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The market is located in Tsukiji in Tokyo, and is a major tourist attraction, especially for visitors with jet lag who have arrived from Narita International Airport; the best times to visit are between 5:00AM and 9:00AM.
The Tsukiji fish market is located near the Tsukiji shi-jou Station on the Oedo subway line and Tsukiji Station on the Hibiya subway line . The market consists of two parts. There is an inner market where the auctions and most of the processing of the fish takes place, along with a large number of seafood shops. The outer market has many different shops selling Japanese kitchen tools and groceries, and restaurants, especially sushi restaurants. Most of the shops in the outer market close at noon.
The market handles more than 400 different types of seafood from tiny sardines to 300kg tuna, from cheap seaweed to the most expensive caviar. Overall, more than 700,000 tons of seafood are handled every year at the three seafood markets in Tokyo, with a total value in excess of 600 billion yen (approximately 6 billion US dollar). Tsukiji alone handles over 2000 tons of seafood per day.
An oroshi hocho in use at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo The market opens every morning except Sundays and holidays at 3:00 AM with the arrival of the products by ship, truck and plane from all over the world. Particularly impressive is the unloading of tons of frozen tuna. The wholesalers then estimate the value and prepare the incoming products for the auctions. The buyers also inspect the fish to estimate which fish they would like to bid for and at which price. The auctions start around 5:00 AM and can be visited by the public, but bidding is usually done by registered bidders only. Most of these bidders are professionals working for restaurants, food processing companies, and large retailersIn commerce, a retailer buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells individual items or small quantities to the general public or end user customers, usually in a shop.
The auctions usually end around 7:00AM. Afterwards, the purchased fish is either loaded onto trucks to be shipped to the next destination, or on small carts and moved to the many shops located inside of the market. There the shop owners cut and prepare the products for retail. In case of large fishes as for example Tuna, large tools are needed, and frozen tuna is often cut like logs with a large band saw, and unfrozen Tuna is cut using extremely long knives called Oroshi hocho and Hancho hocho.
The market is most busy between 8:00 and 10:AM, and the activity declines significantly afterwards. Many shops start to close around 11:00AM, and the market closes for cleaning around 1:00PM.
During the entire time the hygiene of the market is supervised to enforce the Food Hygiene Law in Japan.
The first market in Tokyo was established by Tokugawa IeyasuTokugawa Ieyasu (also (archaic) Iyeyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu January 31 1543 June 1 1616) was the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, and is commonly known as one of the "three great unifiers" of feudal Japan (the other two are Oda Nobunaga and Toyotom during the Edo periodThe Edo period is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1867. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa Shogunate which was also officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. During this period external to provide food for EdoThis article is about the former city name of Tokyo, for the Nigerian state, see Edo (state Edo ( Japanese: 江戸, literally: bay- door, " estuary"), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo. The pronunci castle (nowadays Tokyo). Tokugawa Ieyasu invited fishermen from Tsukudajima, Osaka to Edo in order to provide fish for the castle. Fish not bought by the castle was sold near the Nihonbashi bridge at a market called uogashi.
A Central Wholesale Market Law was established in March 1923 after the rice riots of August 1918 during the Taisho period. The Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, 1923, 11:58AM devastated many of the small shops in Tokyo. Subsequently the construction of the central wholesale markets was accelerated, and three markets in Tsukiji, Kanda and Koto began operating in 1935, followed by more markets in Ebara, Toshima, Adachi, and Shokuniku. More markets were opened after World War II.