After waking up refreshed and ready for the day we headed out early to the Tsukiji fish market. I don’t think I had many expectations of what this fish market would be like and as it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised.

After an initial scare the market might be closed on a Sunday morning we decided to embrace the empty side streets and venture into the market anyhow. We walked by the few stands that were open before landing in a shop that I couldn’t have imagined existed even in my dreams. As we rounded a corner we saw a few stacks of beautiful dishes that caught our eye. Anything you could think of from serving dishes, to individual plates and bowls, along with mugs, tea pots, and flower vases. The items displayed on the street caught our eye, but the small shop had even more to offer than I had expected. Stacks upon stacks of traditional, ornately painted blue and white plates and bowls. Earth toned, modern shaped serving dishes. Japanese style tea sets complete with handle-less tea cups, and tea pots hanging by their wooden handles. It was somewhat akin to shopping the home goods section of Anthropologie, except this was the real deal for a fraction of the price.

Having picked out far too many pieces I was happy to have plenty of room in my suitcase for the extra finds. The local couple who owned the shop was incredibly kind; realizing we would be traveling, they packed our pieces with extreme care, ensuring everything would make it back safely.

Leaving the sweet little dish shop nearly an hour later we expected to be walking back into the same quiet streets of the market. Wrong we were. In that hour all of the store fronts had opened, locals swarmed the back streets of the market, and merchants were selling everything one could imagine coming from the sea. We spent the next few hours popping in and out of shops, sampling tea, and indulging in seafood stopping just once to sit down for an early sushi lunch.

Once we were confident we had walked down each street twice we were ready to move onto the next item on our list, Harajuku.

{Don’t miss Traveling Tokyo Day One}