Early to bed, early to rise… and my jet lag made sure of that.
My first morning in Tokyo I bounced out of bed, unable to sleep, at 4 am. I quickly showered and dressed then headed downstairs to catch a cab to the famous Tsukiji Central Fish Market. The Tsukiji Central Fish Market is the largest fish market in the world, and a recommended sight in Tokyo by every book, website, and person I checked with. The auction officially starts at 5:30 am and it can draw huge crowds, especially on the weekends. My lonely planet review offered the detail “About 2246 tonnes of fish, worth over 1.8 billion yen (US $15.5 Million), are sold here daily”. Thats alot of sushi.
I thought I was getting a good jump on the day but from the look on the concierge’s face it was too good of a jump as she politely suggested I find a cup of coffee to bide my time before taking a taxi. Maybe there is nothing going on at the Fish Market at 4:30 am so I took her advice and wandered the quiet, very quiet, streets of Tokyo to find an early morning beverage. Outside of a few salarymen heading in early there are actually times that Tokyo is all but motionless. 
It was kind of peaceful considering the buzz I had witnessed just the night before. It only takes a few blocks to find a convenience mart and pick up some oj and then return to the Hyatt a short time later for my cab.
If you are asking why I didn’t use Tokyo’s awesome subway lines; it was just too darn early for the trains to be running.
My cab whisked me over to the fish market and soon I emerged from the cab in the middle of a busy frenzy of men buzzing around on buzzing carts. It was still just around dawn on an overcast morning and the grey illumination showed me stacks and stacks of styrofoam boxes, crates, tanks, and trucks on a wet stone street. My taxi driver pointed the direction of more activity and some larger trucks and then zipped away as a truck behind him began honking.
I saw no other tourists and it may very well be that I was seeing a little bit of the pre show. As I walked in the direction i had been pointed I had to wait and watch at every step for the activity of these funky little motorized carts going both directions. They had a round tank like engine in the back and sat up a little high and they were moving fast.
Continuing past a area with many parked trucks I entered the main tents of the Market. Here I found hundreds and hundreds of booths and alleys with an array of every type of fish being set up. My arrival was right in the middle of set up and while I wandered around merchants were laying out their items and setting up their displays. And they were doing it fast. Now the carts were buzzing along in tight alleys, men and women in jeans and tee shirts smoked cigarettes and laughed with their colleagues as they worked. A few offered kind smiles or waved but most were so busy, and probably either used to or annoyed by the tourist crowd, that they just kept working at a quick pace. Some of the booths were larger, well lit and had big display counters. Some had tanks with eels or fish squirming back and forth probably recognizing their fate and looking for an escape. And some were dark alleys where men with huge machete style blades or big electric saws waited for the next fish to cut up.
It was amazing. Many fish I recognized and many I did not. Sometimes the display booth had many different varieties in piles of fish where you could see them still moving, wriggling from being only recently taken from the sea. These guys were the supermarket booths that had many things to choose from. Others might be a specialty store where there was just alot of one thing. One booth had every type of mollusk and clam under the sun. bins of fleshy white squid or a mountain of bright red shrimp and prawns. 
My favorite was a stand with nothing but octopus of all sizes and a very stoic man standing there waiting for his customers. A warning sign asks the tourists not to touch or you have bought the Octopus and to respect the ways of Japan while in Japan. Sounds like a few of the tourists haven’t been so well behaved.
I weaved my way through the booths for I don’t know how long, amazed at every turn until I noticed some activity in the back in a large open shed like area. I headed that way and heard loud rapid speaking and the sound of a crowd responding. This was the auction. I walked right into the center of the Tuna auction surrounded by the huge and glistening bodies of some monsterous fish. If you have ever seen a Tuna body it is one big fish. And surrounding the fish were various men going about their tasks of the day. There were main auctioneers who would ring a bell to signify the start of an auction and the various buyers would be gathered in a circle around him. Just like the stock market, the auctioneer would start rapidly speaking and shouting out higher and higher prices (that I couldn’t understand) as the buyers around him raised hands for their bids. The energy of the event was high and the momentum was fast. While the auctioneer was yelling out the bid prices buyers or their assistants were checking on the fish for quality. Each fish had a slice in the tail to expose a flap where the buyers bent or knelt down and checked the lines of fat. Perhaps to determine how how much O’toro versus toro they would be able to recover as O’toro goes for as much as 5 times the amount (Fatty tuna sushi sells for much more). These inspectors carried flashlights and were studying each of the fish in turn.
As the auction progressed and wrapped up and the fish were purchased the runners would tag each of the fish and a man with long paintbrush would mark the body of the fish with bright red paint. They didn’t seem to be doing an auction fish by fish, but more row by row with 8 fish going at a time in almost mini lots. And there were multiple auctions going on at the same time creating a moving flow of activity as buyers flocked from one crowd to the next. In the midst of it all men with pull carts and huge hooks were running through grabbing the sold fish and then racing them off to their destination. Most of these fish were huge and them men would swing all their weight to rock these weighty monsters up and onto their cart.
