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| * Latest information about our tour |
| I started a new tour, the New Tsukiji Tour From May, 2012, all my tours will be the New Tsukiji Tours. If you are planning to take our tour, please proceed to the New Tsukiji Tour page. Thank you! Naoto Nakamura |
| I started the Ultimate (Tsukiji) Tour in 2004, on which you could have
seen various kinds of auctions including the tuna auctions very closely.
Ever since, I have been taking reservations every week beside the very
busy season in December. But as the Tsukiji Market got more and more popular as a tourist spot to foreign people, the restrictions to them got tighter and tighter. Generally speaking, the Market is a public space and it's free for anyone to walk around. However restrictions started by the complaints of the people working at the Market, mostly at areas close to the three tuna auction sites. Too many tourists came and flooded into the middlemen store area behind after the auctions sites, which brought many complaints to the administration (=the TMG) and the restrictions got tight. Besides restricting only those areas, the TMG decided to restrict the entire auction sites and the middlemen store area, which I understand is too much and ridiculous. Tourists would be asked at the restricted areas nicely by security guards, "Would you kindly leave here because it's restricted to tourists?" But if you are at the middlemen store area, which they tell you not to enter before 9AM, you could have a very ample and convincing argument with them that you are the general shopping public. You could tell them that you had an intention for shopping, so you don't want to leave. In my case as being a tour guide, the situation is a little more complicated. There is a certain private security company named Zenkoku-keibi, of which the security guards are very hostile to me. They are in charge of controlling the TMG tuna auction observation and they also patrol the middlemen store area. The fixed time for them to come to work is from 5AM. That is the reason why I changed the time of my old tours, 4 - 6AM to my new time, 3 - 5AM. I wanted to avoid the needless trouble with the security guards. to the details of the New Tsukiji Tour page |
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE |
| The TMG started to restrict tighter than before, the tourists looking around
the Market from April 1st, 2008. Please remind that you might not be able to see some of the events and scenes on the images and written on the compliments posted on this website or the linked pages which are from our clients that took our tour before April 1st, 2008. Thank you. May 10th, 2008 Naoto Nakamura |
 "I am still doing the tour" This photo was taken after the tour on Tuesday April 15th, 2008 I thank all the people that took the tour in the past. They were all nice, intelligent and charming people--And they were mostly rich! They were also crazy enough to get up around 3am in the morning. Their either hard, ordinary, easy, or ridiculous questions all served well to improve our tour. |
 Thursday August 14th, 2008 |
 Tuesday November 4th, 2008 |
"Try to look really tough..."
The Tsukiji workers look scary but they are nice when they talk.
Photo by Craig Cooper
Title by Naoto Nakamura
The Ultimate Tsukiji Tour is closed.
If you plan to tour the Market with us, please proceed to the New Tsukiji
Tour page
| This course was originally designed for a Canadian Ph.D. for the means
of getting a grand picture of the Japanese fish business |
HOWEVER, IT'S NOT MOSTLY FOR THE TUNA AUCTIONS
| A lot of tourists from foreign countries that visit the Tsukiji Market are mostly concentrated very much in watching the tuna auctions. However, the tuna auctions these days are almost impossible to watch unlesss you take the following FROZE BLUE-FIN TUNA AUCTION OBSERVATION by the TMG. |
THIS IS BESIDES OUR TOUR |
FROZE BLUE-FIN TUNA AUCTION OBSERVATIONS by the TMG |
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| The TMG started from May 10, 2010, a new rule to observe the froze blue-fin
tuna auction. You have to stand in line at a reception place starting from
4AM to get a yellow or green jacket as shown above in the picture to get
into the auction site. This new rule started after: the temporary measure to tourists from April 8, 2010 to May 8, 2010 by TokyoWorks You could se the details of the OBSERVATION at the following TMG site. http://www.shijou.metro.tokyo.jp/english/market/tsukiji.html |
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| pdf file of what you could see at the TMG tuna observation by TokyoWorks | |
