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Overview
Experience the energy and excitement of early morning at Tokyo's premier Tuna Auction at the Tsukiji fish market in this tour with a private guide! The tour starts from early morning around 1:00 am.
Highlights
- Experience the energy and excitement of early morning at Tokyo's premier Tuna Auction at the Tsukiji fish market.
- Queue up starting from 1:00 am to be one of 120 people permitted daily to access the highly-sought Tuna Auction.
- Gain insight into the history and wholesale activities at Tsukiji Market from your professional tour guide.
- Enjoy a fresh sushi breakfast at a recommended sushi restaurant in the Tsukiji area, at your request.
Description
You'll meet your professional tour guide bright and early at 1:00 am to reserve your limited spot to the renown Tuna Auction. After you will witness first hand the early morning brokers check deep inside the famous tuna using flashlights, as they assess the quality of the fish. Then you will watch as exorbitant prices are paid for the high-quality tuna during the Tuna Auction from 5:30 am and 6:00 am. It's a rare and exciting opportunity to experience the the Tuna Auction live.
Following the Tuna Auction, the expert guide will give you a short market tour in a small, exclusive group. In the short market tour, you will learn more history about the Tsukiji fish market and explore the vegetable market and the outside of the inside market. If you are lucky, you can watch the vegetable auction! You will also enjoy browsing various kinds of shops selling fish, vegetables, and dried seafood in the outer market.
If you are craving some of the freshest sushi available in the world, you can finish the morning with a sushi breakfast, at your request. Please let the guide know in advance if you would like to be taken to a recommended sushi restaurant. Please note, the breakfast fee is not included in the tour price.
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Add-On: Extended tour of the Tsukiji Fish Market
If you would like to have a full tour of the Tsukiji Fish Market after your Tuna Auction Tour, you can add-on an extended walking tour! You can do so by purchasing the Add-on option along with your Tuna Auction Tour. Between the end of Tuna Auction Tour (around 5:30 am) and Tsukiji Fish Market opening time (9:00 am), the following is an example itinerary:
- Breakfast at a sushi restaurant in Tsukiji market: The guide will bring you to one of their recommended restaurants for a fresh seafood breakfast (1 hour)
- Tour the Outer Market: Browse various kinds of shops selling fish, vegetables, nori (dried seaweed), and dried seafood (1 hour)
- Namiyoke Inari Shrine: Visit the Shinto shrine that translates to "protection of waves" that is meant to protect the Tsukiji Market. Then enjoy a relaxing coffee break before starting the Tsukiji Fish Market Tour (1 hour)
The duration of the Tuna auction and market add on tour is approximately 10 hours, from 1:00 am until 11:00 am.
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Please note that if your booking is for more than 5 people, you might be split into groups to meet the safety guidelines set by the market authorities.
The Tuna Auction Tour is regularly available Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, excluding holidays and market closed days.
Our tour guide will ensure you have access into the exclusive Tuna Auction, but remember you'll be 1 of 120 other visitors in waiting room and 60 of you will attend each of the 2 bustling auctions!
Meeting Point
Train station near Tsukiji Market, or if you book the pick-up add-on, any hotel inside Tokyo's Yamanote Line, or within 10 minutes of any station on the line.
Important Information
Due to the upcoming transfer of the market to a new location, the availability of tours in October, November and December cannot be guaranteed until a few weeks prior to the date.
※ Please note that flash photography and alcohol are both strictly prohibited at the auction, and anyone indulging in these may be ejected without warning
※ In the very rare case that you cannot watch the Tuna Auction because of the limited number of visitors admitted every day, you will receive a partial refund of $50 USD as the rest of the tour will still take place.
※ What to Expect During the Morning of the Tuna Auction:
- Visitors are recommended to arrive at the Tsukiji Fish Market at around 1:00 am for the Tuna Auction Registration process.
- Only 120 visitors will be permitted access to the auction arena.
- The 120 visitors will then be split into 2 groups to view the auction separately (keeping numbers of spectators and distractions to a minimum).
- Please understand that other visitors will also be taking photographs, so we appreciate your patience and understanding when taking photos at the tuna auction.
- Expected waiting time is around 2 hours in a waiting room.
- Duration of the auction itself is about 20 minutes.
※ Please do not bring strollers or luggage to the market, as the passageways are very narrow.
What you need to bring
- Casual clothing and comfortable shoes are strongly recommended. Please note that sandals are not allowed inside the market.
