Guidebook after guidebook rates the Tsukiji experience as one of the highlights of any visit to Tokyo, and I agree wholeheartedly. To see the best of Tsukiji, it is important to get to the market by 6am at the latest. I thought this sounded impossible, but it turned out that, for those of us who fly into Tokyo from the States, Tsukiji is a natural choice for us jetlagged travelers. In fact, you will find out after waking up at about 3am in the morning that you would actually look forward to arriving at Tsukiji even before 6am. However, as most subways do not run until 5am, there is no reason to trek to Tsukiji in a Tokyo cab, unless you have plenty of money to burn, of course.
The Tsukiji market handles close to 3000 tons of marine products totaling close to 30 million a day. In scale, it is incomparable. It must be the biggest fish market in the world. Upon getting to the market, head straight for the main attraction-the tuna auction. There, seas of freshly-caught and flash-frozen tunas weighing hundreds of pounds would have been laid out in lines on the floors of the market. At 5:30 a.m. the tuna auction starts. "How much do you bid?," the auctioneer of a wholesale firm, who typically would stand on top of a vegetable crate, asks in a loud voice. Answering this, a lot of authorized buyers bid against each other. The auction then moves on to the next fish in a frenetic pace. It is said that some fish sells up to $60,000 (yes, I mean US dollar) each. The name of the successful purchaser is marked on the tuna. At about 7:00am, bidders and other retailers from the market will carry the tuna priced at auction to their own stalls and lay them out so that caterers and other purchasers can buy them easily. There, besides tuna, there are some other 400+ fishes from all around the world of every imaginable variety. The colors are eye-popping, and the market is just a great feast for the eyes. After you have walked some of these stalls, head to the rear of the market where heaps of styrofoam stretching up tens of feet are heat-treated and recycled. It is an amazing sight to behold.