For the past several days I have been in Tokyo, having left Hokkaido and the frozen north behind. My next underwater location is Toyama Bay where I will try to photograph the strange Firefly Squid, however my research indicates that the optimum time for these animals is during a new moon, which begins in a few days. So since I had to wait for the squid, I decided Tokyo was the best place to be between locations. 

I have used my time here to catch up on business with NGM, work on some equipment and get a very much needed haircut. It is cherry blossom time in Tokyo and the city is beautifully in bloom. Being in this second largest city in the world is quite a change from rural Rausu, where I could walk the streets and only sometimes see a car. Unlike that sleepy, quaint fishing village up north, Tokyo is bustling at a fever pace, with subways, Shinkansen trains and lighted elevators flying up through transparent, glass skyscrapers. For a photographer, Tokyo is also a great place to be should you need a few odds and ends. There are camera stores four city blocks long, with every imaginable gadget on the shelves. A very dangerous place to be with a credit card indeed!

Photographer Brian Skerry (at right) and Mac get "much needed" haircuts in Tokyo. 

Photograph by Steve Drogin 

A couple of days ago I had a wonderful meeting with the executive staff of National Geographic magazine, Japan. Among the folks I met with were Nob Okawara - Chief Executive Office and President, Hiroyuki Fujita - Editor in Chief, Hiromi Ishii - Deputy Editor, Shinri Endo - Advertising Manager and Taro Yoshio a staff writer. They graciously met with me, Steve and Hiro and Mac. They are very excited about this story. National Geographic magazine has local language editions in dozens of countries around the world and it is fantastic to be able to meet with these people when I am working in their countries. NGM Japan is planning to translate this blog and post it own their own website as well, to keep their readers in the loop on my work here.

While in Tokyo Brian Skerry (at right) meeting with NGM Japan.

Photograph by Steve Drogin

While in Tokyo I was also granted special access to the world-famous Tsukiji Fish Market. Steve Drogin has a friend here that works for one of the major fish wholesalers and he was able to get me an “all access pass” to the tuna auctions and to all the sellers of seafood. I have known about Tsukiji for years, but nothing I heard could have prepared me for what I actually saw. I arrived at 4:30AM to find a frenzy of activity already underway. Every single day thousands of tons of seafood arrive here and are sold to middlemen and to a host of other buyers. The tuna auction was my primary interest so we were brought to massive warehouses where tuna were lined up in rows that stretched out for as far as the eye could see. There were warehouses for bluefin tuna and warehouses for yellowfin tuna; warehouses for frozen tuna and warehouses for fresh. Buyers examined every fish by cutting samples and shining flashlights into the body cavities. I have been around a lot of docks in my life and a few fish markets, but have never, ever seen anything quite like this!

Tuna auction at Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo.

Photograph by Brian Skerry

Tuna being delivered to a buyer at Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo.

Photograph by Brian Skerry

After photographing the tuna, I was taken through other sections of Tsukiji where I saw rows upon rows of octopus, sea urchins, pufferfish and squid. I saw eels, cuttlefish, snapper and cod. I saw fish being kept alive in buckets. I saw whale meat. Nearly everything I saw would be sold that day, I was told. And tomorrow, it will happen all again. I wonder how long it can continue.

As I write this entry, Hiro Drogin is leaving for a visit with family in Osaka. She has been extremely valuable to me in all that I’ve done in Japan so far and I will miss her tremendously. I look forward to working with her on my next trip to Japan in June.

So now, with the moon phase almost perfect, Steve, Mac and I will travel to the north of Honshu to another small village in search of the eerie, Firefly Squid.

Comments