Japan to Tourists: Please Don't Lick the Tuna

Japan to Tourists: Please Don

abcnews.go.com

Overwhelmed by a growing number of misbehaving tourists, Tokyo fishmongers banned all visitors from one of the city's most popular tourist destinations — the pre-dawn tuna auctions at the world's largest seafood market.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 27-1-2009 by prjct]

[edit on 27-1-2009 by prjct]

hmmmmm...who would have thought there would be such a problem??? Apparently people have no respect....even for the poor dead fish. Contained within this article:

" The value of its seafood trade amounts to $20 million per day on average, making it the heart of the national seafood distribution system and the biggest fish wholesale market in the world."

Again....who would have thought...$20million/day.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 27-1-2009 by prjct]

It is ridiculous that people are so stupid. If you are allowed into a professional area then you should act decently and not offend those who work there or bring shame upon their own countries.

Damn! Here goes one of biggest tourist attractions in Japan. Forget Tokyo, Fujiyama and all this kind of old stuff. Tuna licking is all new age tourism is about! Japanese should start charging money per inch of tuna licked - and then this disgusting habit will vanish. Yuck.

I could see where it would be tempting to hug one of the tuna. Most people I know have never seen a fish that big. They are traveling, seeing interesting new places and people. Then you have this big fish and people are thinking, wow, that's a really big fish. At the vary least I could see people wanting to get their picture taken standing next to one. Or at least with the fish in the background.

In my experience people just get really excited when they travel to new places. I can see how this could anger the workers. I could also see them getting a good laugh out of some of the things that go on.

Tourists from London, smoking, touching and licking fish in the market. Many go to Tsukiji after getting drunk in Ginza.

Tourists from France, playing to ride on the back of transport carts. Traders get angry with them, but the tourists don't care at all.

The same French tourists appear again on another cart while the interview.

The French tourist says to the staff of the market,
"I had a fun. What's your name?"
Staff: "It's very bad of you to do like that"
Tourist: "I'm French. What's your name?"
Staff: "Don't you think your behavior is bad?"
Tourist: "Sorry, I dont understand Japanese. Can you speak English?"
Staff: "Plaese speak in Japanese. You're in Japan now."

Unfortunately, I can't link to a dailymotion video, so check the movie here:

www.japanprobe.com...

It's mostly in Japanese, but it gives you a bit of an idea of the kind of things that were going on before they closed the place to tourists.

It's re-opened, with better signs and tighter security.

I dont think people here really understand the price on those fish. They trade hands a couple times before they get to that market. They are not easy fish to keep in the perfect conditions for top dollar at that market.

From the boat, they can get thousands of dollars for a properly cooled off and caught, prime condition & size blue fin tuna. You cant just land these things after catching. You need to cool them off proper, or they can actually work so hard that they will cook parts of the meat, knocking thousands off the catch.

It then comes down to the mix of fat content in the meat that will add more dollars to the value if its top quality. I think there was one tuna that went for 100,000$ just recently there.

You then think about how much that each slice of that tuna costs when its being served as sushi in a fine sushi shop, and that tuna now becomes even more expensive once that fine sushi chef needs to make his profit. I bet that 100,000$ tuna ends up making 4 times that once consumed as sushi.

This is like walking into an art gallery and just licking the water paints. Sushi is also an art, when served from one of these skilled Chefs.

What is even worse, is Ive never been to Japan, and I know more about that market than those drunken fools who should at least know something about the places they are touring.

I totally understand why they would not let tourists inside.

Hmm, think Ill have some sushi for lunch tomorrow!

[edit on 29-1-2009 by JbT]

Why do some people have to act like such dumb a$$e$?

I can understand the anger from that market employee. Tons of seafood end up as sushi, therefore it's handling from capture to market has to be scrupulous.

Stupid tourist antics.