Tsukiji ("S'keejee") Fish Market

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Originally uploaded by me-spirit.

We are a fish lovin' family (we are an island people, after all). As Greg fondly recalled of Mom, she can turn a Jacques Costeau documentary into a food show. As a school of shimmery sardines swim across the TV screen, she'd remark, "Mmmmmmmm, sardinas!"

No doubt, we were like kids visiting Disneyland. We were just amazed at how vast the Tsukiji Market was, how huge the tuna were and how many varieties of sealife -fresh and dried- were being offered. Men single-handedly loading 60 kilo (132 lb) flash frozen tuna onto carts or flinging them across the floor caught our attention.

Then we had to get the hell out of the way.


It looks calm, but the guys with the wooden carts and those with motorized carts scoot around super fast. Not one collision, although one salty worker growled at us, "Get out of my way!", then offered up a smile for the baka-gaijin (dumb foreigners, us!) with cameras.

We made our way through the wholesale market area and at 6:30am, we already missed the fish auction. The market's daily schedule charged on without us. We lost Tatay in the stalls, when he had the great idea of stuffing a suitcase full of packaged dried fish. I'd have to consider Fumiko-san an accomplice for translating the negotiations. He left (reluctantly) a happy man. He married his son off the day before and then he woke up and went to a Seafood Lover's Heaven.

I am waiting for a video game version for the Tsukiji market. The goal? Getting up before the crack of dawn to make the 5am subway and then find your way out of the subway and to the market. Not daunted? Avoid being mowed over by tuna-laden wooden carts and motorized carts as well as not being the cause of a crash. Another obstacle, if you select the "Filipino player": pry your drooling father away from the dried fish. Finally make it to the fish auction and win a bid on the best tuna!

We really enjoyed ourselves here and the joke that morning was that this was the highlight of our trip.