One of the best things I got to do when I was in Japan is visit the Tsukiji fish market. As you may have surmised, this is a market where many fish reside. Most of them are frozen or in various states of being dead or almost killed. But man, are they tasty.
Tsukiji is one of the larger fish markets in the world, and is the largest in Japan. The majority of the nation’s fish comes from here, and I believe a sizable export market exists as well, although I didn’t spend nearly as much time learning about it as I did looking at it. The market starts early in the morning, so if you’re just arriving in the country from California it’s actually not that bad of a place to visit, since your time zone isn’t that far off from the pace of life. I had already been in Asia for a few weeks by this point, but that was okay, it was still worth doing. It was quite a treat to have sushi from the freshest sushi place in the world.
I am definitely going back there should I return to Japan.