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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
※ 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 30 - 45 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 (72)
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John
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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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Joy
Thoughtful and knowledgable guide
Tetsuya Tsukamoto is a guide with deep knowledge of Tsukiji and its people. He is curious and will ask the shop owners questions and record down in his tiny notebook if there questions he is unsure of. He was able to tell us stories about the shops, people as well as the products in the huge market. A guide enable you to better understand the place and its people beyond just a market.
We are grateful to him as we lost our way and arrives later than 2.30am as agreeded but he manged to secure the 2 slots for us in the Tuna tour though it was actually filled up by 2.30am for that morning. -
Rachel
Informative and nice to have someone by your side
Our communication with our guide was great, responsive, and started weeks before. He was able to suggest a good meeting time and place and then as he took another tour earlier realized we should arrive earlier. I sent him pictures of us, and he sent us a picture of him so there was no doubt. While you do not *NEED* a tour guide to do the tuna auction it sure is nice to have someone who knows the ropes, has done it before, and can answer any questions you might have.
He brought us cushions to sit on while waiting for the auction to start and that was a really nice, considerate touch!
All in all Kiyo was informative and a great guide to have nearby. When the auction ended we didn't go through the market as we'd done that another day, so he suggested that we go to get some sushi and he got us into a itty bitty hole in the wall (like 10 barstools with virtually no room between the barstools and the wall) for some nice, fresh sushi at 6AM on the dot. He helped us clarify which way we needed to go on the subway and actually walked all the way down to the platform with us. -
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Lisa
Super awesome experience !
Extremely pleased with the experience. Yukio is a super awesome host and he ensures we had the best seat, introduced us to auction master and to the best Omakase for breakfast.
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Tomoe
Fantastic!
We're so glad that we could see the auction before Tsukiji's closing. Tetsuya was so knowledgeable and gentle. He knew everything about Tsukiji. It was a bit hard to wait for a long time, but we could see the auction from the very best place thanks to him.
This activity is a MUST while you're in Tokyo. -
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Laurel
So much fun, and very interesting
It was well worth waking up so early for this tour! Tsukamoto-San was so knowledgeable about the history of the auction and the auction process. Having everything explained throughout the experience made it much more enjoyable.
Tsukamoto-San was very also very entertaining, and kept us laughing throughout the tour. Thank you for a great morning!
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!