Still slightly jetlagged and excited to head to one of the main points of interest on my trip, I trekked on over to Tsukiji Fish Market at 4am. Just a 15 minute walk from my hotel, the fish market is one of the largest in the world and their massive tuna auctions draw a huge crowd of tourists every morning. I didn’t realize how large the market was until I got there. Sure enough, it’s faintly lit labyrinths posed a threat to locating the tuna auctions that occur at 4:30 in the morning and I could not locate them.

Instead I made up my time by scouring the marketplace looking at all the fascinating and GIGANTIC fish. See those mussels above? Each one was the size of my entire arm, I kid you not.

Besides the stalls where individual merchants sold their fresh goods, the back of the market held all the auctions. Directly above is an auction taking place for a smaller, non-tuna fish. There is a lot of undecipherable yelling and the most important thing is to not be in any of their way. These men have a job to do and tourists have been impeding auctions so much the next day during my trip tourists were banned from attending the tuna auctions for a whole week.

These are the carts the fish dudes used to deliver the winning fish to the stalls throughout the fish market. They are very maneuverable, but due to the tight spaces and sheer volume of carts, heavy gridlock does occur. Also, they are not opposed to running down tourists in their way so I do not recommend bringing a large family to the fish market otherwise little Timmy might become roadkill.

While I did miss the tuna auctions, I did happen to catch the fish cart men delivering tuna from the auction to the stalls. I passed by this man hacking away at the just purchased tuna and was floored by how huge these tuna are. That sword is the size of the dude for crying out loud. Insane.

The stalls themselves are very tightly spaced but it was an incredible experience walking around them from opening time around 4am to fully operational at 6am. I must have passed the same stalls at least 10 times but since they are always bringing in fresh fish it seemed like I was passing a brand new market stall. Extremely satisfied with my morning journey, I decided to head out and grab some as fresh as you can possibly get sushi near the fish market.