Fishy! Sushi! Touche!

You are a tuna. Swimming in the depths off the coast of Spain or New Zealand, you get caught. You are thrown in the deep freeze colder than the deepest waters you've experienced and hauled to a faraway land. You arrive freshly dead and hard as a hull. An auction takes place, and your worth is equivalent to a small fuel-efficient automobile. You are hauled away once again, this time by the highest bidder. You are sawed up, hacked up, sliced up, and diced up. You go every which direction, still cold and still fresh. Some of you ends up whirling around on conveyor belts being sold for a buck a plate, while others are $10 per piece in a restaurant with a drink menu and a rock garden out front. You are eaten. You are delicious.

From sea chicken to tiger prawns, if it is seafood, it can be found in Tsukiji fish market. Tsukiji is the largest fish market on the planet. There are more than 450 species of fish sold at the market, from the tiniest sardines to enormous swordfish. In order to catch a glimpse of the action, you must arrive shortly after dawn. That's when the latest catch of frozen tunas are slid out into position, much like a submarine during torpedo inventory. The auctioneer rambles, hands fly, money is made.

Soon after the auction, most of the fish will be sliced into rectangular form shown above, ready to be placed on a miniature bed of rice. This is sushi. If the raw seafood is served solo, without rice, it is called sashimi. We hit up a sushi bar for breakfast (nothing like raw fish to get the day started) after visiting the fish market. I paid about ¥1500 ($13) for 4 pieces of sushi--super fatty tuna (otoro), fatty tuna (chutoro), tiger prawn, and sea bream (tai). I must be turning Japanese because it was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had.