Or you know it's actually an interesting experience. Have you done it?

IT's not really that interesting, and you have to get in line around 2AM for it.

Better to go around 11 right after the tourist rush.

Yes, I have done it. Not for bragging rights, just because I wanted to see what it was about. Far from being impressed.

I'd have to beg to differ.

As someone who is passionate about food, cooking and in particular, japanese cuisine - going to Tsukiji was really an amazing experience.

Learning first hand from a wholesaler about the daily process of acquiring stock which they go on to sell was fascinating. It's really astounding that people are going there every morning and inspecting ~1000 tuna for a mere few seconds, inspecting only by colour and occasionally the fattiness of the tissue in their fingers. These split second assessments then lead to them making a ballpark valuation of the stock which they take with them to auction - the decisions affecting their livelihood.

If you have had the opportunity to sample sushi from across the spectrum of quality - you'll know full well that there is good sushi and bad sushi. Considering sushi is something like 7 ingredients (rice, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, fish, vinegar, wasabi) the execution of the dish and the quality of the ingredients are absolutely key. Being able to go to the heart of where everything begins is really quite exciting.

> If you have had the opportunity to sample sushi from across the spectrum of quality - you'll know full well that there is good sushi and bad sushi.

I eat sushi often, and I have been to good and bad places alike. But as a sushi amateur, I don't really grasp the passion of Japanese for tuna - it's not even a fish they used to have in the first place in Japan, most of it is not fresh and is just imported from the Mediterranean, and to my tongue tuna (and I tried about every part of it) is nothing I crave for. I enjoy a LOT more the local fishes they have in Japan. Again, it's probably just me, but I find tuna utterly boring in mouth.

> the decisions affecting their livelihood.

Not really. Plenty of bad sushi joints stay afloat for years and do not lack customers. I have even eaten at famous places near Tsukiji and I have found it to be OK, but nothing at a spectacular level despite their reputation.

Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree - perhaps it's simply a matter of different interests as I get pretty excited going to butcheries and equally found Smithfields and Billingsgate (in London) pretty exciting. So maybe I'm just a food nerd.

>Not really. Plenty of bad sushi joints stay afloat for years and do not lack customers. I have even eaten at famous places near Tsukiji and I have found it to be OK, but nothing at a spectacular level despite their reputation.

I'm not convinced your observation is really a valid response to what you've highlighted. If your professional reputation revolved around buying and wholesaling tuna, it naturally follows that your livelihood depends on the decisions you make when you buy your stock. Maybe when you make a bad purchase you can recoup some of the losses by selling to one of the bad sushi joints that you mention, but you have still lost time and probably margin. You may have also disappointed customers who may have been depending on your usual quality stock. So for me, having any first hand insight into the nuance of another person's way of life in interesting and made the visit to Tsukiji a worthwhile experience.

Getting up once late at night is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, even if only to cross off a (hypothetically bad) experience.

Tsukijo was a tourist hotspot with people doing that before the word "hipster" became a thing.

Hipsters existed before there was a word for them?