Tsukiji Fish Market Tours — Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about visiting the Tsukiji Outer Market and about the guided walks that go into it: the closed Wednesdays, the visitor window, the ticket that does not exist, where the auction went, what to eat and what a morning costs. If you would rather compare the departures themselves, Tsukiji Fish Market Tours lists every one with its price and its meeting point.
Is the Tsukiji Fish Market still open?
Yes. The wholesale market that traded here moved to Toyosu on 6 October 2018, but the outer market stayed, and it is the part visitors come for. That is around 460 shops and restaurants in the lanes between Tsukiji Hongan-ji and the river, trading six mornings a week.
Do you need a ticket for the Tsukiji Fish Market?
No. The lanes are a public street, so there is no gate, no booth and no admission fee to pay. What you can book is a guided walk, and those start at $13.
What time should you arrive at Tsukiji?
Between 9am and 1pm is the window the market itself recommends for visitors. The lanes open from about 5am, but the market asks that professional buyers have priority until 9am. Most shops start packing up around 2pm.
Which days is the market closed?
It is shut on Sundays, public holidays and the Wednesdays the wholesale market's own calendar closes. The Wednesday closures are not a weekly rule — they follow the wholesale market's own calendar, which closes some Wednesdays and not others. Check the market's calendar for the morning you have in mind.
How much does a Tsukiji Fish Market tour cost?
Guided walks here run from $13 to about $157 a person. The cheapest are 90-minute walks where you buy your own food as you go; the middle of the range buys you five to ten tastings; the top of it is a private guide for your party alone.
Is the food included on a Tsukiji tour?
It depends on the tour, and this is the decision worth making carefully. Six of these walks buy your tastings for you; the rest give you a guide who takes you to the right stalls while you pay at each counter. Each card below says which it is.
Can you see the tuna auction at Tsukiji?
Not at Tsukiji — the auction moved to Toyosu Market with the rest of the wholesale trade, and it is watched from there. Toyosu is Shijō-mae, on the Yurikamome line, about a ten-minute ride away. One departure here starts on the auction floor and finishes in the Tsukiji lanes.
How long do you need at Tsukiji?
Two hours is enough to walk the main lanes, eat two or three things and see the shrine. Three hours is comfortable if you want to sit down for a bowl. Under 90 minutes you will be choosing between eating and looking.
Is a guided Tsukiji Fish Market tour worth it?
It is worth it if you want to eat well without guessing. The lanes carry hundreds of counters, almost none of the signage is in English, and the queues are not a reliable guide to the food. If you would rather browse at your own pace, the market is free to walk into and nobody will stop you.
How do you get to Tsukiji?
Tsukiji Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya line puts you a minute from the lanes, from exits 1 and 2. Tsukijishijō on the Toei Ōedo line is the same distance from exit A1, and Higashi-ginza is a three-minute walk. Toei buses run in from Tokyo Station and Shimbashi.
Do you need to book a Tsukiji tour in advance?
Book two to four days ahead in spring and autumn, and a week ahead over the New Year period. Small-group walks cap at seven to ten travellers and those fill first. Every one of these walks refunds in full if you cancel at least 24 hours before it starts.
Can you visit Tsukiji on your own?
Yes, and plenty of people should. The lanes are public, the shops sell to anyone, and the market publishes its own conduct rules for visitors. A guide buys you the ordering, the etiquette and the stalls worth the queue.
What should you eat at Tsukiji?
Tamagoyaki on a stick, a seafood rice bowl, a grilled scallop and something from a tuna counter is a good first morning. Uni, oysters and Wagyu skewers are the next round. Expect to pay a few hundred yen a piece for street food and around 2,000 to 4,000 yen for a sit-down bowl.
Is the Tsukiji Fish Market suitable for children?
Yes, with two things to plan around. The lanes are narrow and busy, so a stroller is hard work after nine — the Plat Tsukiji information centre will store one for 500 yen. Several tours cap at seven or eight people, which suits families better than a group of thirty.
Can you take photographs in the market?
Yes, with one rule the market asks you to keep: ask the shopkeeper before you photograph a shop. These are working businesses in the middle of a trading morning, not a set. Nobody minds a photograph of the lanes.
What is the difference between Tsukiji and Toyosu?
Tsukiji is the outer market — the shops, the counters and the restaurants, open to anyone. Toyosu is the wholesale market that took over the trading and the auctions in 2018, and it is a modern building on reclaimed land across the water. Most visitors want Tsukiji; if you want the auction, you want Toyosu.
