#tunaauction

Spontaneously, I decided to join ‘a couple guys’ who were heading to Tokyo’s most famous piece of nightlife – THE tuna auction at THE Tsukiji Fish Market, which is the biggest fish market in all of the world. Like, biiiig. 

We left at half 11, caught the last train towards Tsukiji. Before started queuing, we had some rice + meat + onion dinner; that was quite a good idea, because the auction only starts at 5am, and the next meal would only be at 7am. Preparation is king!

We then positioned ourselves outside the registration office, where you say hello, register your interest in observing the auction and, well, wait. We arrived there at about 1am, so we were reaaaally early – Lonely Planet recommends to be there by 4am. However, do not trust Lonely Planet on this: when we got there, we found about 10 people waiting already. They only open the waiting room at 2.15am, so we had to wait outside in drizzely rain for well over an hour, then got inside and waited even more. 

Basically, the system is quite easy: You don’t have to pay or register in advance, i.e. this is not your usual Capitalist tourist attraction. Instead, it’s rough hands-on fishiness: you have to go there, be early, and sit in a room on the floor without leaning on any wall from 2.15am to 5.25am. There are two groups of 60 people each, and once the 120th observer has arrived, that’s it. Realistically, you really have to be there by 3am at the latest to have any chance to get in, otherwise you’ll probably find yourself hiking back to bed. In combination with the non-existent subway service between midnight and about 5am, this means you either throw out a lot of cash on a taxi ride, or you spend most of your night in that waiting room. We chose option 2. 

Inside, we managed to get a spot at a wall, and even though you mustn’t lean on it, you can possibly, hopefully lie flat (that’s almost business class, wow) and take a backpack as a pillow. That way, it’s roughly alright to hang out for 3 hours; don’t be too optimistic, though, it’s definitely not “a good night’s sleep”. 

At 4.30am, a funky Japanese tuna wholeseller came and told us about his life and his tuna, and about how the Japanese government works like his wife (they both spend more money than they have). In my opinion, he was the best part of the entire thing, very entertaining, and very motivating to wait for one more hour. 

At 5.25am, our first group set off to the auction. You’re pushed around the market premises by a bunch of security guys, while trying to avoid these electric transport vehicles that drive around like crazy bees. Inside, we spent 20 mins watching buyers examine frozen tuna, and we got to witness a rather small-scale auction of three rather small-scale tunas. Apparently, it’s not one massive auction, it’s rather an on-going process, in which a few tunas at a time are sold. The most interesting thing, in fact, was the aesthetic of frozen tuna, which is very far from what you would expect a formerly living creature to look like even in frozen condition – they seemed not like animals at all, much more like grey, technical objects. Maybe this aesthetic would require some more theorizing..

Now some photos!

We waited, and many other people waited, too. And we were all wearing stupid green vests. 

Our behaviour was closely supervised and coordinated by this policeman-supervisor. One important thing at Tsukiji Market is that you have to behave really well, because they throw people out without a lot of discussion, in order to avoid any disruption Tokyo’s metropolitan tuna supply.

Charlotte checkin’ out the history of tuna-Tokyo.

This is where the magic happens: Tunatunatunatuna.

Cool as f***: the air-conditioning. Cooler: the policeman. Coolest: frozen tuna.

Our homies for the night: tourists in green vests.

Those three seemed to be super-duper-expensive. They were by far the biggest tunas on offer, and some buyers checked them three times, so it looked like quite some investment.

We kept an eye on the procedures. 

Stylish Japanese uniform: check. 

As the tuna wholeseller told us, the way they determine the quality of a tuna is by taking some meat from the ‘rear part’. It mainly shouldn’t be too oily or fatty, and of a good red colour. 

The tallest Japanese guy I’ve ever seen is a tuna trader. Funky! Unfortunately for my female audience, I didn’t get his phone number, or Line ID, or WhatsApp, or anything.

Auction in action: Auctioneer shouting, tourists watching. The tuna seemed fairly apathetic, though. 

Even more tuna inspection.

Tuna more close-up: the numbers serve to identify the fish. 

The market might have a waste problem... but I generally have the impression that Japan doesn’t care a lot about waste, with plastic bags being handed out to everyone all the time.

Man on transport cart, woman with umbrella, lorry. It was rainy and windy, by the way, super bad weather. 

The scenery at 5.45am: dawn, rain, wind, fishiness.