Hungry? Want a quick lunch or dinner? Want the freshest of the fresh seafood? Going to a Japanese fish market is the way go. When you are in Aomori Japan, you definitely should stop by the Gyosai Center (fish market). If you are on a cruise, the ships will stop within walking distance of several attractions and the fish market. After visiting the attractions, it was time for lunch. We walked a couple of blocks and came across this unassuming building.
This fish market sells the daily catch to locals. The fish can be purchased whole, gutted, or filleted. The waters around Aomori have a wide variety of fish that can be caught, and they are all on sale.
And for those that want to eat on the spot, they have an interesting process that you much follow. Fortunately we were with a local who could explain the process and guide us through it step by step. And since Aomori is a small city far from Tokyo, do not expect to get by with English. Everything is in Japanese.
This is a “build your own” sashimi bowl. This is a bowl with white rice on the bottom, and then slices of fish that you select from the 30+ vendors around the market.
It works like this. First stop at the entrance you buy a coupon sheet of 12 tickets. This costs us 2000 yen (about $13 USD). This provides you with a bowl, chopsticks, and rice. They have hot green team (ocha) in a self-serve area adjacent to the seating.
Next you take your coupon sheet and go to the rice area – and pick up your bowl and rice in exchange for the rice coupon. After that, you then just go vendor to vendor looking for the slices of fish you desire. They all of prices list on them, listing the number of slices you get and the number of coupons required. Most of the fish is 1 slice for one coupon. Note you have 12 coupons and the fish slices are much larger than you find at a sushi bar. I’d guess they are at least twice the size. And as you can tell, these are fish that were caught that morning and have been sliced just for you.
Some of the more pricey fish (e.g. toro) cost 2 coupons. It was worth it. We filled our bowl with tuna, toro, a white fish (i have no idea but it was delicious), salmon roe, salmon, scallops (2 coupons), and squid. They also had a cooked miso cod which was perfectly cooked.
After filling up your bowl with delectables, you grab a seat at a table and eat. You can have the local ocha to drink for free or you can go to one of the drink vendors and using cash get a juice or beer.
This is not a fancy meal, but it will be the freshest sashimi you’ve ever had. We are heading back to Aomori in two weeks and our lunch plans are already made – we will stop by the fish market.
Four blocks from the fish market is the Nebuta Museum which gives the history of the Nebuta Festival and displays some of the award-winning floats. Again – all within walking distance of the cruise terminal.