Shiogama Tuna Auction and Fish Market Tour
Miyagi Prefecture
A Fully Guided Food Tour of Shiogama
Shiogama, a coastal city in Miyagi Prefecture, is home to one of Japan’s busiest fresh tuna ports, renowned for landing some of the highest-quality tuna in the country. Each morning, the Shiogama Tuna Auction springs to life—local wholesalers, chefs, and buyers gather as premium wild-caught and farmed bluefin tuna, along with other varieties, are auctioned off with lightning speed. Shiogama also hosts a vibrant local fish market, showcasing the dazzling array of seafood from the Sanriku coastline in Northern Japan.
This fully guided tour transports travelers from Sendai Station to witness the morning’s tuna auction and explore the local seafood market, accompanied by an expert local guide. Participants purchase fresh fish and other seafood together and assemble their own sushi bowls to enjoy for brunch right there in the market.
This tour is an excellent alternative to the Toyosu Tuna Auction in Tokyo.
You don’t need to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., it is not suffocatingly overcrowded, and the Shiogama Fish Market remains an authentic experience that has not been shaped specifically for mass tourism.
That being said, participants should understand that the Shiogama Tuna Auction and Fish Market are smaller in scale than Toyosu. Their ability to sell local tuna and fish depends on the weather and various other local factors. The tuna and other seafood available here will vary from day to day, and in cases of bad weather, the tuna auction may be scaled down or even cancelled.
What's Included
Private guide, Roundtrip transportation via train from Sendai Station, Sushi bowl lunch.
Cost
28,000 yen per person (this tour runs on the basis of a minimum of 2 people)
Experience Availability
Available year-round
Average Duration
4.5 hour
Meeting Location
Sendai Station
Important notes
Reservation availability may vary. Reserve to confirm availability.
Please notify us at least 3 days before if you must cancel or modify your reservation.
Tour Outline
6:15am Meetup
This tour will start early in the morning with a meet up inside Sendai Station with your local guide. Note that this meetup time is very important to make it to the tuna auction on time. Arriving late may necessitate adjustments to the tour and possible cancellation based on our judgement.
We will then transfer to Shiogama via local train and walk to the fish market from the station.
Tuna Auction
After this its time to see the morning tuna auction. Your guide will explain run of the auction and you will see locally caught, farmed, and imported tuna from around the world sold off at high speed at one of Japan’s largest tuna auctions.
Note that the size and scale of this tuna auction is dependent on various factors such as the weather.
Operations may be scaled down or even cancelled for reasons such as bad weather that prevent ships from going out to sea.
The Shiogama Fish Market
For the second part of our tour we will tour the seafood market of Shiogama. Your local guide will take you through this large fish market featuring the bounty of the Sanriku Coastline of Northern Japan. Here we will buy our own sashimi and other fish from the various vendors and make our own sushi bowl for brunch to end the tour.
Guests will be expected to follow the rules of this market and the instructions of the guide while on this tour.
Important rules and basic manners include not touching equipment or fish being prepared, not blocking pathways or inteferring with market operations, and other common sense mannerisms.
This is a real fish market quite unlike the fish markets of Tokyo which have had to adapt to the masses of tourists.
Let’s be sure to be good guests to the wonderful and vibrant fish mongers here at Shiogama.
Note that guests should bring their own cash for additional purchases not included in the tour. Many guests wish to try ingredients such as uni, ikura, unagi, and some of the other endless options offered at this market.
Tour Inquiries
You can send a booking inquiry below. After we receive your inquiry, we will confirm the booking with our partners and send you a booking confirmation email at least 3 days before your desired date.
Please note this form does not confirm the availability of the experience.
Cancelation policy
Our cancelation policy for this experiences is below.
From Booking
20% deposit
8-39 days before date of experience
30% of total price
2-7 days before date of experience
40% of total price
1 day before date of experience
50% of total price
Same day
100% of total price
