it’s always been my dream to go to Tsukiji Market in tokyo. it happens to be the biggest and busiest fish market in the world. getting there is one thing, getting in is another. they limit only 2 groups of 60 people per day. the first group at 5:30am and the second at 5:50am. i got there at 4:15am this morning and just made it in the door. yeah, the door closed and that was it! 120 and that’s it! seen some disappointed tourists from all of the world getting turned away.
if i were 5 minutes later, i would have been disappointed too. lucky i have jet lag so i’m up at 3am every morning. haha.
tourists everywhere and sitting in this small waiting room is 120 of the lucky ones. i had to wait there for 1 hour 30 minutes before i got to finally get into the maguro auction!
most of tokyo is sleeping but not tsukiji market. people working hard everywhere!
then i saw my first big tuna! oh boy would i like to spear one of those things. i was so excited that i almost pissed in my pants. it was so exciting!
then the auction started and although i understand a lot of japanese, i couldn’t understand one word they said.
millions of dollars in transactions every day here at Tsukiji.
you go, you bid, you win, and you take it home. simple.
this is only 1/15th of the total market. it was huge!!!
these tunas go for big money. then from there, they get cut up, packaged, and sent all over the world. i seen the biggest ones sold that were caught in katsura, chiba.
after this, i went to the sushi restaurant next door and had my first ever sashimi donbori at 6:30am in the morning. i wanted to drink a beer too but didn’t.
some guys were there at 12 midnight waiting for their chance to get in. if you go, i would advise to get there by 4am. this historic market is going to close in 2016 and a huge part of japanese history will be gone forever. don’t miss it.
many more photos coming tomorrow. i gotta get to the airport and fly back to hawaii. have great memories on this wonderful trip in japan and wish i could stay here longer. but time to get back to work, surf, dive, yoga, and friends. see you all back home!
