In addition to the many things, I learned be attending the global entrepreneur’s event in Tokyo. There were the unexpected things that I learned too.
Leaving the hotel at 5.00am to go to the main fish markets I was amazed that at that time of the morning there were people and cars everywhere.
Cherry blossoms were poking through, people in masks keeping germs to themselves and glistening trucks rushing to their destination. (In the whole time in Tokyo I never saw a dirty vehicle).
The fish market was made up of hundreds of small stalls piled high with Styrofoam boxes ? each with exotic crustaceans or small fish, most of which I had never seen before.
There were small three-wheeler trucks racing between aisles ? not stopping for anything. But it was not until I got to the big halls where the auction was actually taking place that I realised the scale of the markets. Not just hundreds of people milling around, the auctioneer screeching out to be heard. But it was the masses and masses, row upon row of frozen tuna and marlin. Thousands of them ? their tails and head missing, a small incision near the base for potential purchasers to inspect the grade of the fish.
To me it looked like a graveyard, these beautiful fish, many must be 30 years old they were so large. And all I could think was ? if this is just one fish market in Japan on just one morning, how many fish are left in the sea?
When the few of us went off for a sushi breakfast I literally could not face it. Are there such a things being a ‘fishetarian’ where you don’t eat fish but do eat meat?
The whole experience touched every one of my senses, the smell, the sights, sounds and touch. It was a fascinating look at business at its most basic. Buyer and seller meet, supply and demand at it’s most basic.