- A light jacket is recommended as the auction room is chilly.
- English (Fluent)
- 日本語 (Fluent)
- 普通话 (Fluent)
- 廣東話 (Fluent)
Hi we are a travel agency, offering Tsukiji tours. National guide will take you there. Here will be closed at least next year, so you should see this Japanese traditional fish market. Looking forward to meet you.
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Reviews (81)
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Adam
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Claire
No need to have a guide
To see the auction is a wonderful experience but you really don't need a guide for this. Nobu was very nice but did not add any value to the experience
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Alan
Ken was an awesome guide!
Ken was an awesome guide, and was very patient in explaining to us the history of the market, and also how it is operated. He also brought us around to the marketing shopping area after the tour and showed us the interesting places. He also gave us some recommendations on places to visit in Tokyo. Overall we had a great time with Ken, thanks Ken for all your hosting!
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Martin
Most useless 200 USD ever.
Your guide was on time, very polite.
Your offer for that price is a joke. There is minimal or no added value to have a guide for this event. Most did not pay anything to get the Same benefit.
Great you made 200USD from me.. but your company will not get not even 1USD more from me for any other tour -
Abigail
An unforgettable experience at the market
Had such a great time taking the tour with our guide Chika. Waiting in line all night for hours to watch the auction is challenging, but Chika came prepared w/ lots of great information and even brought a powerpoint! It was wonderful getting the chance to chat with a local for so long, and she gave us some great suggestions on other things to try during our stay in Tokyo. The auction itself was such a cool experience, definitely something you have to try once. It's such a unique event and getting the chance to watch up close was unforgettable. Afterward Chika showed us around and helped us find a great place to get sushi away from the crowds. For other tourists, I would definitely recommend having a guide. The market is very big, full of activity and overwhelming. It would have been super challenging to navigate on our own, and the added bonus of learning all about the process before we watched really added to the experience.
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John
Great and interesting tour! Yuko is the best.. thanks!
It's an early morning and a long wait but Yuko took wonderful care of us. The auction is such a unique and interesting experience, very cool to witness. We really enjoyed exploring all the stalls and vendors at the outer market after and trying some of the different foods. Thanks Yuko!
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Sam
Amazing
It is absolutely worth it to do the tour with Yukio. He knows all the right people, knows where to stand and knows what to recommend. Other tour goers were extremely jealous and trying to get his information and ask him questions. He's a terrific tour guide. Book him today!!
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Lorraine
Well worth getting up very early for. A unique experience
Yukio was a very knowledgable guide and helped us to understand the history as well as how the tuna industry works in Japan and the part the auction plays in this this. He introduced us to one of the whole sealers who has worked in the tuna business for 58 years. Now 74 and has no plans to retire. He is the 10th generation in his family to work in the business. Fascinating. Yukio also gave us information about japaneses culture, food, culture and places to visit in Tokyo. He recommended a great sushi restaurant in the market where we had breakfast after the auction. thank you Yukio
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Partyfl
Our guide, Yukio Akashi, was great. The info provided before and during the auction was good.
Our guide, Yukio Akashi, was great. The info provided before and during the auction was good.
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Aaron
Amazing experience
Our friendly guides, Yukio and Kiyo were very knowledgable about the history and the operations of tsukiji market. They answered all of our questions and gave us some quite astounding facts about what goes on here. It would have been a very different experience without them as not many at the fish market speak english.
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Up to 1 Week Prior
Definitely a waste of money - tour guide was kind but added very limited value!
The tuna auction was cool and walking around the market was fun but having a guide was pretty useless and a large waste of money. My guide had virtually no knowledge of the history of the market, the seafood industry, tuna, etc. - based on other reviews that's why I signed up (people said their guides were very knowledgeable of the history, were very experienced with the market, etc.).
Our guide was very kind and personable - nothing against her - she just didn't really add much value when it comes to the market, how fish are bid on, where the fish are sourced from, different species, etc.
Other friends who visit Tokyo I will suggest they just go to the market by themselves and further I'm going to suggest people avoid Voyagin as the cost / benefit is simply not there. In all the traveling I've done globally, this was one of the more expensive guides and really only for a few hours of walking around pointing out different vegetables outside of the fish market. I met a fellow traveler who did a tour with another company - his guide had worked at the market for over 20 years! He said it was great because his guide knew everything - not the case here...