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~2.5ha 4–6 hour stop ashoreJust turn up#Eat塩釜水産物仲卸市場

Build a tuna bowl at Shiogama market

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Build a tuna bowl at Shiogama market

Build a tuna bowl at Shiogama marketPhoto: くろふね / CC BY 4.0

Round trip
2 hr 30 min
From the ship and back
Fits
a 4–6 hour stop ashore
Margin already counted
Getting there
Taxi ~20 min
See the rides below
Booking
Just turn up
Nothing to reserve
Why we send people here

Buy rice at one stall and slices of tuna and whatever else looks good at the others. Shiogama lands more fresh tuna than any port in Japan. Closes at 13:00 or 14:00, and all day Wednesday.

Why it earns the hours
  • Our number 3 for Sendai–Shiogama, out of ten. It is the first thing we would spend the hours on.
Before you count on it
  • No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
The story

Why Build a tuna bowl at Shiogama market is famous

Shiogama lands more fresh, unfrozen tuna than any port in Japan, most of it from the autumn and winter runs off Sanriku. The wholesale market sells to restaurants early and to anyone by mid-morning, and the build-your-own bowl is the market's answer to visitors who cannot carry a fish home.

Where to have it

Three places, three different answers

The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.

The famous oneShiogama Seafood Wholesale Market

Rice and soup at stall No.6, toppings from the stalls with the My Kaisendon sign. 6:00–13:00 (14:00 Sat, Sun, Mon); closed Wednesdays.

Open in Google MapsWhere locals goKameki Sushi

Where Shiogama goes for sushi at the counter. 11:00–21:00 on weekdays; closed Tuesdays.

Open in Google Maps
Where it is

Build a tuna bowl at Shiogama market and your ship

Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.

The arithmetic

Where the 2 hr 30 min goes

Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.

Out20 minTaxi ~20 min
There1 hr 50 minWhat you came for
Back20 minTo the gangway

20 minutes each way is the honest figure for taxi ~20 min, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 50 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.

The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

Shiogama to Matsushima by boat8 hours or more · ~6h door to doorLong calls — the market, the Basho boat and the temples
Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →
4 hr 30 min for both

Sendai Umino-Mori Aquarium

A large modern aquarium beside the port, built around the Sanriku coast’s own sea, with a dolphin and sea-lion show.

See the detail →5 hr for both

Shiogama Shrine

The head shrine of the region, up 202 stone steps on a hill over the harbour, with a vermilion gate and a view of the bay.

See the detail →5 hr for both

Gyutan in Sendai

Thick-cut beef tongue grilled over charcoal, with barley rice and oxtail soup: Sendai’s own dish since the late 1940s.

See the detail →
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Sendai–Shiogama plan page.