On my 2nd day in Tokyo, I woke up at 2AM (basically didn’t sleep) and walked to the Tsukiji Market from my AirBnB. I booked a room nearby because the trains and buses don’t operate at those hours and taxis are difficult to track down. It took me a little over 30 minutes to get there and by time I arrived, the waiting room was almost full.
There are usually 2 different tour times: 4:45AM to 5:25AM and 5:50AM to 6:10AM. The day we arrived they were only going to have one tour and we barely made the cutoff. After arriving shortly before 3AM, we had to wait until 5:50 for our tour of the inner market began. In all honesty, it probably isn’t worth the wait or effort for most people. I, however, am a sucker for things like this.
After taking a peek into the life of an auctioneer, we took a quick walk around the outer parts of the market and found a small sushi restaurant without any lines. There is one very popular restaurant in the market and if you’re not there before 6, you’ll probably end up waiting for 3 hours. We opted to go to the one next door and got seated in less than 20 minutes. The fish quality is as fresh as you can imagine (since they are located within the fish market).
There are lots and lots of talk about relocating or even closing down the auction to outsiders.. so I’m very glad to have been able to check it out before any changes happen.
Tsukiji Market
5 Chome-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Sushi Dokoro Yamazaki 寿司処 やまざき
Japan, 〒135-0061 Tokyo, Koto City, Toyosu, 6 Chome−6−1 管理施設 棟3階