Tsukiji Fish Markets - Early Morning
Tsukiji Fish Markets - Early Morning, originally uploaded by snapperwolf*.
515am, Shinjuku station. We find ourselves in the fluroscent lit platform looking for the connecting train to Tsukiji befriending some Canadians on the train platform clearly also on the way to the fish markets. Once at Tsukiji, we are swallowed into a flow of tourists swarming to the tuna auctions.
The fish market is abuzz with activity, one has to be careful not to be run over by the motorised trucks zipping past. The fish mongers are tidy with their white gumboots and some with bandanas wrapped around their heads. The famed tuna auction was calm only broken by tourists snapping cameras and whispering, ignored by the intent buyers. The cool large corpses of tuna lay on the concrete floors waiting to be delivered to restaurants all over Japan. Drivers stood around outside joking and smoking cigarettes waiting to pick up their stash.Once the auctions were over, we wandered around the markets taking in the colorful smorgasbord of seafood. Squids, scallops, eel, prawns and things we didn’t even know existed in the ocean. Each stall often had a woman behind a booth smoking manning a telephone presumably co-ordinating supplies with their purchasers.The pre-dawn excursion was topped off by a visit to a Tetsuya recommended sushi joint. Each mouthful tasted of brine and melted away softly on your tongue. Washed down with a bowl of clam miso soup and a warming cup of green tea. A Tokyo experience to savour.
The locals must think all the tourist interest is very odd.
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