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Toyosu Market is proving to be massively popular among the curious and sushi lovers. Toyosu Market is near Shijo-mae Station (seen on the left here) on the Yurikamome Line that runs between Shimbashi and Toyosu Stations.
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Shijo-mae Station is connected directly to convenient pedestrian overpasses leading to the three Toyosu Market buildings/blocks. (That's Block 6 in the distance.)
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The official website provides this very basic map of Toyosu Market. There are three blocks/buildings all connected to each other and to Shijo-mae Station via pedestrian overpasses.The red lines on this map show the pedestrian overpass to each block. All three buildings have a long tourist corridor with picture windows to see inside the market.
When the market is open (closed on Sun.), tourists can tour the three Toyosu Market buildings from 5 am to 5 pm. However, there's not much market action after late morning.
Besides the markets, there are sushi restaurants. The problem with this map is that it doesn't show where the restaurants are. They are in Blocks 6 and 7. Very crowded though.
Block 7 is where the tuna auctions are held, but the public won't be able to see the auction area until next Jan. But if you come here by 6 am or so, you should be able to see some tuna being hauled away on the floor. This block also has some restaurants.
Block 6 is the largest building of the three. This is where the sold tuna is carved up. This building also has a large sushi restaurant area that is not indicated on this map. The upper floor also has little shops (Uogashi Yokocho Market) for people who work at the market. They sell knives, tea, etc., and also sell to the public, but the shops close by 2 pm or so.
Block 5 is the fruit and vegetable market. Least crowded. No restaurants inside.
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This is Block 7 where the tuna auctions are held. Let's enter here first. Notice the pedestrian overpass going into the building.
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Directional signs for tourists are in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.
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Block 7 has this small exhibition room with photos of the old Tsukiji fish market and other things.
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Exhibition room in Block 7.
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Tuna display in the small exhibition room in Block 7.
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Toyosu Market's official mascot: Itchi-no.
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Information desk in Block 7's exhibition room. Lots of questions from foreigners to staff who couldn't really speak English.
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Another crowd-pleasing tuna display in Block 7. Life-size model of the biggest tuna ever sold at Tsukiji fish market in April 1986. 2.88 meters long, 496 kg. Didn't say how much it sold for.
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Block 7's tourist corridor with glass windows to see the tuna floor.
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View of the tuna floor in Block 7. The floor was painted green for better contrast with the tuna's red flesh to assess the quality. We visited around 2 pm, so nobody was here. You have to come here by 6 am or 7 am to see some action.
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Nice bilingual (Japanese and English) explanatory panels in the corridors. At 2 am, they unload the tuna here. At 4 am, buyers examine the tuna and assess the bid price. At 4:30 am, auction starts. At 7 am, the buyers are busy hauling away the tuna.
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Hand signals to indicate numbers at auctions.
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Block 7 has a restaurant section (not indicated on the official map). All crowded.
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Next is Block 6 where the fish is carved up and sold to sushi restaurants and supermarkets. This is the largest building of the three.
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Block 6 has this small entrance to the restaurant section.
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Block 6's restaurant section is the larger one at Toyosu Market. However, all the restaurants were totally crowded with people by 1:30 pm. Many restaurants that were at Tsukiji moved here or opened a branch here. Wanna wait 1 to 2 hours for sushi?? Nope, but these people don't seem to mind.
If you want sushi and don't want to wait in line, go to the Tsukiji Outer Market instead.
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Long lines everywhere for sushi. The restaurants usually sell out by 2 pm, then they close. The huge crowd is either here for the novelty of a new attraction or they may be a strong sign of Toyosu Market's massive popularity.
I'm afraid the Tsukiji Outer Market will soon be marginalized by Toyosu Market. The market is the heart and soul, and it's now in Toyosu. The fishmongers in Toyosu are very gung-ho now and really want the Toyosu brand to exceed the old Tsukiji brand.
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Only this coffee shop was not crowded. So we gave up having a sushi lunch at Toyosu Market. There are plans to build larger restaurant facilities in buildings adjacent to the market. However, they won't open until 2023.
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After seeing the Block 6 restaurants, we walked along this long corridor and entered the market part of the building.
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Block 6's market entry hall had two turret trucks on display.
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Anybody could get on the turret truck and pose for photos.
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Also in the corridor, bilingual explanatory panels for identifying fish.
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Block 6 has many windows for tourists, but you can hardly see anything. We can see just a small slit of the market floor. Just a pathway for the people and turret trucks, you don't see the sellers. However, I was later told that there is also a viewing deck on the first floor where there is a better view.
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Block 6's upper floor has a section of shops called Uogashi Yokocho Market. (This section is not indicated on the official map.) These are small shops catering mainly to market workers. They also sell to the public. However, by 2:00 pm most of the stores were closing.
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Cutlery shop in Uogashi Yokocho Market.
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Map of Uogashi Yokocho Market in Block 6. Lots of little shops.
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Many of the shops had congratulatory flowers for their grand opening.
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Lastly, this is the fruit and vegetable market, Block 5.
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Entrance to the fruit and vegetable market.
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The observation corridor for tourists inside the fruit and vegetable market. Lots of windows, but they don't show much.
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Each observation window was color-coded and named after a fruit or vegetable. A nice touch.
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Not much of a view though.
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Corridor wall also had panels explaining the history of the food and vegetable market in Tokyo.
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Better view of the fruit/vegetable market toward the end of the corridor.
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Hauling green onions.
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At the end of the corridor, there's this big observation deck where you can see the wholesale section of the fruit and vegetable market.
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Not much action in the fruit and vegetable market since it was in the afternoon.
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The fruit market's biggest item is mikan (tangerines), then citrus.
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The vegetable market's biggest item is cabbage, then daikon.
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Across the water from Toyosu is the Tokyo Olympic Village under construction.
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Inside the Yurikamome Line train. Since we couldn't eat sushi at Toyosu Market, we took the train to Toyosu Station two stops away and had a late lunch there instead.
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Near Toyosu Station is a restaurant called Cafe Haus. It's a good restaurant.
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Inside Cafe Haus near Toyosu Station.
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It wasn't exactly what we had planned for lunch, but it was good and healthy. At least we ate in Toyosu.
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On a street corner near Toyosu Station is where 7-11's first store in Japan opened in 1974. It's still operating here in the same building. Toyosu is quite a new, modern town. Lots of construction still going on. It's turning out quite well.
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