This one is akami.
Oh, you don't need teeth to eat that.
Tokyo, Japan.
There's no question it's one of the world's top food cities.
Today I'm taking you on an exclusive sushi journey where we're going to see the entire sushi cycle, from the fish auction to the tuna slicing, to eating sushi right out of the fingers of the chef.
Get ready to witness the art of the best sushi in the world.
Hey everyone, I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens.
I'm in Tokyo, Japan, and I'm here with the hungry tourist on his best of Tokyo food tour.
It's exactly 4.30 a.m. right now.
We're gonna go catch a taxi to the market.
Thank you very much.
Good morning, David.
Good morning.
And we are on our way to go find Chef Hirosato, who is a master sushi chef, and he's gonna be taking us into the market.
Every sushi chef in Tokyo visits this market every morning to get fresh fish for the day.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
Yes, good to see you.
We met up with Chef Hirosato and we're now just walking into the inner market of Tsukiji Market.
This is...
This is where you wanna be careful not to get hit by carts or trolleys.
Oh man, this is awesome.
I'm starting to get really, really excited.
At this time you can see all of the vendors they're setting up.
The fresh catch of the day is in and every sushi chef in Tokyo has their own vendor that they go back to over and over again, and so chef knows exactly where we're going.
Oh wow, now that is a chunk of fish.
Before we do anything though, proper footwear is a must.
Thank you very much.
Oh, and a cap.
Okay, oh yeah.
I'm fully, fully ready for the fish market.
Oh, nice outfit.
This is seriously a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Not only are we at an exclusive area for buyers only at Tsukiji Market, but the hat, the hat is up, and the vest and the boots.
And by the way, Skigi Fish Market, this is the biggest fish seafood market in the entire world.
It's gigantic.
All of a sudden, we're entering into the Arctic chill room.
Oh, this is the tuna room.
Oh, this is where the auction is happening.
This is by far the most gigantic tuna I have ever seen in my entire life.
Oh, it's massive.
If you ever eat the best sushi, the best quality tuna, it all passes through this market and this auction.
We got butcher seats, I think that bell signifies the start of the auction.
It's so amazingly organized, but it just sounds.
It's actually quite soothing to listen to them auction.
49, 9, 9, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 49, 9, 9, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 5, 2, 5, 2, 5, 2, 5, 2, 5
One, two, three.
He actually sings a song.
It's so methodic and they literally just go fish after fish, only spending a few seconds per fish, and just go down the line auctioning off all of the tuna.
Okay, so really quickly just to explain.
The tuna are auctioned and there are buyers.
So they buy the tuna and then they bring it back to the fish market where they cut it and where they distribute it and sell it.
And then sushi chefs.
They have their own vendor that they, I'm sure they go to.
They're loyal to their vendor.
And so the best sushi chefs have their own vendor, who is one of the best buyers, because they buy the best quality of tuna.
And so that's just a really, really quick brief overview of a little bit of how the system works.
These are the orders for all the top sushi places.
Unfortunately I had to give up the hat and the vest, but we are back at the Tuna King.
All right, and this is also known as the Tuna King.
They buy the best tunas in the world.
Wow.
These are the highest quality tuna in the entire world.
And this is the part I'm really looking forward to actually is when they're gonna start cutting the tuna.
And the tuna are straight from the auction.
That's a lot of muscle!
I'm just overwhelmed right now.
It's so fascinating to watch him as he cuts up the tuna, and they know the exact move they need to make.
They cut off the fins, they cut off the head, they cut off various bones, but they know it's so precise.
They know exactly what they're doing. and there's no room for error.
And as he's slicing up that tuna, we got another shipment was delivered.
Look at the size of this tuna.
Oh man, it's huge.
142 kilos.
One, two, three, yeah.
One, two, three, yeah.
One, two, three, yeah.
Let me finish it off.
That is the purest sashimi you will ever have in your life.
Right out of the carcass.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, it's me.
That was just incredible to watch them slicing up those slabs of tuna.
There's no room for error.
They make slices, they can only make just one cut and they literally cut that tuna like it's butter, just straight through it.
It's just such an incredible art, and those guys are the best in the world.
Mark, we're eating.
We're eating?
