We weren’t planning on heading to the tuna auction, so we woke up late (7:30) and headed over to the market for some breakfast sushi. The most popular sushi places have a 2-3+ hour wait, so we headed to one on the same block that was more in the 15 minute range. We had a delicious omakase breakfast including sea urchin, fatty tuna and enough others to (mostly) fill us up.
Afterwards we wandered around the market checking out the various goods there. We had hoped to see the wholesale market too – the one famous for its fresh fish, but we only skirted the edges of it rather than be run over by the dozens of carts. Outside in the public market, one place was cooking scallops and serving them there, which were delicious. Another was shucking some of the hugest oysters I’ve ever tried and serving them raw. We’re talking 3 bite oysters here.
Other than that there were restaurants for most Japanese cuisine. Unlike Ueno Park, there wasn’t street food but instead small counter restaurants. After seeing a number of markets in Kyoto, this wasn’t as amazing at it probably would’ve been had it been the first. There was more focus on seafood, of course, but one can only eat so much.
We spent most of our time on the outer market. With the research I did, we weren’t able to figure out how to make it into the inner market. It truly is a maze there.
We traveled back to Tokyo a few years later and decided to book a Tsukiji Fish Market Tour that time. If you’re going to see Tsukiji I’d recommend a guide. You’re going to get a lot of dirty looks from the vendors who are annoyed at the tourists. At least if you have a guide with you they’ll keep you from being too annoying.
That evening we had plans to do something fun – see a live show! We’d seen Robot Restaurant on Anthony Bourdain and thought it looked just campy enough to be fun.
