Remembering My 2010 Visit To Tsukiji Fish Market

Above, inside the Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Last night, for the first time in years, I popped in my DVD of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a 2011 documentary of one of the top sushi chefs in Tokyo, Jiro Ono. Happily, Jiro Ono is still with us at age 96.

Above, Jiro Dreams of Sushi poster.

It was an interesting documentary and it featured quite a bit of Tokyo and surrounding areas. 

I had forgotten that it had featured the now-gone Tsukiji Fish Market. It had been relocated several years ago to Toyosu.

Above, one of the many vendors at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market in December 2010. It's hard to believe that it is nearly 11 years since my visit in the wee hours of the morning. I was going to get up early to go there anyway, but a small earthquake got me up an hour earlier than planned.

Above, yours truly with a restaurateur at the Outer Market.

Following my wandering in the fish market, I went to the outer market where shops and restaurants are located and had a great tuna sushi meal.

Tokyo Cheapo's Guide To Toyosu Fish Market

Above, yours truly having some fun at the Tsukiji Fish Market outer market. The outer market is still open.

Back in December 2010 (hard to believe it's almost ten years since then) I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market and had a great sushi meal at a restaurant at the Outer Market.

Since then, the Tsukiji Fish Market relocated to Toyosu, but the outer market remains in Tsukiji.

Tokyo Cheapo has a full guide for those who want to visit the new Toyosu Fish Market.

They begin it with:

First, Tsukiji Fish Market was slated to close its doors in November, 2016. Then the move got pushed back. And back. And back some more. But the relocation happened at last, with the inner market officially re-opening at the Toyosu waterfront district on October 11, 2018. Over 600 merchants made the move. Important note: Tsukiji’s outer market, which features numerous shops and restaurants, is staying put and some great tours are available for an insider’s view. 

With the opening of the new Tokyo fish market venue, time has officially run out for those who had hoped to see the live tuna auction in its original state at Tsukiji. The Tsukiji tuna auction closed to the public on September 15, 2018. But the new tuna auction at Toyosu opened to the public in mid-January, 2019. Find out what to expect, and when, below.

To read more, go here. 

Tsukiji Outer Market Seeks To Lure New Visitors and Keep Loyal Clients

Above, a Tsukiji Outer Market dishware vendor. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Tsukiji Fish Market may have relocated to Toyosu, but Tsukiji's Outer Market is still thriving and is pressing on to lure more visitors.

The Asahi Shimbun reported:

Six months after the relocation of Tokyo's iconic Tsukiji fish market, shops and wholesalers in the outer market are doing their utmost to keep their heads above water and draw in new and old customers alike. 

"We're not relocating!" 

The Tsukiji Jogai Shijo (outer market) shopping district promotion association set up such posters and signs to get the message out, encouraging shoppers to continue coming to the area even after the closure of the fish market after more than 80 years and its relocation to the capital's Toyosu district in October 2018. 

Much to their relief, the streets and atmospheric alleyways of the outer market continue to be a favorite destination of tourists on any given day. 

Shops selling popular items such as "tamagoyaki” (Japanese omelet) and “kaisen-don” (rice bowl topped with sashimi) still see long lines of customers. 

Still, long-established business owners such as Kunio Matsue have a sense of loss and inevitable change.

In 2010, I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market and, following that, I went to the Outer Market and had what was the best sushi meal I ever had. The Outer Market is well worth a visit.

To read more, go here.  

Tokyo Considering Convention Center At Former Tsukiji Fish Market Site

Above, the Tsukiji Fish Market in 2010. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Now that the closed Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo has been relocated to Toyosu, the Tokyo Metropolitan government is considering the future use of the former site.

The Japan Times reported:

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is considering building a complex including a convention center on the site of the closed Tsukiji fish market, a source close to the matter said Wednesday. 

On Jan. 25 the Tokyo authorities will outline a draft redevelopment plan for the 23-hectare site of the former fish market, which closed last October after 83 years of operation, the source said. The draft plan is expected to be finalized by the end of March. 

Tokyo has already decided to use the location temporarily as parking lots for athletes and staff during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

The city government is also considering opening a luxury hotel, hoping to attract more business people and foreign tourists by using the site that had become a popular tourist attraction. Plans for the redevelopment include leasing the site to private-sector entities.

To read more, go here. 

Tsukiji Fish Market Is Now History

Above, a worker prepares the day's catch for sale. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The historic Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo has closed its doors for good. Today was its last day of operations before the big move to the new facility.

I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market in 2010 and now that it's history, I am especially glad I did.

