Walking to Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market - New Year's Japan Travel Day 4

Monday, March 12, 2018

Walking to Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market - New Year's Japan Travel Day 4

Italia Gai in Shiodome, Tokyo

My husband and I traveled Japan during this New Year's holidays. On December 30, we finally headed toward Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market (東京築地市場) in the morning. :)

As I mentioned in my previous entry, Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market - What My Husband Ate in Japan, when he goes on a business trip to Tokyo, he always stays at a hotel which is located very close to Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market in order to have high quality seafood there when he has a little free time. I also really love fresh raw fish. :) This time, we also tried to book a hotel near Tokyo Tukiji Fish Market, but it was hard to find one because it was the high season in Tokyo. We ended to up staying Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia Gai, which is located 20 minutes by foot from there. :) As its hotel name, the hotel is stood in Italia gai (イタリア街), which is the district inspired by Italy. The stone pavements around the hotel reminded me of our travel in Italy. There are also many Italian restaurants and cafe in this Italia gai.

Italia Gai in Shiodome Tokyo

Anyway, we headed toward Tsukiji Fish Market.

JRA, Japan Racing Association (Horse Racing)

Walk on the street beneath the elevated train tracks of the JR Yamanote Line

Shiodome Minami 汐留南

After walking for 20 minutes or so, we finally arrived at Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market!

Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market

I was surprised that it was incredibly crowded with too many people. I think it's because it was the last business day of Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market in the year, but it was more crowded than I had expected. The last time I visited Tsukiji had been about 10 years ago, and majority of customers there had been Japanese at that time. This time, I guessed that two-thirds of people were foreign tourists. According to Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of foreign people visited Japan was 8,346,969 in 2007, and it was 28,691,100 in 2017. It increased 3.4 times more in 10 years!

Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market

This time, my husband recommended me to go to Tenfusa (天房), a tempura restaurant, because they serve pretty good tempura bowls. "Wait! I wanna eat fresh fish in Tsukiji. Why don't we have sushi there?" (He goes to Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market almost every year and always eats high quality fresh sushi or kaisendon there.) He told me that this restaurant also serves fresh tuna. That's why we decided to try this restaurant. Indeed, we really loved their foods. I'll write about it next time. :)