April 6

On Tuesday we woke up early to witness the Tsukiji wholesale fish market. Most of the fish served nationwide in Japan comes through Tsukiji. Supposedly the most exciting part of the fish market is the tuna auction, which takes place at about 5am. Unfortunately, visitors are no longer allowed, as it was interfering with the tuna auction process. What we witnessed was still pretty exciting though:

... or perhaps treacherous is a better word. As would be expected from the center of fish distribution for all of Japan, Tsukiji is a busy place. So busy, in fact that the painted lines indicating traffic lanes, stop limit lines, etc are largely ignored, as many different kinds of vehicles all try to get their fish and get out of there as quickly as possible. In the video, you can see, delivery trucks, little motorized vehicles with big steering columns (these have amazing turn radii, which is pretty vital), bicycles, and even rickshaws. The visitors guide to Tsukiji essentially states: "Pay attention to what's going on around you, or else you'll die, and we can't be held responsible." We didn't really know where to go, so we followed a French tour group into the depths of the mid-level wholesale market (the large wholesaling is not open to the public). Here are some pics and a video:

Afterward, we went to get sushi at the shops right outside the fish market. These are supposed to be pretty much the freshest fish/sushi you can get... though this was made a bit less appetizing by the fact that we had just spent the morning looking at dead fish (and blood... so much blood...). We went to a sushi boat restaurant, and ate a few different types of fish, but of course tuna was the winner. And I tried to pretend I didn't see when the whale sushi went around...

Sushi consumed, we took off for Nikko.