We would love to do the "line up at 4:30 am and watch the auction" at the fish market. Apparently only 140 people get it and the place is hard to figure your way around unless you know Japanese.
Anyone know of a good local guide? The guides we've found online are kind of lame (they start at like 9 am, so they miss the auction, and have a sushi-making class, which we don't want).
Contributor 
26,736 posts
69 reviews There is absolutely nothing hard to figure out once you get in a tuna auction group--you just follow everybody else to the auction site. You don't need to speak/understand a word of Japanese.
Are you taking a taxi to Tsukiji? If so, tell the driver that you want to go to the Kachidoki-Bashi Entrance:
Contributor
26,736 posts
69 reviews you don't have much of an alternative other than staying out all night or getting a hotel close to the market.
I would just add to check the operational calendar before going. only thing worse I can think of at getting up at 3 am to go to the auction is finding out it's closed to tourists when you get there
Contributor
26,736 posts
69 reviews >>>>you don't have much of an alternative other than staying out all night or getting a hotel close to the market.>>>
What's wrong with taking a taxi?
Here is the calendar:
I didn't say there was anything wrong with a taxi, I just said it's pretty much the only option
thank you for the link and info! will just grab taxi and skip a guide!
About 3,500 yen if you don't use the toll expressway (with late night surcharge).
That's the only issue. I might recommend sleeping early until midnight then take the metro to Tsukiji, and spend a couple of hours at Jonathan's or Denny's diner (Jonathan's should have a all-you-can-drink soft drinks bar; at Denny's coffee refill is free of charge) with a book to read, until tuna auction time.
Sushi Dai opens at 05:00. There would be a queue before that.
Edited: 09 March 2013, 01:21There are of course 24 hr manga/internet cafes near the market.
http://www.iicomcom.com/s_ginza.html
