Tsukiji fish market in Japan, where some tourists stink
 

An article from the LA Times about the problems at the Tsukiji fish market:

Every day, hundreds of tourists in Japan gather in the predawn gloom to witness one of the most popular events on the Tokyo tourist agenda: the daily tuna auction at the Tsukiji fish market. Clogging busy travel arteries, tourists gawk at the sheer size of a market as big as 43 football fields. Each year it handles tens of millions of visitors and 600,000 tons of seafood in 480 varieties -- 1 of every 5 fish caught on the planet.

But some visitors misbehave (one tipsy female tourist stripped naked as her male friends hauled her around on a wooden handcart used by wholesalers), infuriating market officials so much they recently closed Tsukiji (pronounced skee-jee) to outsiders for several weeks during the busy New Year's buying season.

A funny quote from the article:

"Tuna are like humans" says 52-year-old buyer Osamu Maruyama, in a red jumpsuit soiled by blood and fish guts. "Some are tall, some skinny, some are fat. I look for the young fresh ones. The elderly tuna are not so fresh. It's the same with people."

Full Article: At Japan's famed Tsukiji fish market, some tourists stink - Los Angeles Times

There's already a Tsukiji thread here....

Probably in the travel forum, but this is the forum where we post interesting news articles from Japanese newspapers, television, and other sources. This article is from this week's LA Times. :)

I'm not surprised... When I went I felt like somewhat of a burden to the frantic fish-vendors driving around like maniacs on those damn carts.

What idiot journo thinks you pronounce Tsukiji "skee-jee"?

Um......

It actually does kind of sound like skeejee when you say it in covo.

Go to:Oddcast TTS Demo and type in "築地" (switch to japanese first)

that's what it sounds like.

Yes, you often don't hear the "u" sound in spoken Japanese.

There are plans to close the Tsukiji fish market in the not-too-distant future, and it will be moved to the Toyosu area. Tourists will have to take the Yurikamome train through Odaiba (or from Odaiba, if they are staying at one of the hotels there). A new station has already been built for the new fish market, as well as a new bridge for truck traffic. A new boardwalk has also been built, which runs from the Lalaport shopping center to where the fish market will one day be.

I heard they closed the markets to tourists at one stage but I bet they changed the minds after the strip;)

"skee-jee" and "ts'kiji" are distinctly different sounds. I know the u is semi-dropped, but the t isn't.

Well then I guess I'm the only one who can't hear the difference between "skeejee" and "tskeejee"