Seeing Where Sushi Comes From: Tsukiji Fish Market

Feb. 26th--This morning was dreary and drizzly, but we still left the house around 7:30 a.m. to go to the world's largest, busiest fish market.

This is a business, but many tourists still come to check the place out.  The action begins at 2 a.m. with the live tuna auction, but they only let 120 people in on a first come, first serve basis.  We didn't want to even attempt to see the auction, but instead hoped to get there around 8 a.m. to see the market in action.

We knew we were close before we even turned the corner because of the awful fish smell.  It smelled much worse outside of the building than inside, however.

The fish market has many different kinds of seafood for sale and anyone can come in and buy whatever they want.  All of the seafood was caught during the night, so it doesn't get any fresher than this!  Tayla's look on her face says it all.  We saw all kinds of funky things from the ocean. 

We saw many fish being gutted and cut up to be sold.  The kids regularly fish with their dad and the older ones know how to kill and gut a fish, so this wasn't new to them. 

Look at the ink in the water in the left tray.  An eel is in the right tray.

Those are Caitlin's shoes, so you can see how big these fish are.

We also saw some large slabs of fresh tuna for sale.  Unfortunately, we got here too late to see the tuna after they were sold and before they were cut up.  Maybe we will have to come back.

Some of the tuna wasn't caught fresh from the night before and were in frozen slabs like this.

They would cut the frozen pieces with a jigsaw. 

 After browsing through all the strange sea animals and live fish, you could wander over to some shops nearby and buy sushi.  'Cause that's exactly what you feel like eating after seeing a bunch of dead fish, guts and blood, right?

We did stand in line for a little while wanting to buy some sushi, but we decided to just go back to the shopping street near our home and buy some sushi there.  We have purchased sushi from there a few times already and it's really fresh and much cheaper than what was for sale at the fish market.

 As a family, we are no strangers to sushi. Living in Japan 20 years ago, Raymond often ate sushi and introduced me to it on a date before we got married.  We've regularly eaten it since.  The kids have grown up eating it--it's one of our favorite things to eat!  It just costs a lot in America, so we don't get to have it as often as we would like.  A few years ago, I learned how to make sushi rolls and make them all the time, but I don't dare make the sushi with the raw fish.  At the little sushi shop on the shopping street, we can get all of this sushi for about $20 USD.  So cheap!!

 The sushi here is so much better than in America, too.  I don't know if it's the freshness factor or what, but we have been spoiled.  Sushi will never be the same once we go back to America.

We have been able to try some sushi that we have never seen in America as well.  The kids have been adventurous and have enjoyed just about all of it.  The roll with the salmon eggs on top is a favorite one that they all fight over.

Nathan tried this one--it looks like squid, but it isn't as "rubbery".  We didn't know what it was, but Nathan didn't care for it.

He ate the rice and gave the "fish" to Christopher.....

Chris thought for sure that Nathan was just being picky--again--and was excited to have an extra piece of sushi.

But, he didn't like it either!  This mystery fish is not our favorite when it comes to sushi.  But, good for them for trying it! 

At Tsukiji Market, we bought  these mochi at a booth and took them home to enjoy.   We divided these in half to share them, and oh boy, were they good!  These ended up being the best, most fresh mochi that we had during our entire time in Japan.