The key to experiencing the freshest sushi in the world is knowing how to play by the rules.
It was the lick that was felt by a nation ? a crime against tuna, broadcast across Japan. It had been 147 years since Japan had lifted its ban on foreign trade, but all it took was a few drunkards to cause the curtain to be drawn again.
Tokyo?s Tsukiji fish market, which handles more than 2,000 tons of food daily, is the world?s largest wholesale seafood market. A fifth of the fish caught in the world goes through this market. And this is where the lick went down.
The day began like most others at Tsukiji, which is in the heart of the city. At 3 a.m., the seafood began pouring in from all over the world. Much of it comes from ships that pull right up to the unloading docks on the Sumida River; the rest arrives by truck or airplane from other ports. By 5:15 a.m., the bidding had begun.
Fish the size of torpedoes would be presented to the eager wholesalers, restaurant agents and supermarket reps in rapid succession before being loaded onto trolleys and whisked away. Most of the trolleys would head to seafood stalls just outside of the auction area or to trucks for distribution across Japan. Others would head straight for the sushi restaurants right outside the market gates. As any sushi lover knows, freshness is paramount, and the market?s operations are so expertly choreographed that you can walk into a place like the legendary Sushi Bun and eat a piece of tuna sashimi that you?d watched being unloaded on the docks only hours earlier.
It?s a spectacle, and on the morning of the lick, in December 2008, there were about 500 tourists mixed in with thousands of market workers. Also in attendance were a handful of nincompoops.
As you?ve likely seen or heard, Japan is a place where decorum reigns supreme, where humility is woven into the cultural fabric. It?s a place where the service industry takes great pride in its work but refuses tips, where people will often walk you to your destination if you ask them for directions. And the Tsukiji fish market is no exception. Amid the scrambling fish trolleys and the swarming auction bidders is a culture of seafood commerce that dates back to the 16th century. Like anywhere else in Japan, the market is a place where playing by the rules usually results in a more rewarding experience.
?I think that it?s important for people to see the market so that they can understand our food and our culture,? said market official Morimoto Hiroyuki in an interview with a Japanese TV crew. ?But it?s a very dangerous place, and they [foreign tourists] do not adhere to the rules, so we don?t know what to do.?
It was at this point that his interview was interrupted by a pair of drunken tourists, who whizzed through the shot on the back of a fish trolley.
The broadcast went on to record foreign hooligans disrupting the auction and causing chaos in the market. The TV cameras then caught a group of British tourists accosting ? and, ultimately, licking ? a tuna worth thousands of dollars. And that was it. When you mess with Japan?s fish, you mess with Japan. Shortly after the broadcast, the market banned all tourists from the auction area.
?The tourists sometimes bother us,? tuna wholesaler Junichi Honma told CNN. ?The time is limited for the auction, only about an hour, and they think this is just a sightseeing show. This is our livelihood.? Although the ban has since been lifted, Tsukiji has now hired security guards to babysit the tourists and preserve order.
