Tuna Auction, Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō), Tokyo, Japan

Tuna Auction, Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō), 2005

Tokyo's Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) was well known for the tuna auction at its Inner Market before being closed and moved to Toyosu Market (豊洲市場, Toyosu Shijō) in 2018. Tsukiji Market actually consisted of two markets: the inner and outer. The Outer Market, still in operation, has many restaurants and retail shops selling fresh fish, produce, and all sorts of wares. The Inner Market, now closed, was the wholesale area for seafood, (including the famous tuna auction), produce, restaurants, and shops.

I first visited the Tsukiji tuna auction on 17 Feb 2005 when visitors had unfettered access to the Inner Market's outdoor-exposed tuna auction and seafood wholesale areas, could mingle with the the tuna buyers before, during, and after the auction on the auction floor, and then watch the tuna specialty vendors prepare the tuna for restaurants and other wholesale buyers. Unfortunately problems with tourists interfering with the auction, touching the fish, and generally disrupting business at Tsukiji Inner Market led to tuna auction and wholesale area visitor restrictions. This meant that tourists were banned from the tuna auction floor and made to apply for a limited number of time slots to stand in a restricted area to witness the auction. While still being allowed to watch the tuna auction in the restricted area, visitors could not enter nor walk the tuna auction floor. Today at the modern, totally enclosed, and temperature controlled Toyosu Market buildings, tourists are totally prohibited from the tuna auction and wholesale floors, so the experience and photographs in this article cannot be reproduced today. You now have to witness the Toyosu tuna auction from an enclosed second story gallery overlooking the auction floor and wholesale vendors after applying for a limited number of morning viewing windows online.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to see more photographs and to find out more about this never to be repeated experience on the Tsukiji tuna auction floor and Inner Market.

Gyūtan Tsukasa (牛タン店 司) Restaurant, Sendai, Japan

Wagyu, Kobe, and Matsusaka beef is usually on the minds of visitors to Japan. These well known brands of Japanese beef are on their must try list of foods to eat. While not a brand of beef, but rather a cut of beef, rarely does the word, gyūtan (牛タン) come to mind. While gyūtan is available throughout Japan at yakiniku restaurants, where meat is grilled over a Japanese style barbeque, Sendai is the original home of gyūtan and where the dish is the most well known and popular. In Sendai you can still eat at the restaurant, where in 1948, the dish was developed. [1] Sendai is also the home to many restaurants that only serve gyūtan. While this article is not about the original restaurant where the dish originated, Gyūtan Tsukasa (牛タン店 司) is a typical Sendai gyūtan restaurant serving this dish.

The dish, consisting of pieces of thinly sliced beef tongue cooked over a charcoal grill, is one of least known of Japan's signature foods that visitors must try. The standard serving consists of grilled tongue and pickled vegetables, but is more commonly ordered as part of a set menu (ていしょく, teishoku), which also includes oxtail soup and mugi gohan (麦御飯, steamed white rice with barley). Variations on the set meal include increasing the amount of grilled tongue by 1.5- to 2 times.

Please continue reading the article on my 2018 and 2019 visits to Gyūtan Tsukasa to read about my grilled tongue meals and to see more photographs.