The Fish Market

So my friend calls me and says, "Hey, you wanna come along to see the famous Tsukiji Fish Market...?"
"Sure!" I said
"...At 5 in the morning...?"
"Ahhh, ok."
"...Before work tomorrow?"
"Absolutely NOT!"

Needless to say, I went anyway.

It's hard to explain the market only because there's so much activity happening all at once. First of all, as you walk towards the market it doesn't look like a place where a lady should be caught walking alone. But you turn the corner and all of a sudden it's brimming with stalls, bustling business men, merchants hauling goods by cart or machine and of course live and dead sea life.

We sort of shuffled our way through the market, trying to stay out of the way and avoid getting run over by the men going about their usual business.

I saw live squid for the first time trying to escape from their bucket prison. I got splashed by some lovely fish juice as they got gutted alive. I saw octopus, crab, shrimp, huge muscles, clams. Regardless of whether it moves or not, if it's in the sea it will be eaten.

We made our way to the auction area where these giant pieces of tuna were being bid on. I have no idea what they were saying but that didn't reduce my excitement one bit. I was amazed by the sheer number of tuna being showcased in the open warehouse. Tuna for days and days. click here

Finally, we ended the tour at a popular sushi shop. Because it was a weekday we didn't have any trouble getting seated. However, on the weekends I'm told people line up at 5am and wait for hours just to get the fresh sushi breakfast.

Did I eat it? You better believe I ate it. Almost everything... they're just some things I won't do. ;-)

So although I had to suffer through the rest of the day on my lack of sleep, my morning at the fish market was Hmmm Mmm Good!