| THE FRESH TUNA AUCTION IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO WATCH NOW | In the early days of my tour, the restrictions at the market were looser. We could take close-ups at the fresh tuna auctions. But now, it is almost impossible to watch. I put a link to a video on YouTube. You can't get close like this anymore. The person that took this video was very lucky because the shipment of tuna of was so large that tuna were spilling out from the site, which the shutter was regularly tightly shut. |
| auctions of tuna in the Tsukiji fish market | |
Events and places |
Images (Click to see larger image) and explanations |
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 Fresh fish auction"One of the Many Auctions" Photo by the Seltzer/Yamamoto familyLink to the photo site of Alex Seltzer |
 Fresh fish samples displayedPhoto by Kazuko Funaki |
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 Sea urchin roe auction placePhoto by Eudon YapWe can't take a close look at the sea urchin anymoreA member of the Sea Urchin Middlemen Union claimed that there was a foreign tourist that was opening a sea urchin package and touching it. As a result, we are not able to make a close look to the sea urchin anymore. |
 Photo by Lisa Vogt See more photos by Lisa Vogt |
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 Watching the tuna site prior to auctionPhoto by Omar JadwatSee more photos by Omar Jadwat |
 Photo by Michael Adams |
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The shrimp section |
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 Photo by Kazuko Funaki |
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 The tuna auction("Bidding") Photo by Eudon Yap Link to the site of Eudon Yap |
Link to the site of TJ Parpan
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Fish cakes section |
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 Photo by Connie Shin Cohn |
 - Frozen, salted & dried fish sectionPhoto by Jason NgLink to the site of Jason Ng |
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The middlemen stores |
- Photo by Craig Cooper Link to the photo site of Craig Cooper |
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Tide-waiting Tea Shop |
The loading space of out-going goods for the middlemen |
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Annexed merchant area |
Stores selling fish business-related goods and restaurants ('Sushi Daiwa' is located here)  Photo by Liz Habermann |
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Odd months--January, March, May, July, September, November |
Even months--February, April, June, August, October |
| 4am Meet at Tsukiji 4-chome (Image and map is after-shown) | 4am Meet at Tsukiji 4-chome (Image and map is after-shown) |
| 4:15 Namiyoke Shrine | 4:20 Fresh fish auction |
| 4:20 Preparation stage of tuna auction | 4:30 Preparation stage of tuna auction |
| 4:30 Stroll around the middlemen store area | 4:50 Stroll around the middleman store area |
| 4:40 Fresh fish auction | |
| 5:10 Sea urchin auction | 5:10 Sea urchin auction |
| 5:20 Live fish auction | 5:20 Live fish auction |
| 5:30 Tuna auction | 5:30 Tuna auction |
| 5:50 Tuna curving at middleman's store | 5:50 Tuna curving at middleman's store |
| 6:05 Disband at annexed merchants area | 6:05 Disband at annexed merchants area |
The difference between the odd months and even months comes from the difference of the starting time of the fresh fish auction
| *Please remind that time table schedules may change due to shipment of fish and other conditions. |
| *Participants of this tour should be asked to act as a group. Please do not be late to 4am since the tour will start on time |
| *Taxis are almost the only transportation at the time of our tour. The subways are not in operation. |
| The Tsukiji Market (and all other Japanese Central Wholesale Markets) are CLOSED on Sundays, National Holidays and temporary holidays for the Markets, mostly on Wednesdays |
| Tsukiji Tours are on the bold blue dates |
RED DATES: Market holidays LINED OUT dates: No space availble
I don't have tours in December because it's the busiest month of the year.
I suggest you NOT TO visit the Market on your own, especially after the 15th.
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August 8
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September 9
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| October 10
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November 11
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December 12
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| *The tour fee is 7,500 yen per person. |
| *Tour fees should be paid before the tour but will be refunded if you leave at an early stage of the tour. |
| *We take participants only up to 6-persons on each tour. |
| *We don't accept credit cards. |
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| Naoto Nakamura 'nick, the MAIDO-man' Photo by Omar Jadwat |
"I have worked for 12 years in the fish business and know it inside out."
