One of the must-sees on our list for Tokyo was going to the Tsukiji fish
auction. All of the restaurants and stores come here bright and early
to bid on fish that's brought in fresh every day.
By the time we'd finished breakfast and
wandered around the market in that area, we felt like we'd had a pretty
full day by 9:00AM and headed back to the hotel. :P
The
bidding starts at 5:15, and they only let 120 tourists/visitors to
watch. Sooo, we woke up at 2:30AM to ensure that we could be one of
those 120. We made it to the gate entrance before 4AM, and the waiting
room was mostly full already!
Finally at 5:45 it was our turn to go in. The
auction involved a lot of bell ringing, a melodic sing-songy Japanese
equivalent of our "I hear 300, can I get a 400", stabbing giant
frozen tuna with a stick to move them around (as well as using fork
lifts for the bigger fish), and fish connoisseurs (restaurant owners
etc), inspecting the fish by looking at a cut portion of it, shining
light through it with a flashlight, and then hitting it with a giant
stick(? (see picture of guy bent over the giant tuna). It was pretty fun to watch.
After the auction we went to a nearby sushi restaurant for a
"chefs choice" breakfast (sushi for breakfast - why not?). An assortment of rolls and nigiri sushi (including eel
and sea urchin roe!) was prepared right in front of us. Delicious!
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