Visit Tokyo: Tsukiji Market

Although I've been to Japan a few times before, it wasn't until our most recent trip did I visit Tsukiji Market.

In my mind, Tsukiji equates to seafood, and since I'm not a big seafood eater, I never had a desire to go.  But I knew Tsukiji offered more than just seafood, so I was game for a visit.

As expected, we saw (and smelled!) all sorts of sea creatures as we traversed the crowded streets of Tsukiji.

Most of what we saw I had no idea what they were, but fortunately, there were a lot of non-seafood eats I could try.

Surprisingly, the best thing I ate at Tsukiji (and in fact, of the entire trip), was Strawberry Custard Mochi - and I don't even like mochi!

Mochi

Grilled seafood

Corn Fritter

Cheese Chikuwa

Edamame Fish Cake

Tamagoyaki

Assorted Mochi

I was disappointed that I encountered a handful of very rude merchants (one even tried to swindle me!), but there were more kind and pleasant merchants than not.

A lady at one of the mochi stands was just the sweetest - offering a seat for us to sit down and eat the mochi, and even offering us wipes to wipe our hands.

You can find all sorts of things at Tsukiji - from dishes and clothes, to premium ume and white strawberries!

The crowd was manageable, and the eats were good.  It's just too bad there were so many unfriendly merchants.