■Nathan Shiga: January 5

A fish for the price of a decent house? No way, you might say, but it’s no joke. A bluefin tuna fish landed at Oma Port, Aomori, was knocked down for ¥36.45 million at Tsukiji’s last auction, January 5, 2018. Tsukiji Fish Market, known as Japan’s kitchen, closes down in October this year and that was the last auction to mark its 83-year history.

The memorial auction opened with a speech by the representatives of wholesalers:

“This is going to be my last opening speech here at Tsukiji Fish Market to wrap up our years of work and fond memories.

“It is the mission for every one of us to pass Tsukiji’s global values over to our new market at Toyosu.”

The adios speech was cheered with a resounding ceremonial hand-clapping.

At past 5:30 a.m. the bell rang to start the auction and tuna fish of enormous sizes were put to bidding one after another amid loud cheers and shouts.

The bluefin tuna from Oma Port was priced atop and knocked down for ¥36.45 million. A chain sushi house that had customarily outbid the rivals over the highest-priced tuna passed on that one this year and settled for a 190kg tuna for ¥30 million.

The owner of the sushi house, Kiyoshi Kimura, was happy with his own choice though, commenting:

“Well, there was a fatter fish but we picked another for value. Too bad our pick was not as fat as that bluefin, but then we are satisfied with what we’ve got.”

Just for your info, Kimura-san knocked down a super bluefin 5 years ago for, believe you me, ¥150 million! – the highest in history. People are funny – so are the Japanese when it comes to bluefin tuna for Sashimi.

—Sponsered Link—