Toyosu Fish Market Tours — Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about visiting Toyosu Market and about the guided mornings that go there: free entry, the ballot, the four-in-the-morning transport problem, what to wear, where to eat and what is still at Tsukiji. If you would rather compare the departures themselves, Toyosu Fish Market Tours lists every one with its price and its meeting point.
How much do Toyosu Fish Market tickets cost?
Nothing. Entry to the market is free and there is no ticket to buy, for the visitor corridors, the tuna auction viewing corridor or the rooftop garden. What you pay for here is a guided morning, and those run from $107 a head.
Do I need to book Toyosu Fish Market tours in advance?
Book as early as you can, and for one reason beyond availability. If you want the closer observation deck, the market's ballot closes early in the month before your visit, so a booking made two weeks out has already missed it. The tours themselves take small parties and the popular mornings go first.
What time does the tuna auction start?
The bidding runs roughly 5:30 to 6:30 in the morning on trading days. The visitor corridors open at 5:00, and the best places along the glass are taken within the first twenty minutes. Aim to be inside the building by five.
Can anyone watch the tuna auction, or is it ballot-only?
Anyone can watch. The corridor above the auction hall is open to everybody from five in the morning, free and unbooked, and you look down on the floor through sealed glass. The ballot is only for the lower deck, which puts you much closer to the fish.
How does the Toyosu Fish Market tuna auction ballot work?
The market runs it itself, about a month ahead. Applications open for roughly a week early in the preceding month, one application carries up to three preferred dates and a maximum of five people, and you are allocated one of your dates if you win. Everyone in the party shows photo identification on the morning.
Is a Toyosu Fish Market guided tour worth it when entry is free?
It depends on whether you can solve the morning yourself. No guide gets you past a gate, because there is no gate, so the fare buys the taxi at half past four, a running translation of the bidding and somebody who has already entered the ballot for you. If you are staying in Toyosu and happy reading the floor alone, walk in.
How do I get to Toyosu Market at five in the morning?
By taxi, almost certainly. The first train on the line into Shijo-mae Station arrives well after the bidding has started, so unless you are staying beside the market a taxi is the only way. Three of the departures here include that ride and two of them collect you at your hotel door.
What days is Toyosu Fish Market closed?
It closes on Sundays, public holidays and most Wednesdays, plus a handful of irregular days the market sets a year at a time. Check the market's own calendar for the month you are travelling rather than assuming a pattern, because the extra closures move. The rooftop garden stays open even on a closed day.
How long should I allow at Toyosu Market?
Two hours covers the auction and a walk through the buildings. Three to four gets you breakfast at a market counter and the Tsukiji Outer Market afterwards, which is how most of these mornings are shaped. Anything under ninety minutes means leaving before the interesting part.
Can I buy fish at Toyosu Market?
Not on the wholesale floor. The intermediate wholesale hall sells to supermarkets, fishmongers and restaurants, and general shoppers cannot buy there. The Uogashi Yokocho shops upstairs sell to anyone, and so does every stall in the Tsukiji Outer Market.
Where do you eat at Toyosu Market?
Inside the market, at one of the 38 restaurants spread across the three buildings. The sushi counters open with the market and the best-known ones have a queue by six. Several of the departures here book a seat in advance, which is the difference between eating at seven and eating at eight.
Is Toyosu Fish Market suitable for children?
Yes, with the hour as the real obstacle rather than anything inside. The floor is a working one with forklifts on it, so children stay with you and nobody touches the fish. One departure carries infant seats and another sets a minimum age of twelve, so the listing decides it rather than the market.
What should I wear?
Warm layers and shoes you do not mind getting wet. The hall is refrigerated and the floors are hosed, so trainers beat sandals and a jacket beats a jumper even in summer. You will be walking for most of the morning.
Can I take photographs of the tuna auction?
From the corridor, yes, through the glass. Flash is not welcome anywhere near the bidding and one operator asks its group for no photography and no raised voices at all on the lower deck. Keep out of the working lanes and you will have no trouble.
Is Tsukiji still a fish market?
Not the wholesale one. The auctions and the wholesale trade moved to Toyosu in October 2018, and what remains at Tsukiji is the Outer Market, a district of retail fishmongers, knife shops and small restaurants. It is worth a morning of its own and most of these tours give it one.
Do Toyosu Fish Market ticket prices change by season?
There are no admission prices to change, because entry is free all year. Tour fares here run from $107 to $480 a head and move with demand rather than with the calendar. What does change with the season is which fish are on the floor.
What is the difference between the corridor and the observation deck?
