Amanda W.
Yelp
Day 6: Tsukiji, Tokyo: Any and all of the seafood you could dream of!
Before I get into my experience here are some tips:
1. Bring cash
some of the outdoor shops take cards but there is a large portion who only accept cash/yen.
2. Try not to walk while eating.
It does happen and you won't get scolded, but in this very active area with few garbage cans, it's best to stand near the shop and eat.
3. (This goes with tip #2) Return your trash to the vendor you purchased food from!
This might sound very strange, but the vendors expect it honestly. Since there are virtually no public trashes in the area, the vendors happily take the trash back when you return it.
4. Look out for inflated pricing!
This mainly consists for sushi, wagyu, and uni. Once you get deeper into the outdoor market, the streets are insanely saturated with shops selling these items. Some offering 3 pieces of sushi for 3000yen (pretty pricy), while a vendor down the block may offer 5 pieces for 2500yen. My suggestion - purchase at least one order of sushi from the indoor market - it's the best price you'll find! My purchase of 5 nigiri and 2 rolled pieces was 1500yen indoors.
5. Save your "common" souvenir shopping for the Fish Market when visiting Tokyo.
When I say common I mean things like chopsticks, paper fans, key chains, and other trinkets. My goal was to collect chopsticks on this trip and prices were (sorry) absurd in other neighborhoods! Anywhere from 1400-3500 yen for chopsticks in places like Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ameyoko. I found similar styles and some even hand painted at the fish market for 400-800 yen. (If you plan to visit cities outside of Tokyo you can probably disregard this advice)
6. (Personal Opinion) I highly recommend this area to purchase any kind of dish-ware purchases.
I bought 3 really nice sushi and Japanese plates here - each also under 1000yen. In my eyes it was a fantastic deal compared to other areas.
NOW ON TO THE EXPERIENCE!
We arrived at roughly 9:30am, as I heard it was best to get there in the earlier morning (we were actually a half hour later than planned) and the streets were pretty baron of shoppers at the time. It didn't become extremely crowded until about 10:00-10:30am.
Our first stop was the indoor market, unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside, which is a bummer because I really enjoyed this portion of our visit! It was really cool to see all of the fresh catches of the day - it was a true market for large fish orders for at home cooking. Some of the vendors did offer ready-to-eat portions which I happily took advantage of; purchasing grilled eel skewers and tuna nigiri.
There are 3 levels to the indoor market. First are the vendors, and the third is a food court style dinning. We also stumbled upon a sake flight bar which was a lot of fun! We got to sample 3 sakes and chose to add on two "upgrade" options as well - a 20 year aged sake and an unfiltered sake (I forget what they call it) so cool!!
This entire neighborhood is mainly a fish market, roughly 6-8 blocks and it is insanely fun if you are a fish/seafood fan like myself. I tried quite a bit including different levels of tuna sushi, steamed stuffed scallops, more eel or unagi, as well as some none fish items like pork bao, and fresh cantaloupe melon. Also, if you're dying to try sea urchin - this is your spot! I personally couldn't just due to dietary restrictions but it was very readily available and would be a cool experience. The streets get extremely crowded, so be prepared to weave your way around to all of the different food offerings.
Overall this was one of my favorite experiences and would HIGHLY recommend checking it out!