Above, one of the vendor aisles. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun) wrote:

The iconic Tsukiji market, part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, marked its final day of operations in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, on Saturday, drawing the curtain on 83 years of history. 

The final auctions were held from the predawn hours of Saturday morning. By noon, the move to the Toyosu market had begun. The new wholesale market in the Toyosu district of Koto Ward, Tokyo, is scheduled to open early Thursday. Before then, an “unprecedented transfer operation” will have to be completed.

The Outer Market, where the restaurants and shops are located will remain open.

Above, yours truly with one of the workers at Sushizanmai at the Tsukiji Outer Market in 2010.

To read more, go here.

What To Know About The Toyosu Fish Market

Above, one of the vendors of the Tsukiji Fish Market's Outer Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The historic Tsukiji Fish Market will close in October and will relocate to Toyosu at that time.

This move has been planned for years and most of the merchants in Tsukiji bitterly opposed the move. The Outer Market, where vendors of merchandise and restaurants are located, will remain open after the move.

Tokyo Cheapo has an article on what we know about the new Toyosu Fish Market so far.

It begins with:

You’ve probably heard that the iconic Tsukiji Fish Market will cease operations in October this year, and reopen as the Toyosu Fish Market. Here are the top tidbits regarding the relocation of this historic landmark in Tokyo.

To read more, go here. 

Tsukiji Fish Market: 11 Things You Should Know

Above, the Tsukij Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Until October, visitors can still witness the Tsukiji Fish Market's tuna auction before the facility moves to its new location in Toyosu.

So if you want to visit the historic fish market before it closes, you'd better do so soon.

I visited the fish market in 2010. I didn't see the tuna auction as I got there after 4:00 in the morning. Actually, the fish market was closed to visitors at the time, but I managed to get in anyway from a side entrance.

Tokyo Cheapo has an article on 11 things you should know before going.

The article begins with:

The Tsukiji Fish Market appears in literally every guidebook about Tokyo and on most people’s tour itineraries—and cheapos appreciate that it has free entrance. It isn’t just the largest wholesale fish market in Tokyo and Japan, it’s numero uno for the entire planet. It also has a super-famous Tuna Auction before the sun rises most mornings.

To read more, go here. 

Tsukiji Fish Market To Move In September or October

Above, the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It has finally been decided (at least for now) that the operations of the famed Tsukiji Fish Market will be moved in September or October of next year.

The Japan Times reported:

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has set the time for relocating the operations of the Tsukiji fish market to the nearby Toyosu waterfront area at September to October next year. 

The specific date will be discussed with industry groups, the metropolitan government said Monday. The announcement came after Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said in late August that the market, where daily fish auctions attract hordes of tourists, will be moved no earlier than next June. 

The metropolitan government wants to reach an agreement on the date this month at a council consisting of government officials and business representatives. It expects that additional safety measures to address soil contamination at the new site will be completed no later than next July.

To read more, go here. 

Tokyo's Governor Decides To Keep Tsukiji Fish Market

Above, the Tsukiji Fish Market in 2010. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Here's some news for fans of the famous and historic Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

The Washington Post reported:

TOKYO — Tokyo’s giant Tsukiji fish market, popular with tourists, won’t be destroyed, although it will be closed for up to five years while it is modernized and turned into a “food theme park,” the capital’s governor said Tuesday. 

The market will move to a state-of-the-art 600 billion yen ($6 billion) facility in Toyosu on the eastern outskirts of Tokyo while Tsukiji is rebuilt. After that, Tokyo will have two wholesale fish markets, Gov. Yuriko Koike said. 

Koike had halted the planned move to Toyosu last August, just months before the new market’s scheduled opening, after food safety concerns were raised. Toxins have been found in soil and groundwater at Toyosu, which was previously the site of a gas plant.

To read more, go here.

Toxins Found Again In Toyosu Groundwater

Above, the present Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It looks like the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo won't be relocating to Toyosu anytime soon, if at all.

Dangerous toxins have been found in the groundwater at the new market site.

According to NHK:

An additional survey at the proposed site of Tokyo's new wholesale market has once again found higher-than-permitted amounts of toxic chemicals in groundwater. 

Metropolitan government officials reported the results to an expert panel on Sunday. The Toyosu market is to replace the aging one at Tsukiji. 

The survey was conducted at 29 locations in the Toyosu compound. High levels of toxins were discovered in the 9th round of tests late last year.

Frankly, I think that the move to Toyosu should be cancelled and, perhaps, Tsukiji be renovated and modernized.

To read more, go here. 

Toyosu Fish Market Backroom Deal Document Surfaces

Above, the current Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Another twist in the saga over the new fish market in Tokyo's Koto Ward has surfaced.

