Sushi for breakfast... a Tsukiji tradition

After an early morning visit to Tokyo's Tsukiji Central Fish Market -- the world's largest fish market -- tradition calls for breaking your fast at one of the many sushi stalls next door. Not really my first, second or third choice for breakfast, but hey, it's tradition. First, however, you must survive a visit inside the wholesale market.

 

Lonely Planet calls Tsukiji "arguably Tokyo's top attraction." Yet no one who works here is happy about having tourists around. It's actually kind of dangerous. Picture the floor of the New York Stock Exchange before it went digital, only the traders here have BIG knives and blood-stained clothes.

I assume this knife has carved larger specimen. It's called oroshi hocho -- "wholesale knife."



















I was nearly clipped a couple of times by the scooters and electric carts storming up and down the narrow aisles. Luckily, the only wounds I suffered were scowls and growls heaped on me by the busy marketers who process more than 2,000 tons of fish a day.
 

Not Pike Place Market.



Concerned about sustainability? Distract yourself by taking in what may be the world's largest styrofoam box market outside.



More like Pike Place Market.

But tradition beckons. Onward to the retail market next door.

You may come for the fresh fish, but you can get just about anything else you might need for your next feast -- meat, sake, vegetables, sweets and dried versions of every sea critter imaginable. Just add water.

And all things seaweed.

I assume my sushi chef bought locally.

I ate it all. Not bad. I definitely recommend using the soy/wasabi sauce. But the tea (I think it was tea) was mighty thick and I couldn't drink it all.

If you love raw fish, you may need to make a pilgrammage here once in your life. The outdoor stalls that I passed up were not selling dainty little fish morsels wrapped in seaweed or carefully placed on clumps of rice. Nooooooooo. They were serving up platters of raw fin fish and shell fish with various dipping sauces. There were plenty gaijin mixed in with locals starting the day this way with glasses of beer.

I went to one of the outside stalls after eating my sushi appetizer, but I bought some food that I consider more suitable for a rise-and-shine meal -- soba noodles in a comforting broth with tempura prawns, squid and some sort of greens.

That's what I call a complete breakfast!