Day5- Tokyo: Fish market!

Fish market!!! This was the most interesting plant tours ever. We woke up at 4 am in the morning and took the bus to Tsukiji fish market. Although Tokyo is still quiet in the morning, buyers and suppliers are busy with fish transaction. As we arrived, we can witness so many trucks outside the market which were ready for delivering fish to restaurants. Meanwhile, we can smell the fish filled the air of the market. This was my overview of Tsukiji fish market when we arrived.

It amazes me that Tsukiji fish market is still keeping traditional way of transaction in Japan, the company have advanced business system and experiences. This is why I am really interested in this case, which push me to explore why it keep auction in transaction and how its operation is affected by Japanese culture. Tsukiji fish market is located in a place close to downtown of city and river, which could reduce logistic cost. This is necessary for Japanese companies because of the high transportation cost in Japan. In addition, according to my observation, they are making transaction by using auctions between wholesalers and authorize buyers instead of using internet system like what EBAY does because buyers can immediately inspect and test the qualities of tuna fishes. I suppose that this is affected by the fact that Japanese really care about the quality of the product and so their products usually involve short expired time range. All of auctions are efficiently done in less than 3 minutes. There are also trades between wholesalers and intermediate wholesalers where tuna fish are delivered to restaurants and consumers. This process is efficient. The other interesting thing is that price of tuna fish is totally set by auction reflecting free market concept of economy. So this market greatly affects the prices of tuna fish in Japan.

After lunch, we took the second plant tour in Super Freeze Company. The process of fish cutting and packaging is impressive. In the first floor of the warehouse, worker process tuna fish by using different machines. Different procedures are specialized by different groups of worker in cutting, sewing and skinning. They are working efficiently, so obviously they were trained before. In the second floor, workers categorize tuna fish depending on their types, shapes and qualities. This could satisfy different requirement of customers. Then went into the freezer which holds at about -60C. This one special experience for us!

After the plant tours today, we had a great dinner together. We ate the fish from Tsukiji fish market. I can not stop eating during dinner because everything was super delicious. I love Japanese food! Higuchi San and Dr.Ross really made a great welcoming dinner for us. Dr.Ross and Higuchi San always are parts of us. They were really nice guys that made me enjoy my trip in Japan even more!!!!