My Travels: Day 2 : 17 Oct

ALWHI (As Luck Would Have IT, and our Japan trips have always been very lucky), I was still on US time. So I got up at 2am (without an alarm) and went to try my luck at the Tuna Auction. For my loyal readers who remember, I tried at 4am and 3am last year. Turns out, when I reached the gate at 2.30am, I was about the 70th+ person in line. I had already missed the first group of 60, and was in the 2nd group. I had prepared for a cold stand-in-line, turns out they let you wait in a little hall that was temperature controlled. The room is split in half (for the 2 groups), and the space is just enough for 120 people to sit comfortably within an inch of each other (there was no gap). I sat down, and settled in for the 4 hour wait.

At about 4.30am, one of the actual Tuna wholesalers came by to give us an informative lesson on what happens in the market, the auction and how he chooses Tuna. It was extremely interesting and educational experience. The guy spoke perfect English without an accent, but I can't help but wonder if he was specially trained on what to say. There were some difficult questions that were asked from the crowd (I don't understand why tree-hugging vegan hippies want to see the tuna auction, then complain about eating meat/fish, overfishing...etc etc etc) about overfishing and japanese whalehunting, but the guy was brilliant in side-stepping them. He spoke for about 45mins, before heading off to the auction area to inspect the tuna.

6.15 could not come quickly enough. My legs were numb (from sitting cross-legged on the floor), my back was numb and my knees really hurt. At 6.05, we were ushered from the hall to the auction area. Tourists are only allowed to see the frozen auction. (There are 2, fresh and frozen). From what I had learnt, frozen tuna could have been caught up to a year ago. They are caught on the larger fishing trawlers, flash frozen, and only brought back to market when the ship is full, which can take up to a year. Fresh tuna is usually caught on smaller boats from around the region, chilled and brought to market within a week or so.

So I got in, got to see an auction, got to take pictures. Bucket List item Check!

The Tuna Dealer teaching the waiting crowd the hand signals for the offers

6am. Tsukiji Market

Some of the wholesalers, looking over the fish.

These guys are betting hundreds of thousands of yen on their experience to find the best fish. And all they have to go on is that little section of the tail.