Tsukiji Fish Market
 

We have only one possible morning to visit the fish market - Monday, April 2nd. We will have arrived in Japan from the USA East Coast on Saturday, so we're assuming there will still be jet lag that will have us awake early. We are meeting our tour guide (arranged from advice on this site) at our hotel - the Tokyo Westin in the Ebuiso area - that morning at 9am. Should we attempt to venture out on our own to the Fish Market before meeting our tour guide? Does anyone know how long it would take to get from the Westin to the fish market???

I visited the market at around 5.00am when I was there and it was quite lively. I don't know about visiting Tsukiji at 9.00am but I would think that it's too late to see what the market is famous for - the tuna auction or more specifically the blue-fin tuna auction(huge tunas from 200 kg upward).

We went by ourselves after having the concierge at our hotel write out the directions in Japanese, both to and back form Tuskiji. We wondered around and found the market very interesting especially since I'm an offshore angler.

I would suggest that you either rearrange with your tour guide or go by yourselves and plan to arrive around 5.00 am.

You should get a taxi arranged from the hotel, as the subway doesn't start until a bit later--around 5:30am, and the subway Ebisu station is about 10-15min walk from the hotel. My guess is probably about 20min rides at most, around JPY3000 or so.
Why don't you ask your guide to meet you at the fish market or somewhere more convenient instead of coming all the way back to the hotel (which is perfectly doable, no transfer, just simple ride on Hibiya Line subway)? That way,you'll have ample time to browse through the market, have a sushi breakfast.

9:00am is too late in the morning. I visited Tsukiji at about 4:30 am - it was one of my most favorite travel experiences ever!

We visited fish market with the guide, this was the first place that we went to. we were there at 8:00. We did not see the auction, but we enjoyed looking to all huge tuna fish, all strange fishes, etc.

We were not able to wake up so early (4:00), but we do not regret.

We planned on going earlier, but ended up getting there around 8ish like valtor. It was still amazing.

Does anyone have experience with a Fish Market Tour? This one was recommended on ChowHound:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tokyowork...ijiTourEng.htm