This is possibly the greatest treat you could ever have.
It's slimy and still kinda squirming around, and oh man, it does not get fresher than this.
One bite, oh.
Oh, it's sweet and firm.
You can taste the salt water.
Oh, the sweetness keeps on coming.
It's sweet.
Chef just peeled me another shrimp, and this is our botan shrimp.
That shrimp literally almost has the sticky texture of peanut butter, but with like a sweet natural, almost nutty, taste to it.
Amazing.
Today's number one is 67.
This one?
No.
This one is 36.
Thank you.
We're now at the best uni dealer at Tsukiji Market, and he's just given me a little taste.
It's like dripping, it's juicing.
That tastes like cream.
That tastes like ice cream.
Oh, it has this tiny little perfect bitterness to it, balanced by a sweetness and juiciness.
Oh, man.
Oh, that's insane.
He's the uni king.
There's just nothing better than snacking at the market.
And we are at Chef Hirosato's, his oyster vendor now.
Oh, that is beautiful.
It's just juicing and dripping everywhere.
Oh.
Oh, that's like a mouthful of a sea.
That's melt in your mouth.
That's juicy.
That's seafood-y.
Thank you very much.
That was amazing.
That was an incredible behind-the-scenes.
Look at Tsukiji Market, from the auction to the cutting, to seeing the best quality tuna in the world.
And what really strikes me about Japanese culture in general is just how they respect and take such incredible care of the natural products and the natural things the fish, from the fish all the way to the produce.
And I wanna say a huge thank you to Chef Hirosato-san for taking us around, and also The Hungry Tourist for his amazing network and for setting it all up.
That was fascinating.
And I'm pretty sleepy right now.
I think I'm gonna take a little nap.
And tonight, we have reservations at a very well-known, very respected sushi restaurant.
It's called Sushi Arai.
Okay, so this sushi restaurant is in Ginza, and we've just arrived.
It is somewhere, oh actually, it's in the basement of this building.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
This is just a little tiny, tiny sushi bar.
This is amazing.
And just our entire group is taking up the entire sushi bar.
There are eight.
Thank you very much.
When you dream about a sushi bar, this is the exact environment, atmosphere that you would think of.
Okay, we're starting off with an eggplant dish.
It's absolutely gorgeous with little flowers on top.
It's so smoky and so...
It has this earthy, that flower, those flowers.
Okay, and the piece of tofu.
That's sesame, I think that's like sesame tofu.
We've got some raw ab shrimp.
And they peeled these raw and it was just amazing to watch him as he sliced them open with just absolute dedication and perfection.
That's insane.
That is like creamy, sweet butter.
Stunning as well.
So clean tasting.
Next up for ginkgo nuts.
Really, really nice.
Really like silky creamy.
We've only had a couple pieces already, but one of the amazing things about this restaurant is just how incredibly clean they keep everything.
So he slices the fish and then actually you have a bar counter, but then he places your piece of sushi, he gives it to you straight, he feeds you, but he sets it on the the higher shelf and then your lower shelf is reserved.
It's a beautiful slab of wood.
It's reserved for your chopsticks and your napkin and your beverage.
But it's kept incredibly clean.
Next up is bonito.
Oh wow.
Oh, the freshness of that.
It's just shining.
Oh, it has like a slight sweet, almost bloody freshness to it.
So awesomely good.
This is a type of clam and a huge nugget of clam which she hands it to you to eat, and you can actually really smell the vibrant aroma of that clam before even taking a bite.
That's incredibly like stringy and bouncy.
And it's so muscular.
Okay, next up we have a little piece of fish which has been steamed in sake.
And this is a little beauty of a one-biter.
This fish is delicious.
That is just melt in your mouth.
That just falls apart.
It just disintegrates.
Very good.
You gotta get a close up.
Look at this.
You see all of that tamale, that good oozy like head butter juices in there.
That is the perfect combination of crunchy head, and like buttery, slightly bitter, like head cream.
Oh wow.
The next bite is monkfish liver, and it has an orange color to it.
Oh.
That's like custard.
I forgot on that one to add the wasabi.
I'm gonna add the whole blob of wasabi on this bite. you Oh yeah yeah yeah, that too, for sure.
They just have like different purposes almost.
