When we visited Tokyo, we obviously went to see many traditional shrines and temples, walked along busy streets illuminated by countless billboards and ate a lot of food. But one of the most unique and peculiar things we visited was the Tsukiji Fish Market.
This fish market is world-famous because of the tuna auctions that used to take place in the morning, and saw hundreds of people gathering for them. While we were very curious to experience this – especially since it closed a few months later and was relocated in another part of the city – it also meant waking up very early in other to be there around 7 am. Our jet-lagged minds couldn’t bring themselves to do this, so we decided that we would just walk around the actual fish market instead.
The Tsukiji fish market was the largest fish market in the world, and while a fish market doesn’t sound so interesting – unless fish is your passion – we were still curious to see why it was so famous and why so many tourists decided to visit it each day.
As with everything in Tokyo, it did not disappoint. Of course, if you hate fish in general you won’t find it very appealing, but there are plenty of things to see and discover there. Even though we didn’t want to buy fresh fish or anything like that, there were plenty of food stands that sold fish or sea-food based dishes, like fried octopus or even delicious sashimi that you could eat on the spot.
Many of the food stands or fish shops were also nicely decorated and they all had such a huge variety of things, from fresh fish and freshly prepared dishes to dried seafood crackers. It was also possible to eat things on the go and buy some snacks to nibble on while roaming around – and the choice was not only limited to fish!
Today, the Tsukiji fish market as it was before has closed but the “outer market”, which is basically the part that we have seen, is still pretty much there. Even though it might not be one of the most beautiful places of Tokyo, I would however still recommend visiting it, mostly for the unique and unusual experience!
