Phil Torrone visits the Tsukiji fish market

MAKE senior editor is in Japan, and he visited the world-famous Tsukiji fish market and took photos.

Another stop on the MAKE tour was the Tsukiji fish market, it's one of the largest in the world and it's pretty crazy. You need to arrive before 4am to get a really good experience. There are hundreds of old-style bicycle with roller type brakes, I'm not sure why but they were all the same - they carried out boxes of fish to other trucks and beyond the market. As you move around the market it gets a little dangerous dodging extremely fast fork lifts, the skill the drivers have is pretty incredible.
From the wikipedia:
The market handles more than 400 different types of seafood from tiny sardines to 300kg tuna, from cheap seaweed to the most expensive caviar. Overall, more than 700,000 metric tons of seafood are handled every year at the three seafood markets in Tokyo, with a total value in excess of 600 billion yen (approximately 5.5 billion US dollars). Tsukiji alone handles over 2000 metric tons of seafood per day. The number of registered employees varies from 60,000 to 65,000, including wholesalers, accountants, auctioneers, company officials, and distributors.
I was interested in the tools and gear used for this massive undertaking, here are some of the photos - I should have some video up eventually. Link

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by eigafan , November 21, 2007 1:15 PM

I worked there part-time during the busiest time of the year, new years eve. I worked in a store specializing in bluefin tuna used in sushi restaurants. I held frozen bluefin tuna with my bare hands while another senior hand expertly sawed it into sections. Sushi restaurant owners/workers would buy their bluefin tuna and we would saw it into sections and wrap it in paper secured with rubber bands. The purchased bluefin tuna was either picked up or delivered to the respective clients that day. This all took place in the early morning hours. I left for work around 3 AM. I got paid really well for the short hours of work. The only thing I didn't like was the stubborn fish oil that lingered in my hands for a week. One night, I ran into the owner, and was treated to some sashimi in one his client's sushi restaurants. It was the first time that I ever tasted sashimi (raw fish) and I had lived in Japan for 12 years. It literally melted in my mouth and was quite delicious. I learned my lesson that night, not to resist trying different foods in other countries.

#2 posted by Dav

, November 21, 2007 3:14 PM

I wish he got a pic of those crazy utility vehicles they drive around the market. It's like a small cart used to tow carts, very loud engine iirc and uses what looks like a barrel as the steering wheel. Turns on a dime too.

#3 posted by Gotanda , November 21, 2007 4:30 PM

I love those crazy carts. They are totally insane. My wife took a class from a wholesaler at Tsukiji and learned Tsukiji Fish Market Rule Number One:

People do not have right of way, fish does. Stay out of the way from anyone delivering fish and stay away from crazy little round vehicles laden with fish. They will choose to save fish rather than people.

The value of human life definitely falls below the value of fresh tuna at Tsukiji. But what is life really worth without good seafood anyway?

#4 posted by Mantari , November 21, 2007 5:05 PM

Phil Torrone is very sexy and there should be more shots of Phil in there.

#5 posted by mirrashidi , November 21, 2007 5:52 PM

I took this video of the fishmonger auctioning off tuna back in May:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7gg7FpC3GI&eurl=http://abeinasia.wordpress.com/

#6 posted by queennerd , November 21, 2007 8:47 PM

Down here in the southern hemisphere(NZ)the Japanese have launched their whaling expedition -

"Japan, which uses a loophole in International Whaling Commission laws to hunt almost 1000 whales each year in the southern hemisphere, allegedly for scientific research, will target humpbacks for the first time this summer."

...including a rare white humpback whale...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4270770a12.html

Sounds like a fun cultural experience, but...

#7 posted by caipirina

, November 22, 2007 12:20 AM

Here is a picture of one of these 'crazy utility vehicles'

http://www.nacken.com/img3/tahrei.jpg

I did some search on them, but besides finding this pic, no other info was available on the western side of the Internet ... maybe some Japanese reader can enlighten us ...

#8 posted by ggm , November 22, 2007 6:44 PM

those crazy carts: Here's an AVI movie of the traffic cops handling them.. (6Mb)

http://www.algebras.org/~ggm/Tokyo-2007/Saturday/2007-06-23+08-43-16.avi

and here is the ice-machine (16M)

#9 posted by magician , November 23, 2007 10:29 AM

I got to spend three weeks in Japan this summer after winning the JETS Fan Fund to send a European SF fan to the World Science Fiction convention in Yokohama. While I was there I got to the fish market one morning around 9am, and there was still *plenty* to see ... the wholesale market (which is offlimits to tourists) was closed, but they were still using bandsaws on fish and the little bikes and vehicles were still zooming around.
And there are little local "cafe-style" sushi shops right there with the best sushi I've ever tasted at a very reasonable price (about $20 for 8 different pieces, which were *superb*)
I also took several hundred photos of the fish market which will be going up with the rest of the trip report sometime in the next few weeks. I'll try to get some up tonight/tomorrow if I can.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_magician/