This is a chawanmushi.
It's a type of egg custard and there's a little dab of wasabi on the top, so you can kind of mix that, mix that all around.
There's like some it looks oh, the egg custard is on the bottom there.
And then there's kind of like some gooey sauce.
It's so light and just dissolves.
And then there are pieces of fish on the bottom as well.
The sushi has begun.
We are starting with a piece of flounder.
He's such an expert at making sushi, it's even hard to keep up with the camera.
Oh.
The balance, it's just insane.
And also when you eat sushi, just eating it with your fingers, grabbing it right from the chef he makes it.
You eat it right off the table, you use your fingers.
That just adds another element to it.
The next piece is squid.
And yeah, he added on a squeeze of of the citrus yuzu, I think, and then a little bit of wasabi in there.
Oh, I've never had raw squid like that.
That's so soft.
It has a little crunch to it, but it's so soft.
It's not chewy whatsoever.
That citrus is amazing.
Okay, this one is akami.
Oh, that's ridiculous.
Oh, the fish just melts in your mouth.
The rice is perfectly balanced, and it's just the perfect temperature.
It's like mouth temperature, the entire bite.
Okay, the next piece is chutoro.
Perfectly creamy, perfectly salty.
A hint of sourness.
It's literally a perfect bite.
Next piece is from the back of the tuna and it's just glistening.
You just have to watch and admire him as he makes sushi.
Literally his hands are just dancing.
Oh.
You don't need teeth to eat that.
No.
So far, everything has been exceptional, but this is one bite that I've been waiting for.
It is the otoro, the fatty tuna belly, and to me it almost looks like scales almost, because it's so fatty that it just kinda like almost like starting to fall apart.
That's one of the best things you could possibly stick in your mouth.
It just dissolves.
How many rice in it?
How many rice?
Just insane.
This is gizzard shad.
It's just bite after bite of just life-changing food.
Next up is Spanish mackerel.
Oh, that one has a kind of gooey texture to it.
I really love the flavor. of the chef Arai's sushi though.
It's more on the salty side with a little bit of sourness, but without much sweetness in the rice.
It's absolutely perfect.
This is just beautiful.
Again, you can see there's tiger stripes on it.
Next up is baby scallop.
The crunch from the seaweed, those scallops are just, Here, here, sweet.
That literally has the crunch of a mushroom to it almost.
This is salmon roe and he put a bed of rice down and just a heap of salmon roe.
This is like a little bowl of pudding.
Eat it with a spoon.
Look, that is just incredibly beautiful.
They're transparent and they're actually like like light orange in color if you look at them through the light.
Mmm, sometimes it tastes fishy and tastes a little off.
This is so neutral tasting.
They just burst with slightly salty juice.
That's my favorite type of pudding.
Awesome.
Another slab of fish and rice that just melts in your mouth over and over again.
Next up for uni, which is sea urchin.
And it's just like exploding out of the top of this piece of sushi.
That's a dream come true in your mouth.
That's like liquid custard.
It's ocean eel.
Oh, it's hot.
Next up is a hand roll and he stuffed so much tuna into there, it's unbelievable.
If you don't eat it fast enough, it will just melt on the table.
This is perfection.
It's so beautiful.
This is a one bite slice.
That just sums up this entire experience.
And it's time for dessert now.
When you eat omakase sushi like this, the tamago, it's always the final bite.
And every chef's version is a little bit different.
This looks really, really smooth.
Mmm. and extremely spongy.
I have never felt this much like a sushi chef.
This is awesome.
The chefs are amazing.
Chef and I.
I can start making sushi now.
That was truly a sublime meal.
It was unbelievable.
A truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and experience, the combination of both.
So huge thank you to the hungry tourist.
I did everything with The Hungry Tourist on the Best of Tokyo Food Tour and it's been absolutely awesome.
These are things that are almost priceless to be able to book them and to be able to arrange things like this.
Couldn't have done it without The Hungry Tourist.
Thank you, The Hungry Tourist.
I'll leave the links in the description box.
You can check everything out.
And thank you very much for watching this video.
Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.
And I'm gonna be publishing lots more food and travel videos, so click subscribe now.
And thank you so much for watching.
I'll see you on the next video.
