Tokyo's Tsukiji Outer Market Food Tour

Tokyo is a city known for many things, but high up on the list is their food. If you follow along my adventures, you know that getting to know a country through its cuisine is a top priority for Ben and I when we travel. And ever since we did a food tour in the city of Lisbon with Ben's family in 2018, we have staked out food tours in just about every destination we've visited since.

These tours allow you to get to know a local, learn more about the history, put a destination's food into the context of society, while also allowing you to meet up with other curious travelers from around the world. It really is a win-win for those looking to optimize their time abroad, get a (literal) taste for a city, and learn a few new things all at the same time.

One of Ben's goals was to tour the Tsukiji Fish Market. Previously, visitors could go inside the inner market and see all the different fish stalls, watch as the local (and foreign) restaurants got their highly prized sushi-grade fish, and just see the general chaotic and exciting sights of the world's largest fish market. This twelve minute video gives a brief glimpse into what the experience was previously like, but, as the video alludes to a future moving of the market to Toyosu to some date in the future, sadly, the future is now. The inner market in Tsukiji is no more.

However, that doesn't mean that a visit to Tsukiji is no longer worth it - in fact, the outer market, where we visited, was super fun, tasty, interesting, and well worth our time. We had a friendly guide, Yoshika, who shared with us the local customs, how to eat the foods we saw and tasted, provided pictures and supplemental material to make the experience come alive, and just helped us navigate the labyrinth of stalls and options that sprinkle the market area. We used Japan Wonder Travel, and selected the Tokyo Fish Market Tour, rounding out 3 hours of good food, good drinks, and good fun. The experience is totally worth it, and you'll finish the morning with a full stomach, and an overall amazing time.

Meet Up - Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple

We took the subway to Tsukiji from our hotel in Shinbuku, and overall pretty easy journey that takes about 30 minutes or so. We left our hotel early with enough time to grab an iced-tea at the local Starbucks in front of the temple. After all, with a meeting time of 8:30AM, it's important to have the appropriate levels of caffeine to help you navigate a busy morning of food tasting and sight seeing.

We next went to the temple, and seemed to be the first to arrive. Ben and I are two giant westerners, so we tend to stick out in Asian countries (or anywhere, except for the Netherlands, where everyone there is pretty much 5 inches taller than me). We walked around the courtyard and I took some photographs. Incidentally, when I first moved to Maui back in 2004, I worked at a preschool that was housed in the bottom of a Hongwanji temple (though we were a secular, non-affiliated preschool), and I spent several years attending Obon festivals and admiring the beautiful architecture of the building we were fortunate to be located in. Visiting this Hongwanji temple in Tsukiji brought back so many pleasant memories, and this temple's beauty was undeniable. Though it was originally built in the year 1617, it has had a few tragedies befall it, and the most recent rebuilding was in 1923. Even if you did not have to meet here for the tour, the building is beautiful and worth a detour.

Once we found the tour leaders, we were given to a tour guide, but at the last minute we were switched to Yoshika's group. Though I am unsure as to why we were switched, I feel as if it was a twist of good luck because the people in the group were amazing, and Yoshika was a fun and lively guide. Of course, it might be possible that had we stuck with our original group we might feel similarly, but without knowing for sure, I can say that we were happy with the way things worked out.

Once all of the members of the group joined us, Yoshika gave us some background information about the temple, and offered a tour inside. The various Hongwanji temples that I have visited are often ornate, golden in color, and highly stylized. There were a lot of lotus motifs within the interior, and they are worth seeking out. Also check out the massive organ pipes towards the rear of the temple.

Yoshika demonstrated how to offer up a prayer to Buddha, and we each were given an opportunity to engage in this practice. The Oshoko is an incense offering of purification. To watch how to perform the oshoko properly, this video can help.

The Outer Market

After getting a tour of the temple, it was off to the market. Fortunately, the market and the temple are minutes away from each other, and we only had to cross one major intersection to reach the long, narrow roads filled with stalls selling any number of items. Looking for a long stem of wasabi to freshly grate? How about a new knife? Interested in uni? Green tea chocolates? Beans and other dried goods? Fresh tuna? A giant oyster? Grilled octopus? This market had it all - let me show you around.

Crossing over Haromi dori Avenue towards the outer market. Ben and I were amused to see a Lawson's on the corner, as this is a chain we see around Waikiki, though we didn't realize it was a Japanese store.

Yoshika had a binder full of useful information, including images and pertinent info that we would need for the random products found around the market. Here, we examined konbu kelp, an extremely important ingredient in Japanese cooking.

One note while looking at the pictures of prices. At the time of our visit, ¥100 = about $1. Just subtract the last two zeros, essentially, and that would be the price in US dollars. You'll see some things that look reasonably priced, and other things that are exorbitantly expensive (wait for the upcoming mango). Japan is by no means a "budget" destination for Americans, and the prices of most things reminded us of the cost of things here in Hawaii or back home in the New York City region. For Americans who live in areas of the country with a lower cost of living, I suspect Japan would come across as very expensive. And for those who have visited Southeast Asia, there's definitely a huge price disparity. Still, the quality of things you get in Japan is very high, and even though you won't save any money visiting, you'll likely have a great time exploring a wonderful country.

Interested in some grilled Wagyu?

Lots of different varieties of pickled veggies for sale.

Slight height difference between Ben and the statue of the chef of Sushizanmai.

Fresh, whole wasabi.

If I had known I could get $75-100 for each mango I grew in my yard, I'd have planted a mango tree the day I bought my house. Maybe it's time to see if I can unload some of this other tropical fruit we have growing...

