Re-enact the excitement of the worlds largest wholesale fish market!

Let's face it, Japan is the mecca of interesting toys.  For geeks, it is one of the most magical destinations imaginable.  The truth is though, Japan is magical for many reasons.  Any place where sushi is available for breakfast, ninjas really existed, and beer can be found in vending machines, has got to be special, right?  I have countless stories to share about how unbelievably awesome Japan is.  Today's toy scratches one of those stories off the list.

My wife and I arrived at Narita airport at an absurdly early hour on Sunday, June 24, 2007.  It was probably 4:00 am.  We were delirious from travel.  In the train station at the airport, I'm pretty sure I saw the seats in an adjacent train car completely rearrange themselves with no human in sight, although my sub-par state of consciousness made me feel like I could have been imagining it.  When we finally got to the hotel, I think I hallucinated seeing a pink and blue chicken on the streets of Tokyo.  I would be convinced that this was travel stupor- induced delirium, if not for the photographic evidence.  

"Am I actually seeing this? Oh... that's right, I'm in Japan, so, yes."

We attempted to grab some sleep, but in the end, we were too jet lagged and too excited.  So, we packed up our gear and headed out to the world-famous Tsukiji Fish market in central Tokyo.  It is not only the biggest wholesale fish market in the world, it is one of the biggest food markets of any kind.  Tsukiji has become infamous for record-setting tuna auctions.  In January 2013, the all-time record was set when a single tuna sold for $1.76 million.

The alleyways of the market are swarming with people and activity.  Large tubs of fish and ice are everywhere, and you must constantly be on alert not to get run over by forklifts and small 3-wheeled utility trucks.  The design of these utility trucks is pretty clever.  Imagine a surfboard-sized platform on three wheels with a large trash can-like housing on top.  Inside the "trash can" is a small motor attached to the single steerable wheel under the front part of the platform.  The driver stands atop the platform gripping a large steering wheel mounted to the rim of the "trash can."  This setup allows the vehicle to maneuver effectively through crowded alleyways of frozen fish.

These quirky and clever conveyances captivated me.  I shot the above video to document the interesting design, but I also wanted to illustrate how many of them occupied a small area of the market at a given moment.  My wife and I had to wait for several minutes before a small opening appeared between the zooming vehicles so we could dart across the roadway.

After we successfully made it across, without being run down, we began walking the aisles of retail shops and restaurants, looking for a place to have breakfast.  As American tourists, we copped out a little, and settled on a place that had an English language menu.  In the end, the fear of hacking our way through ordering with our broken and disjointed Japanese language skills actually led us to another great experience.  It turned out that the proprietor of the restaurant had lived part of his life in Hawaii.  He proceeded to spend more than an hour feeding us the freshest sushi we have ever had in our lives and teaching us conversational Japanese.  When we finished, he took a photo with us posing on some random delivery scooter that was parked on the street.

This surreal visit to Japan's national hub of seafood pretty much cemented my expectations that a visit to Japan would be like some weird and wonderful dream.  I can tell you without hesitation that Japan met or exceeded these expectations in every conceivable way.

Leave it to the Japanese to invent the quirky little utility trucks that swarm Tsukiji and also to make a detailed miniature of it in toy form.  This toy is part of the Tomica line of die-cast vehicles.  They are similar to the Matchbox cars and Hotwheels that we are familiar with.  The Tomica cars tend to be more detailed and realistic than the ubiquitous small die-cast vehicles available here in the U.S.  

There are many interesting details on this toy.  The main vehicle comes packaged with two 4-wheel accessory carts.  The carts are loaded with seafood tubs.  The blue colored tubs on one of the carts have a nice detailed representation of six little fish on a bed of ice.  The best detail of all is the "tuna" that is included, as cargo, on the main vehicle.  The "tuna" is molded in a rubbery material to give it a more seafood-like texture.  In typical Japanese fashion, the packaging is nice as well.  This little die-cast toy comes in a small box with detailed artwork representing the actual vehicle.

Have a closer look at the Tomica Mitsubishi Nichiyu Forklift Eletruck and re-enact the excitement of the world's largest wholesale fish market.  It's the toy of the week.