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The alarm went off at 3:45am. The bed was warm and cozy. "Do you really want to do this?" it asked.
"Not really," I replied, considering refluffing my pillow falling back asleep for at least 4 hours.
One of the nice things about Japanese hotels is that shower function is secondary to the bathtub function. A nice hot bath beckoned compared to a quick much less satisfying rinse under the shower. No time for such luxery.
The entire hotel seemed asleep as I crossed the lobby at a little after 4am. The sea of shining faces that manned the front desk were gone. No doubt someone was sitting in a back room looking at a camera and would arrive at the front desk before any customer who approached it. The information desk, where they would answer any question with ease, was similarly vacant. I am pretty sure if you asked them a question that had no answer the general manager would soon be apologizing in person that they couldn't find an answer.
Even the cab driver first in line at the cab stand was sound asleep. Sleeping in public is a surprisingly common occurrence in Japan. From people nodding off on the trains to truck drivers asleep at lunch in their trucks. Sleep appears to be an elusive prey that needs to be captured whenever possible.
The second cab driver was awake and I got in. I was no doubt going to be the ubiquitous vending machines best can of hot coffee customer today. Tsukiji fish market is on the Sumida River in Tokyo. It is the largest seafood market in the world. They claim 2,000 tons of over 450 types of seafood is handled there daily. From what I saw they could have said 20,000 tons and I would have believed it. Every morning there is a tuna auction. If you get there early, by 4:30 at the latest you can take a tour or the auction. There are about 70 slots or so and when it fills it fills. First come first serve.
This is why I had gotten up at 3:45. This is why I had taken a 40 dollar cab ride instead of waiting until 5 am when the trains started to run and paying 1.50 on one of the best train systems in the world. To see a tuna auction.
A large part of me knew that it wasn't worth it. Wasn't worth getting up 4 hours earlier and paying much more to get there. At the time I didn't even know what the tuna auction would entail. The ever helpful information desk just told me I needed to be there by 4:30 at the latest if I wanted to see it.
When you travel you can always tell just how "touristy" an adventure you are having by the ratio of tourists to people who live there. I can tell you that the only people from Tokyo or even Japan that were there for the tuna auction that cold morning were escorting foreign guests. English with an American accent was the most common language. A bit of Spanish, some French, a couple of Chinese, and two people speaking Russian or some other Eastern European language.
We waited in 4 lines with one approximately 27 inch tv sitting on a stand about shoulder high in the front of the room. The tv was showing a program about the market that had been filmed in Japanese for NHK, the national tv company, and translated into English. It was an interesting program but you needed to be in the front of a line to see and hear it. I was about 1/3 of the way back and only was able to catch parts of it. Out of all the crazy people there wearing our issued safety orange vests, that would make it easier both for the workers zipping around on the various lifts, carts, and people mashers to keep from mashing us and easier for the guards to escort us with like neon sheep, out of all these people I was the only one as far as I could tell to make the trip alone.
With a half hour to wait, I was able to think about what I was doing up this early, standing in line soon to be escorted to see a "famous" tuna auction of which I had no idea of what to expect and really no expectations. It was because I could. When is the next time I am going to be in Tokyo able to sleep walk through the rest of a day after seeing the Tsukiji tuna auction? The point of travel is to do and to see. Even if it means getting up at a ridiculous hour and dodging people mashers loaded with giant fish in the predawn hours.
To be continued with harrowing tales of tuna auction behind the scenes backstabbing and cut throat bidding.
