Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo

Today I woke up at 4:30 am to go to the Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market in Tokyo. I shop in the wholesale markets in downtown LA fairly often, so I was expecting that this would be somewhat familiar.

Though generically similar, this was a whole different animal. (A different Sea Monster, to be more specific.) Giant squid, sea anemones, urchins, and more varieties of clams and scallops than I knew existed. Thousands of varieties of finfish and shellfish arrayed on slabs and in Styrofoam holding tanks, the hall nearly as big as an American football field.

I thought I would be able find Tsukiji by smell from the subway, but I was wrong. I had forgotten the Japanese fetish for cleanliness. Literally thousands of tons of fish move through this place daily, yet it smelled clean and fresh, oceanic in the way that a perfect oyster tastes. Instead I just followed the folks in rubber boots, and that instinct took me directly to the market. I didn't take a lot of photos of the fish themselves, because to photograph them felt like pornography. The array was so sensual it forbade the camera's crude exploitation.

What I was most unprepared for was the frenzy of the marketplace. This place is, quite simply, the agora that the term agoraphobia could have been coined for. A cacophony of whistles shrill as carts and wheelbarrows of fish are sprinted headlong from the auctions to the waiting restaurant supply trucks. The cult of freshness reaches its apogee here. In the main crossroads of the delivery area a traffic cop does a balletic pantomime, punctuated by shrill whistles, conducting the madness with meditative precision.

As a visitor, you have to remain constantly alert to avoid being run over. A single moment's inattention could prove fatal. In the midst of the maelstrom, the intense politeness of the Japanese belies the frenzy. Speedy bows and quick nods are doled out as you dance around the onslaught.

If you ever visit Tokyo, this is an experience not to be missed. (That and the bonus of unbelievably fresh breakfast sushi, only minutes removed from the fleet.)

Read more about the market in Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World.