I’ve Been Published in Tokyo
Remember my visit to Tokyo? Remember the fun fish photos from Tsukiji Fish Market? I remember our awesome sushi breakfast and the spastic Tuna auctioneer you will see on just about any video footage taken at the market. For years the Tokyo Metro Government has been at odds about what to do with the popularity of the Fish Market, especially the Tuna Auction. Time and again the crowds become too large and disruptive that the authorities shut it off to the public. Tourists in the Tsukiji Fish Market are like tourists anywhere. They are slow, they do not pay attention and they are always in the wrong place. Think of that mini-van making an ill advised u-turn in Orlando, that tourist staring up with their camera at NYC skyscrapers in the middle of the sidewalk, that family who stops dead-center in the middle of the subway exit looking down at a map. Tsukiji Fish Market sees these same tourist characteristics from their visitors: snapping photos (guilty), standing in the wrong place at the wrong time (guilty), running into people (guilty), cramming too many people into too small an area (guilty) and the list goes on and on (mostly guilty).
It seems each time the Tokyo Government shuts down the tuna trading are they reopen with a new restriction. Back in 2008 visitors where restricted to a viewing area. In 2010, they have limited the number of visitors to 140 visitors a day on a first-come-first-serve basis and it looks like they must all wear some sort of yellow smock to identify them as guests. And I can’t see from photos, but maybe they have to remove their shoes too. Whatever the case, the Tsukiji Fish Market is a fun little place to spend your pre-dawn hours when visiting Tokyo.
A friend of a friend (Ayako Hirayama) writes for the Daily Yomiuri and was kind enough to stick a quote of mine in her article about the latest reopening of the Tsukiji auction to visitors. Lately I have had good luck with Japanese outlets. First the English language Metropolis magazine asked for some photos of the Tokyo Marathon and now this. ありがとう! Read the fish market HERE.
Selling the frozen tuna at the Tsukiji Fish Market last March.
Talking frozen tuna with the locals.