| We have tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the Market is open. The dates
underlined on our calendar have openings. Choose your date and please email
us. We will reply to book you. The lined-out dates on the calender are
fully booked, so space to participate isn't available. Please come to the meeting place on the date you reserved shortly before 4am. Taxis are almost the only transportation available at that time. The costs for the tour is 7500 yen per person and have some Japanese yen ready in cash because cash dispensers are not operating at the hours of our tours. We don't charge any cancel fees. Please inform us as soon as possible in case you cancel. Please ask us any question. Here is a map image of the meeting place you could print out and show to the taxi driver.MAP |
| Please send an email to 'BZQ23303@nifty.ne.jp'-Naoto Nakamura-to book your
tour. Send your email at least 3 days before your tour. We don't take last-moment reservations. |
| We are filtering email domains such as .com and .net since we are having
difficulties with spam mails. By using the key word, "Tsukiji" in your email title, you could get through the filterings. If your email is still blocked, please leave a message on our board. |
| Please get yourself ready for the tour! Keep in mind that you have to walk a lot of wet, slippery, dark and crowded areas where there are a lot of up and downs. |
| WE DON'T TAKE SMALL CHILDREN ON OUR TOUR WE DON'T TAKE PETS ON OUR TOUR |
| There is a bright sign of a 24 hour restaurant "Jonathan's" at the intersection of Tsukiji 4-chome, which is the place to roll up. The following is the picture and the map. |
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The MEETING PLACE is in front of this building that have: 1F: Bantam "convenience" store LAWSON 2F: Family Restaurant JONATHAN'S |
 A simple map in Japanese that you could print out and show to the taxi driver |
| Another map: English map The center of the map is Tsukiji Yon (4)-chome, the intersection of the meeting place. |
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 Sushi Daiwa Photo by Lisa Vogt |
The big question is, "Where should I eat sushi?" The image shown is 'Sushi Daiwa,' an Inner Market sushi restaurant. The stores inside the Market are small, so they gather a long line of tourists on Saturdays. | |
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Then where should you eat sushi? 'Sushi-sei' is a sushi restaurant open from 1889, outside the Market. When I used to work at the Market, I used to go there quite often and Sushi-sei had its doors all open like a buck-wheat noodle stand restaurant. You could eat cheap and fresh sushi such as sardines and horse mackerels topped with ginger and scallion. The fish were just delivered after the auction of the day. Days went by and now, Sushi-sei is a neat restaurant and opens from 8:00 am. You could enjoy the same satisfaction I used to enjoy by ordering the 2,100 yen or 3,150 yen Chef's Recommendation. |
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 Sushi-zanmai |
The sushi restaurant I recommend is 'Sushi-zanmai' outside the Market. It's new and casual and it's owned by a tuna middleman, Kiyomura. They are open 24 hours. |
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I heard that the Tsukiji Market is restricted to tourists. Is it true? | |
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Yes, in a way. There are some places you can't enter and some things that you can't do like using flashes at particular auctions at particular timings. | |
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I heard that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office at the Tsukiji Market does not give permission seeing the Market in hours earlier than 8:30 a.m. | |
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There is no problem about having no permission. Generally speaking, Tsukiji is a public market for everybody. The TMG has no right to force people out. | |
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Are the early auctions from 4-5am still accessible to the public? | |
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Nominally, the auctions are closed to the public. So, if you meet a TMG patrolman, he has to tell you to leave. The best thing is not to meet them--They don't want to meet you, too. | |
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Are there transportation besides taxis available at the time of the tour? | |
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No, taxis are almost the only transportation available. |
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We heard that the fish market has lots of blood and guts on the floor and ruins your shoes. | |
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The Tsukiji Market floors is not that much dirty. Sneakers are okay if they are fairly waterproof but probably, your socks would get a little wet. They would get completely wet on rainy days. |
| These days, Hollywood stars come to the Tsukiji Market, too.
Jean Reno. |
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Everybody's taking out there cell phones to take pictures!
WORK! Get the auction start! |
I saw this movie the other day... The title is, "Tsukiji Uogashi San-daime (The Tsukiji Fish Market Third-generation Middleman)." |
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Board
I am afraid to say that this doesn't work anymore (updated August 23, 2011)...
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I have tours only two times a week, so I wanted the people that couldn't
get a reservation on our tour or have schedules that don't permit them
to take our tour enjoy the Market as well. |
| (The contents of this page was made on behalf and not without the assistance
of Barbara Stickler-san, who toured the Tsukiji Market on March 17th, 2009.) |
THE PLANS TO MOVE THE TSUKIJI MARKET From a personal point of viewThe Tokyo Metropolitan Government is trying tomove the Tsukiji Market, which is a really bad idea... see more |
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Update of the Tsukiji
Talking about the relocation of the Tsukiji Market, the chances are high at this point of time that the plan is going to come to a deadlock. |
(February 27th 2011 updated) |
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link to Free Jazz from the Fish Market |
