Tsukiji Fish Market: Better Get There Soon!

Above, yours truly behind a clapboard in front of a Tsukiji sushi restaurant.

One of the highlights of my December 2010 Japan trip to promote The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan was a visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

The Japan Times Online has an article on the fish market with plenty of tidbits on its history.

According to the article:

Edo's [Edo was Tokyo's former name] main fish markets were located in Nihonbashi, but they were moved to Tsukiji after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Prior to that move, Tsukiji, still set off from the city by a canal, served as a designated Restricted Foreign Settlement, a concession in the wake of U.S. Cmdr. Matthew Perry's forceful opening of Japan that led to 1854's Convention of Kanagawa. The American School in Japan, Rikkyo (St. Paul's) University and Seiroka (St. Luke's) Hospital all spent their early years in Tsukiji, though only St. Luke's remains there now.

Along with the famous fish market, Tsukiji also boasts shops and restaurants that serve the freshest sushi dishes that can be found.

If you plan a future trip to Japan, a visit to Tsukiji Fish Market should be included on your itinerary. You'd better do it soon as the fish market is set to relocate in 2015.

Above, a Tsukiji fish vendor.

The writer inquired about this:

Will the market relocate to Toyosu in Koto Ward, the allegedly polluted former site of Tokyo Gas? Management head of the new market development Yuki Ono, 49, says it will. "Land decontamination has begun, and the move will commence in 2014," she says. "Tsukiji will close by March of 2015."

So, if you want to see the famous Tsukiji Fish Market, you'd better get there by 2015!

To read the full article, go here.