Oh, Tsukiji. I'm completely smitten.
Tsukiji, the world's largest seafood market, is a warren of warehouses, trading floors, and shops a few blocks from the Ginza. Every day, over two million kilos of fish pass through Tsukiji on their way to kitchens all over Japan and around the world, or about twenty million dollars worth of fresh fish, dried fish, live fish, frozen fish, salted fish, smoked fish, fish paté, shellfish, fish eggs...you name it, if it's fish, it's probably here. At least briefly.
In the outer market, where I took all these pictures, there are other things for sale too: knives for cutting fish, fancy plates and chopsticks for eating them, huge bins of bonito flakes for making soup stock, linens for the table, spices, coffee, tea, and stationery.
We visited in the late morning, when it was not crowded. Thousands of people do their shopping here, in these mazy streets lit (by law) by bare bulbs only (so the ambient light can't give you the wrong idea about the fish you're about to buy).
A stuffed wildcat graced this fishmonger's stall.