I wandered in and clicked more than a few photos before spotting a huge sign saying that I wasn’t supposed to be there. I am sure this is not only to help keep their business from being slowed down but also to make sure I don’t get myself squashed by some swinging fish or rolling cart. Fortunately this was the earliest auction and no other tourists had arrived so my presence was barely noticed and I began looking for a proper roost to take in the views. The tuna auction was wrapping up and most of the activity was done by the delivery carts who sped away through the alleys of the market with their cargo. At this point a very nice man in bibbed overalls came over to me and began pointing and saying “Salmon”. Turning I noticed a sign for visitor passage (A-ha) and off I headed.
The folks at the fish market were wise and had created an alley between two of the large warehouse style areas for the tourists to gather and click away with their cameras. While I was expecting a big crowd, there were probably only about 20 or 30 folks there but from every spot on the globe. Surrounding us on both sides were rows and rows of Salmon carcasses. These were clearly frozen and must have just been unloaded from their icy cargo holds. It had a surreal effect of creating a lingering mist across the floor of the auction hall as the rows of frosted fish gave off their chill. This auction was more of the same although it seemed to be bigger. Maybe Salmon is a bigger market. Either way it was fun to watch this from start to finish and I followed the visitor passage from one warehouse to another and spotted a few other fish along the way. The most interesting part was watching the different styles of buyers and the auction’s energy. Some were older, more traditional men who looked very sage like as they conducted business while others ran around in corporate jackets and looked like they represented the big boys of business.
After watching this auction for awhile I decided to head back to the market and see where those deliveries were going. As I headed back the carts of recently purchased fish flew by me everywhere. I soon found that the booths I had recently seen busy setting up were now pulsing with the activity of selling. In some areas I saw the same fish bodies recently bid on being divided for sale to their various customers. In France you see folks picking up their morning bread at the bakery, here they are picking up their morning fish. Some bought over the counter and kind little ladies and men walked around with individual purchases. Others placed orders at little booths within the booths, like mini cashiers which were almost always manned by ladies. My guess is these were the restaurteurs placing larger orders for the day. And everywhere small, medium, and large styrofoam boxes were being filled with different size fish and sealed for delivery to different locations. I recognized the same packaging I believe I saw at Sushi Sasa once, and imagined that a fish I saw today might just be eaten in Denver tomorrow. Cool.
I again weaved my way (again for a long time, so much to see) through the booths again watching this new activity and then headed to see what else was going on. There was a bustle of cargo heading for the trucks and more mechanical carts running to and fro as I cleared the both area. There were also a number of ice machines I had missed notice of on my way in. These guys had the wonderful job of sitting there and reading the paper or smoking until someone ran up with a bin. Then they flew into action grabbing a block of ice and putting it into this very, very, very old and scary looking machine that blew out chunks of ice from a metal chute. Then the ice fetcher shot off to restock someone and the ice make returned to his relaxed post.
By this time it was almost 7 am and my stomach was growling. Watching all this fish was making me hungry and another tip I had heard was there may be no fresher sushi in the world than the small sushi stands surrounding the Tsukiji market. Sure enough in the first outer ring of booths I found a scattering of small sushi bars and other vendors. Looking in from door to door I tried to pick the right one. The first had no customers, the second looked too touristy, but the third was perfect. It was a tiny sushi bar with maybe 10 seats and the wall was filled with photos, writings in Japanese, and was, simply put, cozy.
it was the perfect fit and the gentleman behind the counter made sure I was welcome. He recommended the Sashimi bowl and I have to say it was the absolute best bowl of Miso I have ever had.
Just outside the market other fish were headed for trucks.
Aw heck, this is taking a long time to write and I need to get out and keep exploring so here is a quick link to a Flickr dump of the photos from the first couple sights. Enjoy.
Just a cool, cool article about how new buyers are taking on the market, and setting the stage for their future in buying new homes. When I think about it, our interest rates our lower, we have less fear of credit, and we know what we want. Plus, after watching the stock market tank a couple times, the technology stock boom and bust, and the crazy antics of enron and others I personally prefer to place my bets in my real estate over the stock market. This story is about New York, but it could just as easily be Denver… except we aren’t as pricey.
What a fun ride we are on. First, the number of people in our country and the world are increasing every day. Second, folks are realizing that the city is where they want to be and are relocating to downtowns across the country. And last, it’s just fun to be in the heart of everything.
This story talks about how the current generation is looking at real estate, their homes, and their future. It’s a story I believe in as well. [Read more →]
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