A note on the words: tabe-aruki is the Japanese habit of eating your way along a street, one small portion at a time, standing up as you go. Ponzu is a tart citrus-and-soy dipping sauce. Otoro is the fattiest belly cut of tuna. Suisan in a shop name simply means a seafood dealer.
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Tsukiji Saito Suisan on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, it is Hangover Meshi. This time, a short one.
As it happened, the day before, a friend mentioned he was free and thinking of going to Tsukiji. Sounded fun, so I said I would come if I woke up in time! And I did in fact manage to get up, so off to Tsukiji in the morning we went.
Well, it was a weekend morning, granted, but at six or so — are there really this many people? That many tourists.
There are a huge number of overseas visitors too! The shops are a mix of upmarket places aimed at visitors and old-timers who have always been there, all jumbled together — chaos, ha. Makes you wonder what all that fuss during the move to Toyosu was about, ha.
There seemed to be a lot of stalls charging a few thousand yen for otoro skewers, or a few thousand for king crab legs (as of this writing, September 2026).
They are just the right thing for eating as you walk, so I suppose they sell!
One of my friend’s reasons for coming here in the morning was that he wanted raw oysters. Since we had come all this way, I went along with it.
Drifting around, what we found was a place with “tuna dealer” written on it: Saito Suisan.
Raw oyster, extra small: 500 yen
Raw oyster, small: 600 yen
Raw oyster, medium: 700 yen
Raw oyster, large: 800 yen
The price shifts a little with the size, but being Japanese, one goes for the middle, right!
And here is what we bought.
Set out beside them are soy sauce and something like ponzu.
A bit of acidity is probably the better move, I thought, so I spooned on the sauce they had out and tried it — well now. Delicious!
It is morning, so could these really be freshly landed at the market?
No off smell at all, of course, and no tingle on the tongue; the savor spreads out softly!
Being able to eat raw oysters this good in Tokyo is a fine thing.
Raw oysters as street food — not bad at all! I do not know for sure, but there is an image of people from overseas eating raw oysters, so I imagine that is part of why they sell them at the storefront. Something you eat quick on the spot — it strikes me as a good item for getting a feel for Japan, ha. Though coming to Tsukiji in the morning just for this alone would be a bit of a trek.
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