How do I watch the tuna auction at Toyosu?
There are two ways and only one needs an application. A lottery gives about 100 people a day a place on the close-up viewing deck, and applications open roughly a month ahead. If you miss it, the second-floor visitors' walkway above the auction floor is open to anyone with no application at all.
What is Tsukiji Uogashi?
It is the building that kept about 60 of the old market's traders at Tsukiji when the wholesale trade left. Two three-storey blocks, a market floor at ground level and a food court with a roof terrace on the third — which is the one place in Tsukiji you can sit down with what you just bought.
Is Tsukiji Hongan-ji worth going into?
Yes, and it costs nothing. The main hall is an Indian-styled Buddhist building finished in 1934, which is unlike anything else in Tokyo, and it is open 6am to 4pm. Six of these tours meet at its gate, so you will probably see it whether you plan to or not.
What is the Namiyoke Inari Shrine?
Namiyoke Inari Shrine is the small shrine at the market's edge, founded in 1659 and dedicated to calming the waves that kept washing away the reclamation work. Its oddest feature is a set of memorial mounds raised by the trades themselves — one for sushi, one for prawns, one for eggs and one for kelp.
Does the Tsukiji Fish Market take credit cards?
Some counters do and plenty do not. Two operators tell their guests outright to bring coins, because their stops are cash only. Carry 5,000 to 10,000 yen in cash for a morning and every counter will be open to you.
How much cash should I bring to Tsukiji?
Between 3,000 and 5,000 yen a person covers street food and one sit-down bowl. Double that if you plan to buy knives, dried goods or gifts. A tour with tastings included cuts what you need to spend to almost nothing.
Is the Tsukiji Fish Market wheelchair accessible?
Partly, and the listings disagree because it depends which lanes. Five of the of these tours state step-free routes and surfaces; the rest say the opposite of the same market. The wide main lanes and the Uogashi building are manageable; the narrow side alleys are not.
Are there toilets at the Tsukiji Fish Market?
Yes, and the most reliable are at the Plat Tsukiji information centre and inside the Tsukiji Uogashi building. There are more at Tsukiji Hongan-ji. Individual shops are small and mostly do not have them.
Can I bring a suitcase to the Tsukiji Fish Market?
Better not to. The market asks visitors to leave large bags behind, and the lanes are narrow enough that a wheeled case is genuinely difficult after nine. Use the coin lockers at Tsukiji or Higashi-ginza station and come back for it.
What happens at Tsukiji if it rains?
The main lane is under a roof and so are many of the side rows, so a wet morning is inconvenient rather than ruinous. The floors get slick, the queues move indoors and the market is quieter than usual. Every one of these walks runs in the rain.
Is the Tsukiji Fish Market busy?
Very, between about ten and noon on a Saturday. Come at nine and you get the same shops with room to stand in front of them. The last four days of December are the busiest of the year by a wide margin.
Can vegetarians eat at the Tsukiji Fish Market?
It is a seafood market, so the honest answer is that a vegetarian will find less to eat than anyone else — but there is fruit, tamagoyaki, pickles, senbei and green tea. Two of the sushi classes below will arrange a vegetarian plate if you ask when you book, and most of the walking tours say plainly that they cannot.
Can Tsukiji tours handle a food allergy?
Some can and several state plainly that they cannot. The sushi classes are the most flexible because the kitchen is theirs; the walking tours buy from shops whose kitchens are not. Tell the operator when you book, never on the day.
Is there a fish auction to watch at Tsukiji Uogashi?
No. Uogashi is a retail and intermediate-wholesale building, not an auction hall, and its ground floor opens to the public from nine. The auctions all moved to Toyosu with the rest of the trade.
Where do Tsukiji Fish Market tours meet?
At eight different named spots inside a 400-metre square, depending on the operator. Six meet at the main gate of Tsukiji Hongan-ji, and one of those warns that map apps send you to the back of the temple instead. Check your own confirmation the night before.
Can you combine Tsukiji with anything else in one morning?
Easily. Higashi-ginza is three minutes' walk, the Hamarikyu gardens are about ten, and Asakusa is twenty minutes on the metro. Two of these tours build the market into a wider morning that also takes in Meiji-jingū or Senso-ji.
Still deciding?
The food tours page sets the tastings-included walks against the ones where you buy your own, visitor information has the hours and the market's own conduct rules, and the auction page explains why the answer to the most-asked question here is Toyosu.
Getting here has the three stations and their exits, and the allergy page sets out what each operator will and will not accommodate.