The second morning in Tokyo I got up at the crazy hour of 2:45 to try and get tickets to the Tsukiji Fish Market, specifically to see the tuna auction. I was in a taxi by 3:00 a.m. amazed at the amount of traffic in Tokyo at this ungodly hour!
When I arrived at the office at 3:45 there was already a line but I was lucky to be in the first group to get tickets. Only 120 people are admitted each morning. The lucky few are divided into two groups wearing either stylish yellow or blue safety vests; one group is allowed in the auction area at 5:25 and the other at 5:50. For two hours you sit on the floor and wait while listening over and over to all the safety rules. I met some nice people from California and two couples from Barcelona! I recognized their accents and knew they were Catalans. The fish market is not technically a tourist attraction but a working auction. I have heard that if you break one of the rules you are escorted out. I was careful to do just what they asked us to do. Well, I did break one rule, I stopped to take pictures while walking to the auction. What self respecting tourist could resist! Not one of the 60 in my group that I could see!
At exactly 5:25 a.m. we went into the actual auction area and were met with the sight of hundreds of huge frozen tuna laid out on pallets being carefully examined by the prospective purchasers.
I would have no idea how to pick the best tuna but obviously these fellows do! They are looking for fat content. The prized bluefins have the highest fat content and that is why they fetch the highest prices.
I wonder what one sees up close and personal to a slice of raw tuna!
Each tuna is carefully painted with an auction number, seller information, weight and the location where it was caught.
Although I couldn't understand the prices being yelled I did get the idea when something was 'SOLD'. Actually the bidders make their bids with hand gestures. They cautioned us not to raise our hands while the auction was going on. Don't want to accidentally buy a 500 pound frozen tuna! The average price is about $100 a kilogram or 2.2 pounds. In January a rare bluefin tuna went for $1.76 million dollars or $3599 a pound! Wow, that is some expensive sashimi!
At various times the market has been closed to tourists because it is just not safe. Chief dangers come from these little electric carts that silently zip around at breakneck speeds. I tried really hard not to be run over by one while taking a picture of another. Also notice the mountain of styrofoam boxes. I can't imagine this makes environmentalist too happy.
More than 500,000 tons of seafood pass through each year, 20 swimming pools of water goes into the ice that vendors use each day, 42,000 people work at the Tsukiji market and the overall market is 32 football fields in size! Impressive!
In memory of all those tuna I decided this was an appropriate lunch and it was a lot cheaper than $100 a kilo. Purchased at Target not Tsukiji!
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