All of the fruits looked enticing, and some are more reasonably priced than others...

Finally, some fish. This is a fish market after all...

Fish heads for sale!

Next, we stopped at Marutake, who has been serving up tamagoyaki, or egg omelettes on a stick, for over 80 years. At at essentially $1 each, it's a great way to try this incredibly popular snack, while also catching a glimpse of the entertaining and masterful way each omelette is made.

I'm not a fan of runny eggs, but these were cooked well enough for me to enjoy, and they add a little sugar to the mixed eggs. This gives them a surprisingly sweet taste, something that is pretty unfamiliar to our western palettes where eggs are more savory than sweet. Still, it's absolutely worth giving these a try, especially to challenge this preconceived notion you might already have about "omelettes" and what they should taste like.

There were several "No Eating!" signs around the market to prevent those eating on sidewalks from blocking other businesses from attracting customers.

All the beans your little heart could want.

We stopped for some fried goodies on a stick at Marutama Suisan Processing. These were gluten free, using potato starch instead of wheat flour for the batter. They were hot, crispy and delicious - the perfect street food.

Ben enjoying his fried shrimp skewer, while I had the veggie option. Yum!

The ol' giant tuna diving face first into a massive crab.

I will give Ben a lot of credit - he is not afraid to try random foods, especially the ones that might give others pause. We were on our way to the oyster stall when Ben spied these baby octopuses being grilled, and he just had to buy them. Yoshika had told us to feel free to buy anything we saw that struck our fancy, and these were the first items that we sprang for (but by "we" I really mean Ben). I grew up a picky eater, and while if I was at a restaurant and these showed up on my plate, I would eat them (or at least try them), I do not feel the same obligation to try things that do not look appealing to me for the sake of trying them.

However, that's where Ben comes in, with his stomach of steel and adventurous palate, and he has my admiration.

Between his grilled baby octopi and giant oyster, Ben was well pleased with his culinary decisions.

These were the biggest oysters I've eve seen, and required two bites to consume the whole thing (except for one poor guest on our tour who did it all in one large bite!).

Right next door was the largest crab I'd ever witnessed, making the price of ~$680 sound about right!

Sampling dried and pickled fish.

We stopped by a store processing and selling bonito flakes, or katsuobushi, dried flakes of the bonito fish, a breed of tuna. These flakes tend to look like pieces of wood, but make up the backbone of many Japanese dishes. They provide a light fish taste - not too overwhelming (and I say this as a person who does not like "fishy" food), but provides a nice umami flavor.

Ben and I considered buying him a nice knife, as the outer market has plenty of high quality chefs knife options. However, as Tokyo was our first stop on a 2 week cross-Asia trip, we didn't want to have to babysit this knife and declare it in each country we visited. In the future, though, it's definitely something we will consider.

Walking into the current inner market. There, lots of purveyors of fish are available, and where visitors can get a glimpse of the type of work that takes place to bring the freshest seafood to your kitchen, and ultimately to your tables. At the same time, the inner market has a lot more "no photography" rules at many of the stalls - we stopped at this one to pick up a few platters of tuna to sample on the roof, and were able to catch a glimpse of how the tuna is prepared for sale.

Once we reached upstairs, our group found a table under an umbrella to sit and sample the two kinds of tuna we bought. One piece was a little fattier and richer than the other, but each was melt in your mouth delicious.

Next, we visited the Namiyoke Inari Shrine, located adjacently to the market. Though not particularly large, it's still an interesting little space tucked into the side streets of this busy district. First built in 1657, this shrine was created to protect this reclaimed area of Tokyo from waves that would wipe the work back out to sea. To learn more about it's interesting history, read more here.

Just like our visit to the Meiji Jingu shrine the day before, Yoshika demonstrated how to purify yourself before entering the space.

Yoshika also taught each the group how to offer up a prayer to the Shinto gods by ringing the bell, clapping and bowing towards the alter. Shinto spirits can live anywhere, and so by making noises, you are drawing their attention so that they can hear your prayer.

Attached around the smaller alter and the carved rocks are shide (pronounced shi-day). To learn more about these zig-zag, lightning shaped pieces of paper and their significance to the Shinto religion, check out this website.

Nearing the end of our tour, Yoshika brought us to a sake stall, and we each got to take home the masu, or the sake wooden box. We sent up a big group kanpai (cheers) for a wonderful group and enjoyable morning of sampling some of Tokyo's culinary delights.

Sampling dried mushrooms sliced razor thin.

We finished off our food tour with a meal at Tsukiji Kitaro sushi restaurant, just a few blocks from the market. We were each given our own sampler platter with options ranging from ebi (shrimp), tuna, unagi (eel), and tamago (egg), as well as others (see picture below). It was a fun, convivial way to wrap up a really delicious tour of Tsukiji!

Overall, this tour was incredibly worthwhile - we got not only a delicious taste of the city of Tokyo, but also a lot of interesting cultural information as well. Ben and I were lucky to have such a great group of fellow travelers and eaters, as well as a fantastic host in Yoshika. This is one food tour we won't soon forget!

For Next Time

Now that we've done the outer Tsukiji Market, and the new Toyosu Market is up and running, we would aim to do a tour of that one in the future.

Details

As I mentioned above, this tour was taken via Japan Wonder Travel. They had a number of different tours available, but we selected the Tokyo Fish Market Tour @ Tsukiji. This was a three hour tour that ended at the sushi restaurant, conveniently located near a few public transportation options.

I have already recommended this tour to friends who were visiting Tokyo, and would happily recommend it here. It's definitely a fun way to learn more about Japanese cuisine, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

---

Day of travel: June 17, 2019