Tiny things in Japan – Learning a very local life of Japanese

What I’m introducing this time is the famous fish market known as the kitchen of Hakata, the Yanagibashi-Rengo-Ichiba. It has a history since 1918, and it is often introduced on TV and internet. There are about 50 stores lined up in 100 m walkways. Seventy to eighty percent of customers are chefs such as from restaurants, but general people can also shop. I want to show you where we can get delicious sushi at there so let’s get started!

Visited the Yanagibashi Market!

I visited Yanagibashi market in January 2016, it was snowing. This market is about 10 minutes by bus from Tenjin or Hakata, so it is very easy to access.

Many fresh fish shops are lined up in the market.

There are fruit and vegetable shops and meat shops as well.

This is a shop selling Karashi-Mentaiko (辛子明太子) which is a specialty of Fukuoka.

It was a very appetizing fried food shop. There were amazingly many kinds of fried foods. The round one is called “Satsuma-age” and is made by minced fish and then fried it. 

Below photo is the Yanagibashi-Shokudo (Diner) which also serves as the fish shop next door. Yoshida fish shop opens early in the morning, but the diner opens from 11:00 am.

Yanagibasi-Shokudo (柳橋食堂)
Open: 11:00 – 16:00.
Closed: Sunday and public holidays.
Address: Near the east entrance of the market.

This is Yoshida fish shop. You can go in to the diner from this fish shop. The dining room is on the second floor.

There are many choices on the menu and because it is a fish shop, everything is fresh and everything is reasonable. The popular menu is sea food bowl 670 yen.

There were not many customers because it was past 2:00 pm on weekday. (And maybe it was too cold on that day. 1 degree Celsius.)

This time I had Otoro (Fatty tuna) sushi and squid tempura that purchased at the fish shop of the first floor that serves take-away (I think I should’ve ordered at the diner, so maybe this time only?). The diner even helped me to reheat the squid tempura. They were nice people. And of course, Otoro was really good, too.

The city of Fukuoka where many people visit for gourmet food purposes. And this market is becoming a well known place where fresh ingredients can be obtained. However, this is the place where most customers come from restaurants, hotels and other professionals visit, and it’s not a tourist spot. So please visit there while minding about it.

Yanagibashi-Rengo-Ichiba Information

Open: 8:00 am – 6 pm (depends on the shops)
Closed: Sundays and public holidays
Tel: 092-761-5717
Address: 1-5-1, Haruyoshi,Chuo-ku, Fukuoka
Access:
From JR Hakata Station: Take a bus (for example: 301,302,303,305..) from Hakata-Eki-mae Bus Stop (博多駅前バス停) to Yanagibashi Bus Stop (柳橋バス停) and walk 1 min.
From Nishitetsu Fukuoka Station: Take a bus (No.5) from Tenjin Core Mae Bus Stop (天神コア前バス停) and get off at Yanagibashi Bus Stop and walk 1 min. OR some other buses are also available. By subway: Take Subway Nanakuma Line from Tenjin Minami Station (天神南駅) and get off at Watanabe-Dori Station (渡辺通り駅) and walk 9 min.
Link: Yanagibashi-rengo.com