The night of Akihabara we met a Canadian guy called Nathan. After a bit of story swapping he says "I went to Tsukiji fish market, it was cool but I missed all the Tuna Auctions so I want to go back"

The next day at 4 in the morning we crawl out of bed (me and Lauren, not me and Nathan) so we can make the early morning Tuna auctions of Tsukiji fish market.

At half 4 we meet Nathan in the lobby of the hostel and jump into a taxi (not even the subway is running at this time in the morning!) and mumble "Tsukiji ni Ikimasu" (We`re going to Tsukiji).

We are soon out of the taxi and among hundreds of little stalls setting up their fishy wares, most are wierd and wonderful verieties I have never seen before. Between each stall is just a tiny thin path that you can just about squeeze past the people coming in the opposite direction and around these salty smelling market stalls runs a road full of little transport vehicles stacked with last nights catch.

But right now this is not where we want to be, you can do this part throughout the day. At this time in the morning we are here for only one thing, the giant tuna and the morning auctions.

So, through all this madness we go, right to the back of the market biuldings to a little door marked "tuna auction viewing gallery" (or somthing like that, It was too early to remember exactly) where we are ushered through by a man in an important looking uniform with a hat (all jobs in Japan come with important looking uniforms, they love uniforms!) to a view of a couple hundred or so giant tuna lined up neatly in rows on the floor.

We are auite lucky to be here, a few months ago the tuna auctions were closed to visitors because of hygene issues. They kept finding people kissing or even riding the tuna for a funny picture and got so sick of it that they simply said "no more!", now it is not possible to get within touching disatnce of the fish as all visitors are roped into a small walkway area between two doors which runs across the centre of the room. the idea being, you get ushered in, have a look, take a picture and then get ushered out at the other end.

Today there werent that many people so everyone got to stay, but we were still fairly packed in, like sardines. haha :/

ahem.

Anyway,
them fish is BIG. These were frozen as well so to move them the people working in the market had big hooks on sticks that they would use to just drag the fish about on the floor.

Among these people are the Tuna specialists, these are the ones who decide how much each tuna is worth and there are a lot of fish so they have to do it quickly!
The quality of a tuna can be told from its tail. A bit like counting rings on a tree trunk, the tail is cut off and the quality graded by what is revealed. They cut out a peice of meat, feel the texture for fat, lean, colour, etc then taste it and the overall size of the fish is measured and then a price is assigned. Each fish takes about a minute I think, then onto the next.
After they are all priced the auctions start (alot of shouting and hand signals) then finish very quickly and thats it! Off you go!

After the Auctions we decide to try the ultra fresh sushi in the bars that thrive from the tourism inside the market. This is about as fresh as it gets! straight out of the nets that morning!

It was very nice, if a little expensive, but it was also about 6 in the morning at this point!
At home I like a light breakfast: toast, cereal, maybe an egg butty at about 9 or 10 or 11 o`clock.
Its 6 in the morning and we`re eating RAW FISH, We didnt finish breakfast but we had a damn good go at it!

After breakfast we had a little mooch about the market, another look at the main market stalls (the little ones) and also saw the fruit and vegetable markets which are not as impressive (a veg is a veg). then head off for another look around Akihabara and shinjuku.