Height, distance and how you get in. The corridor runs above the hall behind sealed glass, is free and needs no booking; the deck sits lower and closer, and is only reached by winning the market's ballot. Both look at the same bidding.
Can a tour operator get me onto the observation deck?
No operator can guarantee it, and any that says otherwise is overpromising. The market runs the ballot and allocates the places, so what a good operator does is register your names inside the window and tell you the result. Several of the listings here say so in their own words.
What happens if I do not win the ballot?
You watch from the corridor, along with everybody else who did not enter. It is the same auction, seen from a little higher and behind glass, and the commentary comes over speakers. Every departure here works on that basis and treats the deck as a bonus.
Is there a ballot in December?
Not at the end of the month. The market pauses it over the New Year period and everybody watches from the corridor instead. December is also when the Tsukiji Outer Market asks visitors to hold back on group tours so its New Year shopping can run.
Can I cancel a Toyosu Fish Market booking?
Every tour listed here refunds in full if you cancel at least twenty-four hours before the start time. That is unusually consistent and it is checked against each listing rather than assumed. Each card states its own policy under the price.
Is hotel pickup included?
On some fares and not others, and it is the single biggest difference between them. Two departures collect you at your hotel and pay the taxi, one collects you and leaves the fare to you, and the rest meet you at the market. Read the chips on each card before you choose.
Which station is Toyosu Market at?
Shijo-mae Station, on the Yurikamome, which sits inside the market complex with about three minutes' walk to the entrances. Toei buses stop at Shijo-mae Eki-mae. None of that helps at half past four, when nothing is running.
Is there parking at Toyosu Market?
None for visitors, and nowhere to leave a bicycle either. The market says so plainly and asks people to come by public transport or taxi. Senkyaku Banrai next door has its own coach parking, which is not the same thing.
Is Toyosu Market wheelchair accessible?
The market itself is entered from a level pedestrian deck and the visitor routes are step-free, with lifts to the rooftop. Four of the listings here state that their morning is wheelchair accessible and two state the opposite, so this is a question to settle with the operator rather than with the building.
Can I bring luggage?
You can, but there is nowhere good to put it and the corridors are narrow. Leave cases at your hotel or in a station locker if you can. At Tsukiji the Plat Tsukiji information centre will hold a stroller for a small fee.
Are there toilets and somewhere to sit?
Yes to both, through the visitor routes in all three buildings. Eating and drinking are not allowed in the corridors, benches included, so a coffee has to wait for the restaurant floor. The rooftop garden is the one place with space to sit outside.
What is Uogashi Yokocho?
The retail row above the intermediate wholesale floor in Block 6, with about 70 shops in it. Knives, dried bonito, seaweed, tea, pickles and the tools the trade buys are all sold there, and anybody can shop in it. It is the part of the market most visitors miss.
Is there a fruit and vegetable auction too?
There is, in Block 5, and it starts a little later than the tuna. A viewing deck looks down on the produce floor and hardly anybody uses it. If the tuna hall is crowded, this is the quiet alternative.
What is Senkyaku Banrai?
An Edo-styled eating and shopping street beside the market, with a hot-spring complex above it, which opened in February 2024. Its shops open at ten and its restaurants run into the evening. A market morning that finishes at half past eight gets there before almost any of it is open.
How far is Tsukiji from Toyosu?
About three kilometres, which is fifteen minutes by bus or car and rather longer by train. Several fares here include that hop and one includes the bus fare specifically. Walking it is possible and nobody does it at seven in the morning.
When is the best time to arrive at the Tsukiji Outer Market?
Between nine and eleven, if you want to shop and eat without getting in anybody's way. The trade has priority until nine and the outer market asks visitors to give way before then. Tours that arrive at seven find the lanes quiet and about half the shutters still down.
Can I do Toyosu and Tsukiji in one morning?
Yes, and that is how nearly every departure here is built. The auction finishes around half past six, which leaves time to eat, cross the city and reach Tsukiji as it wakes up. Doing it in the other order does not work, because the bidding will not wait.
Is the market open on public holidays?
No. Public holidays are closing days alongside Sundays and most Wednesdays, and the New Year period closes it for several days together. The market publishes the year's calendar, which is the only reliable way to check a specific date.
Do I need cash?
Bring some. Cards are widely taken at the restaurants inside the market and much less reliably at the small stalls in the Tsukiji Outer Market, where a thousand-yen note is still the fastest way to buy a skewer. Two operators tell their guests to bring cash in as many words.
Still deciding?
The private tours are set out side by side with what each fare covers, visitor information has the hours and the ballot in one place, and what happens here tells you what the morning looks like before you pay to be part of it.