This first day of the month was started early today. I was woken by the nice automatic-voice lady wake up call at 4 o'clock in the morning. I wondered why on earth was this brute disturbance of my peaceful sleep necessary? Then I remebered. The answer was cold and fishy. Today was Tsukiji Fish Market day and all the action happens around 6 am and somehow the Japanese fisherman refuse to hold it a bit later so that I could sleep a bit later. But they are forgiven.
So me and 3 classmated waited for the first metro to come at 5:08 and as you can see in the photo below, they were pretty much in the same state as I was. But it was going to be a great morning, as we were going to be accompanied by one of Tokyo's fine sushi-chefs, for whom the market was basically his home away from home.
I have never seen so much fish and tuna in one place (which is not very shocking as it is the world biggest fish market and my fish experience is limited to the sort that has vegetables and potatoes next to it). Before the auction started, Suzuki-san, our suchi-chef explained what you should look at when buying a tuna, while pointing at tunas more international than the United Nations, one coming from Spain, New York, South-Africa and Australia.
As the auction started, the buyer started raising hands and we had to stay on the side for a while with several other tourists. As I tried to make an overview picture of the auction, I acidentally raised my hand holding my camera. That almost cost me a whole tuna (around 10.000 euro) but luckily the auctioneer wasn't paying attention to me.
Afterwards we had to run some errands in the fish market because Suzuki-san had to get some ingredients for his shop. He was a steady customer and we were treated to coffee, tea and fish by his suppliers to keep us warm. The atmosphere was not unlike the collegues on the markets where my mom sells her clothing. Just a bit more fish on this market, though.
Afterwards we naturally ate some sushi nearby whiich Suzuki-san helped us order. Vast amounts of raw fish were eaten by us at around for breakfast around 07.30. I wouldn't trade my cereals for it every day, but I think it was one of the best sushi meals I ever ate. I will never be able to eat sushi in Amsterdam again, I think.
1 comment:
That first movie is great. What are they doing? The ritual battering of the tuna?
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