Tsukiji Market
April 20th, 2008Visited 204 times, 4 so far today
As soon as I found out that Tsukiji market was a very famous fish market in Japan, I dreamt of visiting it. For over 30 years, mom and dad had a fishing business and we would sell what the boats caught in the biggest fish market in the whole Philippines which was the Navotas Fish Market. Tsukiji was the Japanese version of the Navotas market. I was also from Navotas.
The minute Ate Cynthia told me that we were going to Japan, I asked her if we were going to the fish market. She said that will try our best to go. When we got the itinerary, it was clearly stated that our tour organizer can not bring us to Tsukiji due to it being a dangerous area and it will disturb the fish seller. I got depressed that we couldn’t go but as soon as we got to Tokyo, my Tita Charito said that we can go and it will not be a problem. We just have to wake up early. She has been there and it was easy, tons of restaurants around to eat. Hehehe.
We planned to go on a Sunday but it would be closed so we had to go Saturday morning. We were there before 6am. Tita Charito, Ate Cynthia, JL and I took a cab worth 2500 yen which is around 25 dollars. That’s a 20 minute ride, didn’t express any thought on how expensive it was…ok lang…..got there and saw the whole auction process. There was an area just for tourist where photos are allowed but no flashes turned on. You see this guy on a higher platform shouting, maybe it was a price and people were also shouting if they were buying it or not. You see small slices near the tail of the tuna where they check the quality of the fish. After this, you see a trolley bring all the fishes out then they are boxed with the tuna slice attached on top of the box. Isn’t that organized?
We saw a store that got one of the tunas and since it was as hard as a rock, they used a mechanical saw to do this. Then we went around the market to look at all the live and dead seafoods…..plenty and it was really a lot, the whole market was as big as a football field, two hours was not enough to go around.
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April 20th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Wow, sarap pumunta!
April 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I am glad you made it to the market. This place is world famous for Japanese who are sticklers for freshness. It is amazing how clean they keep the place. A far cry from our local fish markets. Big difference is that their fish is blast frozen compared how most of our fishing vessels just pack them in ice. This does not ensure freshness.
Any, blue tuna sightings while you were there. I heard it is such a rare find that it is special encased as soon as one is caught. An occasion for celebration for how much money they fetch.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
If I ever go to Japan this is also one of my dream stops!
Thanks for sharing this with us, chef!