Tokyo Fish Market

 

Before we left for Japan, other than the skiing, the thing I was looking forward to the most was a visit to the Tokyo Fish market.  I had visions of big tuna hanging from the ceiling at auction, fish getting cut up, fish chaos. Fish capitalism and the free market at work. I really wanted to take photos of the whole scene.

Then when we got there it was 2 days before New Years and it was REALLY crowded.  New Years is a HUGE holiday in Japan and everybody was there to get their herring roe, prawns, and crab legs.  It was so crowded that our Japanese guide was even impressed and took pictures.  She had never seen it that crowded.  In places it was hard to move.

BUT the downside was that the main retail/commercial part of the fish market moved someplace else a few years ago.  So no hanging tuna auctions to watch.  Also in a lot of parts of the fish market no cameras or pictures allowed.  And these tended to be the 'fishiest' places in the market.  So I only got pictures in the less crowded, peripheral areas of the market.  For me there was no 'fish market photo bonanza'. 

Still, it was very cool, and I loved seeing the various species of marine protein.  Our guide explained what was what and told us the significance of the various items on sale.  For instance, herring roe is big on New Years.  Also octopus dyed red.  In fact, anything red on New Years is sought after.

I also loved to see the various species in the market that are fished for here on Kodiak.  I found out black cod is extremely hard to get in Japan (I only saw it on the menu once).  I wondered if all the herring roe I saw was from Alaska.  But what was shocking is that the crab was so cheap.  I bought a live king crab off of the boat here on Kodiak last October (click here for post) and I saw King Crab for sale in the market at about the same price per pound that I paid on the dock.  This was sort of shocking.  Tanner or 'Snow crab' was a bit more expensive per pound, but really still pretty darn cheap.  The Japanese Yen is weak so that might explain a part of it, but I also wondered if maybe all the crab was coming from Russia or something.  

Patrick

I checked the crab on sale today in Safeway and it is far more expensive than at the Tokyo fish market

Pretty cheap crab here. A quick yen to dollars conversion trick is to multiply yen by 7 - 5000 yen equals 35 dollars (Safeway about twice these prices)