According to The Japan Times:

A newly revealed document has highlighted the possible existence of a backroom agreement in 2001 between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Gas Co. on soil decontamination at the Toyosu new wholesale food market in Tokyo. 

The paper, which was submitted by Tokyo Gas to a meeting Saturday of a powerful Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly special investigation committee, may be part of documents showing backroom negotiations between the company and Takeo Hamauzu, then vice governor of Tokyo, on the gas supplier’s sale of the land to the city. 

The so-called Article 100 committee, set up last month, plans to question Hamauzu when he appears at the panel’s meeting on March 19 to testify over the matter.

The new facility was supposed to be operational last November, but problems concerning contaminated soil at the location cropped up and the opening has been indefinitely delayed. Because of this the current Tsukiji Fish Market remains open. So if visitors wish to see the historic fish market, now's the time to go while it's still open.

To read more, go here.

New Toyosu Fish Market Built Without Consultation With Experts

Above, the Tsukiji Fish Market in December 2010. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It looks like the Tsukiji Fish Market will remain at its current, and historic, location for a while longer.

Toxins in the soil at the new fish market location could still contaminate fish and other seafood because the new market was built without having experts consulted.

According to Asahi Shimbun:

Without consulting experts, the Tokyo metropolitan government decided that thick concrete basement floors were sufficient to block known toxins in the soil at the site of the proposed Toyosu fish market, sources said. 

The project to relocate the world-renowned Tsukiji fish market in Chuo Ward to the Toyosu district of Koto Ward has become hugely controversial amid reports the metropolitan government defied a proposal made by an experts’ panel in 2008 to cover the site with fresh soil and build the new market on top of it as a precaution against contamination caused by a Tokyo Gas Co. factory that once stood there. 

The metropolitan government instead created cavernous basement spaces below the three main structures of the new market without adding new soil. The Tokyo government section in charge of the project made the decision without approval from the panel, arguing that “creating the floor of the basement with thick concrete will work as a substitute for landfill.”

So, until this problem is corrected, the Tsukiji Fish Market remains in Tsukiji. Somebody definitely screwed up!

To read more, go here. 

Tsukiji's Jogai Retail Market Faces Uncertain Future

Above, one of the many shops in the Jogai marketplace in Tsukiji. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Next year's closure of the historic Tsukiji Fish Market is causing the retail area next door to wonder about its future after the fish market is gone.

The New York Times reported:

Tokyo is known for its neon lights and armies of salarymen who spill out of office towers in often indistinct neighborhoods.

But amid that giant urban crush is Tsukiji fish market, the world’s largest. In a city in a rush to wipe away its history, the market is a gem that evokes Japan’s pre-World War II past and its love of food. 

The wholesale market on the banks of the Sumida River several minutes from Ginza opened in 1935 and is best known for its predawn tuna auction. But navigating the market’s cramped and slippery corridors can be treacherous and, while fascinating, is primarily for viewing, not sampling. 

The retail market next door is more inviting. Roughly eight square blocks, the outer market, or Jogai (pronounced JOE-guy), is chockablock with small, family-owned retail shops selling fish and meat, seaweed and sweets, knickknacks and kitchen supplies. 

Shopkeepers with raspy voices invite passers-by to look at their goods or eat in their restaurants, some of which are tucked away in alleys. 

In my dozen years working in Tokyo, including several at The New York Times bureau across the street, and on my annual visits since then, my wife and I have never grown tired of wandering the market’s mazelike streets. We stock up on dried seaweed, Japanese snacks and other sundries, and dine at surprisingly affordable restaurants. We love the shopkeepers and their gravely voices, quick wit and candid opinions. 

Yet this gustatory wonderland is in danger. Next year, the Tokyo government will move the wholesale market a few miles away to Toyosu. 

I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market and Jogai in 2010 and enjoyed browsing around its many shops and a sushi meal. If you are planning to visit Japan, I recommend that you visit Jogai before the Tsukiji Fish Market closes so you can get a taste of historical Tokyo.

To read more, go here. 

Time Is Running Out For Tsukiji Fish Market

Above, vendor stalls at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Japan Times has an article on the "ticking clock" of the impending closure of the famed Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

It is slated to close one year from tomorrow and the new fish market in the Toyosu district of Tokyo’s Koto Ward will open November 7, 2016.

The current fish market was built in 1935 and is now considered too old for today's demands. Visitors to Tsukiji can generally wander around the facilities at will. I visited the facility in 2010.

Unfortunately, this will not be the case at the Koto Ward facility. It will consist of three main buildings and public access will be strictly regulated.

