My girlfriend recently came to visit me in Japan, giving me the opportunity to do some things that I've been planning to do on my weekends off. We explored Tokyo for the first few days after she arrived. 

One of the first things we did was go to the Tsukiji Fish Market, which - as its name suggests - is a large and well-known fish and seafood market. It's a place of business first and foremost but has become a bit of a tourist destination in Tokyo. It'll be interesting to see how the dynamics of the market may change in a few years when it is relocated to Toyosu (an artificial island in Tokyo, similar to Odaiba).

Anyways, we headed to the market bright and early around 3 am. Train service is unavailable from 12 am to about 5 am but fortunately for us, our hotel was within walking distance of the market. However, we still had some minor setbacks finding our way to the market and by the time we arrived, the tickets for the tuna auction viewing (limited to 120 visitors a day) were already gone. Although we were a bit disappointed, this gave us a headstart for our sushi breakfast so off we went to line up at Sushi Dai. Given the long line that soon formed after us, we didn't feel so bad about missing the tuna auction if it meant a shorter wait for breakfast. 

And waiting is exactly what we did - for about 1.5-2 hours. This was a fairly rainy Saturday morning too so I can only imagine the line would be even worse if the weather had been better.

At Sushi Dai, there are only two set meals to choose from and we chose the omakase meal for 4000 yen per person. The meal included green tea, miso soup, 12 pieces of sushi (11 chef's choice, 1 of your own choosing), 4 maki rolls, and tamago.

After waiting out in the cold rainy weather, the hot green tea and miso soup were very much appreciated by us. In terms of sushi, we started off with an amazing piece of otoro, which is the fattiest part of the tuna belly. The sushi chef was sure to advise us of the proper way to eat it: "No soy sauce!" We did as instructed and it was just pure deliciousness. Continuing on, we had a sea bass nigiri which was a lighter, slightly citrus flavoured contrast to our otoro.

The sushi chefs spoke some English and described this third piece to us but my girlfriend and I disagree on what we were told. Between the two of us, we heard this piece described as either a "goldentail ice snapper" and/or a "goldeneye red snapper". (I'm not sure if something got lost in translation or we simply have awful memory but I suppose we really should have been writing down notes during our meal.) Based on some Googling, it seems to be kinmedai, red snapper. It was a type of fish that neither of us had tried before and we both agreed it was delightful with a lovely flavour. My girlfriend went as far as proclaiming it as her new favourite type of sushi.

Next, uni (sea urchin). Normally, in Canada, I don't particularly enjoy uni. But here, it is smooth, creamy and slightly sweet - much better than anything I've had back home. My girlfriend has never had uni before (I'm clearly broadening her horizons here!) and she wasn't particularly blown away by it but she didn't hate it either. I suppose uni just isn't for everyone.

After a short pause, we received a piece of mackerel nigiri. I'm not sure of the exact type but I believe the sushi chef may have described it as "Japanese mackerel" to us. It was stronger and more intense in flavour than some of our previous pieces but still really good.

Then, hokkigai (surf clam) nigiri was presented to us and simply described as "shellfish" by the sushi chef. It looked like it was still alive with some of the edges curling up before our eyes as we picked it up to eat! It was actually kind of soft and not nearly as chewy as I feared it might be and again, a little bit sweet in flavour.

After we finished the hokkigai, we moved onto a leaner piece of tuna, marinated in soy sauce. My girlfriend really liked the flavour of this piece. 

To change things up, our next dish was tamago, which was served piping hot and was a good combination of savoury and sweet. A baby shrimp nigiri followed shortly and was very delicate and sweet.

Our meal started to wind down with a set of maki rolls and horse mackerl nigiri, followed by anago (saltwater eel). The anago is much softer and more delicate than unagi, which is what my girlfriend and I are used to eating. My girlfriend loves unagi and her verdict on this anago was "good but not amazing."

For our final pieces of sushi, my girlfriend chose otoro and I chose fish roe, which turned out to be ikura (salmon roe) specifically. I also ordered an additional otoro nigiri a la carte.

And with that, we concluded a satisfying sushi breakfast and headed out to explore the fish market a bit more. As we were leaving, fellow tourists waiting outside asked us if the wait had been worth it. We both certainly felt it was.  

Now of course, there is certainly even better sushi offered in the city but I think for the price point and the experience, Sushi Dai is worth it. The sushi is great and the sushi chefs are charming and friendly even with their limited English. But if you're not willing to wait and want to include a sushi breakfast or lunch as part of your Tsukiji Fish Market visit, there are quite a few other sushi restaurants besides the often-mentioned Sushi Dai and Sushi Dai-wa. Some of the alternatives I came across were Sushi Bun and Ryu Sushi for example.