Food

Tsukiji Fish Market: Experience Japan's Busiest Seafood Hub

The perfect spot for Japanese cuisine, especially seafood, is Tsukiji Fish Market. Until 2022 Tsukiji Fish Market had an inner market and an outer market. The inner market gone to live in another area called Toyosu and the outer market stayed because it is. Tsukiji is among the biggest in Japan, situated in central Tokyo, about 400 shops selling utensils and fresh food including giant oysters. Originally, the marketplace opened to focus on professionals but it's now open to everyone. The marketplace established fact and is probably the most attractive and popular places to visit in Tokyo.

Food You Can Find At Tsukiji Fish Market

Tsukiji Fish Market accustomed to focus on wholesalers but has opened towards the public so tourists can try all of the different foods. Because there are around 400 shops, it doesn't matter if a tourist doesn't fancy seafood, there are also plenty of other street food dishes they are able to try that do not include seafood.

Nonseafood options

Although this is called a fish market and the Japanese love their fresh seafood, there are also other very tasty street food options available that are not fish; a few of these include:

  • Tamago-yaki are Japanese rolled omelets and are commonplace in Japanese home cooking.
  • Shumai are pork dumplings wrapped in wonton wrappers.

Seafood options

The Japanese love seafood and eat a lot of it there will be many seafood options to select from when in the fish market some of the popular ones include:

  • Corn fish cake skewer is really a fish cake covered in sweet corn. In Japan, there are lots of food stalls specializing in fish cakes but corn fish cakes are the most popular.
  • Giant oysters! There are lots of little stalls full of ice with oysters laying all over.

Things To Do

The market usually opens from around 5:00 in the morning and closes around noon or early afternoon. A good thing to do is to get there early, avoid queues and enjoy an earlier breakfast. There are many coffee houses and sushi restaurants that are perfect for breakfast, with two well-known places to go at the market.

Breakfast

With the marketplace opening so early, it is perfect for breakfast. There's two very popular choices when it comes to eating breakfast in the market. Included in this are:

  • Sushi Dia is among the most widely used restaurants in Japan. But, they also have extremely long lines.
  • Tourists should head across to Daiwa Sushi to prevent the queues. This is extremely popular and stretches over 2 parts with a decent amount of seating, also serving quicker.

Coffee shops

Tourists can also enjoy a tasty hot coffee plus some light snacks in Tsukiji markets because they have many popular coffee houses. Japan use Dark Molasses, that is a sweet sauce made from black sugar, coupled with fresh cream constitutes a delicious taste and is very Japanese. Some popular coffee shops include:

  • Turret Coffee has a chalkboard outside saying, 'Welcome towards the best outrageous coffee shop in Japan', this explains why it is popular. 'Turret' may be the name for mini-trucks that used to travel around close to the Tsukiji Fish Market.
  • Yonemoto coffee shop includes a very relaxing atmosphere with seats at the counter where individuals can have a cup of coffee with a sandwich or perhaps a waitress or.

History

In 1935, Tsukiji market was built-in central Tokyo, before World War II. Eventually it progressed into an enormous centre for seafood, vegetables, and all kinds of processed food. This market was the largest fish market in the world. The fish market was built on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay and also the word Tsukiji translates in English to “”constructed land.” There's two areas of the marketplace.

Inner market

Tuna auctions were held in the inner market and they made it to International headlines in the early 2000s. There was talk of relocating.

  • The inner market had tuna auctions, prepared fish, and served to commercial fish wholesalers and licensed fish butchers.
  • The interior market then relocated in October 2022 to Toyosu market.

Outer market

The outer market stayed in Tsukiji even when the inner market moved, people still visit here and there's still plenty to determine there with blocks of wholesale and stores.

  • Here tourists will see crowded restaurants along narrow lanes.
  • This is when they will also find fresh and processed seafood.

Summer Festival

Every summer in Japan, the people celebrate having a summer festival usually held at a small park or temple. People wear yukata that is a Japanese summer kimono. Young children even wear special clothes and take part in the Japanese drums which will make the experience feel more like a residential area event than just a typical fish market.

When And just what They Do

The festival is held at the same time every year. Everyone always looks forward to it and it's an amazing experience for all to complete.

  • The festival is incorporated in the summer during July-August and is usually held on weekends.
  • There are usually Bon-ordi fireworks, that is a traditional folk dance at many places in Japan. Hearing and seeing these make them feel the summer season.

Festival food

The summer festival is extremely traditional by staying at the marketplace tourists can unwind under the sun and sit with friends and family around the seats around the Japanese drums enjoying drinks and food. Some festival foods include:

  • Takoyaki is small bits of cooked octopus inside balls of Japanese pancake batter.
  • Enjoy soratsuki, which is a delicious sweetened bean paste covered with mochi dough having a strawberry in the centre.

Tsukiji market is an incredible experience. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn history, how you can cut and cook fish, and also to consider using a number of food. And many of all it's a very popular experience and a opportunity to mix and mingle using the culture of Japan.

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