Tsukiji Outer Market

The famous part left in October 2018. The wholesale market, the tuna auction, the turret trucks and the 4am chaos all moved to Toyosu, two kilometres east, and what stayed behind is the outer market: about 400 shops and stalls in the lanes that grew up to supply the people who worked at the big one.

It survived the move better than anyone expected. The knife shops are still here, and they will grind an edge and engrave a name while you wait. So are the dried bonito sellers, the wasabi grated fresh on sharkskin, the tamagoyaki stands selling sweet omelette on a stick for a couple of hundred yen, the shops that do nothing but nori, and a dozen counters serving sea urchin, grilled scallops and rice bowls that would cost three times as much in Ginza, which is fifteen minutes away on foot.

Timing decides everything. This is a morning market: it is busy from seven, thins after eleven, and much of it is shut by two in the afternoon. Many shops close on Sundays and Wednesdays, following the old wholesale calendar, so check before making the trip.

Prices have gone up with the visitor numbers and some stalls now price for tourists rather than for chefs. The ones with a queue of Japanese customers are the reliable ones.

Note the signs asking you not to eat while walking. The lanes are narrow and full of delivery carts.

For the tuna auction you now want Toyosu, where it can be watched from a viewing deck or, with a lottery ticket, from the floor. Namiyoke Shrine at the market's edge has been protecting fishmongers since 1659.