The morning's catch

This jet lag is really getting to me. I go to bed with all good intentions of actually getting a decent night's sleep and I keep waking up at 3:00 in the morning. This morning, once again, wide awake at 3:00 I decided it was time to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market. I have been hearing about the fish market for while now, and heard it is a 'must see' when in Tokyo, but the thought of getting there at 4:30 in the morning always seemed like an utter impossibility. Not so when you have severe jet lag in Japan; it's easy! So I went there, the sky still dark as night, and saw the action as the fish market gets ready for their daily tuna auction. First, to get to the warehouse where the auction is held you have to wander through stall after stall of every sea creature imaginable. Some of it is still alive, like the eels I saw slithering in huge plastic buckets, and some quite dead, like the vat of fish heads with huge gelatinous eyes staring up at me blankly as meandered through the aisles. Still want to keep reading? Finally,I reached the warehouse and in there were tuna of every size, some flash frozen at sea and some fresh and shiney. There were fish vendors wandering through the day's catch, flash lights and picks in hand, examining each and every tuna as if they were doctors examining their patients. They would use their pick to hack off a small piece of the tuna, then would rub it between their fingers to check the texture, and shining their flashlight on the flesh they would check the fat content. Some would even take a tiny taste of the fish and then move on to the next one. Suddenly at 5:30 one man stood on a platform and rang a large brass bell in his hand. This was the start of the auction! What happened next was like ritual chanting at a buddhist temple. The auctioneer would say something in a loud steady voice and then the group of fish mongers would chant, taking turns in rhythmic beats. I am assuming they were shouting out numbers, or prices, but not knowing what they were saying gave it an almost religious quality. The auction ended at 6:00 and the winners tagged their fish. Some of these fish go for extremely high prices, as much as 1 million yen ($10,000!!).