Tsukiji Outer Market and Toyosu: how to spend a market morning

Tsukiji Outer Market: breakfast, not an auction

The Outer Market has around four hundred shops and stalls: fresh sushi counters, grilled scallops and tamagoyaki on sticks, knife shops, tea and dried fish. It is at its best from about 7:00 to 10:00, and many stalls close by early afternoon. Sundays, national holidays and some Wednesdays are market holidays when much of it is shut, so check the market calendar before you go.

Toyosu: where the tuna auction is now

At Toyosu Market you watch the tuna auction from a public gallery above the floor, early in the morning, roughly from 5:30 to 6:30. A lower deck closer to the auction needs an advance application. Toyosu also has sushi restaurants inside the market buildings, with long queues from dawn, and a new Edo style food street next door.

Which one to choose

If you want the auction, go to Toyosu at dawn. If you want to eat your way through a morning, go to Tsukiji around 8:00. If you have the energy, do both: Toyosu first for the auction, then Tsukiji for breakfast. Either way, come hungry and bring some cash for the smaller stalls.

Tips for a good visit

Keep to the left in the narrow lanes, eat at the stall where you bought the food rather than walking with it, and ask before photographing people at work. Large suitcases and pushchairs are difficult in the crowds, so leave them in the car or at the hotel.

By car, and the price

Trains are sparse before 6:00, which is exactly when the auction starts. A chauffeur collects you at your hotel in the dark, takes you to Toyosu, then to Tsukiji, and back, with your purchases in the car. It is from ¥16,000 per hour with a two hour minimum, and a market morning usually takes three to four hours. Your chauffeur can speak English, Italian, Spanish, French or Japanese, at the same price.

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