If you want to visit the historic Tsukiji Fish Market before it closes, now is the time to do so.

To read The Japan Times article, go here.

The Countdown Has Begun For Tsukiji Fish Market's Move

Above, a vendor at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The countdown has begun for the moving of the Tsukiji Fish Market to its new location.

According to the Asahi Shimbun:

About 200 vendors and wholesalers turned out at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market on the morning of July 27 for the unveiling of a board showing the countdown to the market's relocation in the Toyosu waterfront in Koto Ward. 

The digital board, erected by the association of vendors, intermediate wholesalers and wholesalers of vegetables and fruits at the Chuo Ward market, showed 469 days to the opening of the Toyosu market.

If you want to see the current, and historic, Tsukiji Fish Market before the big move, now is the time to do so. I visited the fish market in 2010 and it was a highlight of that trip to Japan.

To read more, go here. 

Tsukiji Relocation Starts After 30 Years

Above, it is business as usual at the current Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Construction has already begun on the new fish market facility in Toyosu and plans have been finalized to move operations from the current Tsukiji Fish Market to the new location in 2016.

According to The Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun):

Almost 30 years after the redevelopment plan emerged, the relocation of Tsukiji Market — the nation’s largest market, in Chuo Ward, Tokyo — to Toyosu area in Koto Ward will finally begin as the Tokyo metropolitan government has officially announced that the new market will open in early November 2016. 

There have been only a few similar cases of relocating such a large market. While some small businesses have decided to close down, whether the relocation to the new Toyosu market will be smoothly carried out has attracted public attention. 

On Monday, Tsukiji Market was crowded with wholesalers and middlemen, while the adjacent Tsukiji Outer Market was packed with individual customers looking for such seafood as octopus and kazunoko herring roe, and foreign tourists.

To read more, go here. 

New Tokyo Fish Market To Open In November 2016

Above, the current Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It looks like the opening month of Tokyo's new wholesale fish market has been set.

The Japan Times reported:

A new wholesale market will open in early November 2016 in Tokyo’s Toyosu district to replace the storied Tsukiji fish market, the construction committee decided Wednesday.

If one wants to see the historic Tsukiji Fish Market, time is running out to do so.

To read more, go here.

10% of Tsukiji Traders To Quit Due To Move According To Poll

Above, a trader at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A recent survey of traders working at the famed Tsukiji Fish Market found that 10% of them will be discontinuing their businesses rather than moving to the new facility.

According to The Japan Times:

More than 10 percent of traders working at Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji fish market plan to give up their business because they cannot move to its new site in the Toyosu district partly due to the moving costs. 

With the facilities aging, the market, currently in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward, is slated to be moved in fiscal 2015 to the Toyosu district in Koto Ward.

To read the full article, go here. 

Can The Tsukiji Outer Market Survive?

Above, a couple of jolly Tsukiji outer market restaurantateurs. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When I visited the famous Tsukiji Fish Market in December 2010, I also visited the restaurant and shop area (known as the outer market) adjacent to the fish market. While there, I enjoyed an early-morning sushi meal of different varieties of tuna besides doing some window-shopping.

Above, rows of Tsukiji outer market fish vendors. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It was later announced that the Tsukiji Fish Market will be relocating to Toyosu (about 2.3 kilometers away). This is now planned to take place during the 2015 fiscal year.

After this announcement, I wondered if the businesses in the outer market will also be moving or will they be left stranded without the nearby fish market as their anchor.

The Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun) has an article on the outer market. They begin with:

With the relocation of the Tsukiji wholesale market in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, looming several years hence, the adjacent Tsukiji Outer Market, home to many sushi restaurants and food shops, is making strenuous efforts to ensure its survival. 

The Tsukiji market has about 80 years of history as a publicly run wholesale market that moved from Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district to its current location in the wake of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. The Tsukiji market, known as “jonai shijo,” or the inner market, has become a world-class fish market. Whereas in “jogai shijo,” or the Tsukiji Outer Market, a variety of shops ranging from those selling food items to cooking tools are open to the public. The two markets have been prosperous throughout the years, together as one. 

How will the outer market foster its own unique brand after the Tsukiji market relocates to the Toyosu district of Koto Ward?

Above, a dishes and cookware shop at the Tsukiji outer market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read the full article, go here.

2 Blogs Picked Up By The Japan Daily

The Japan Daily picked up two of my blog posts from yesterday

The first one is on "fun facts" of 2013's foreign tourism record year statistics.

The other is on transferring the "Tsukiji brand" from the current facility (set to close two years from now) to the one in Toyosu.

To view The Japan Daily, go here.