Strange Bedfellows

Japanese Site Auctions Fish Via Twitter

Max Fisher Aug 25, 2010

Tokyo's famous Tsukiji fish market, a centerpiece of Japan's celebrated culinary culture, is going the way of so many things in Japan: Unnecessary and excessive technological integration. Asiajin's Masaru Ikeda reports that Tsukiji will now stream video of its daily fish auctions live on the Internet. But that's not all. If you can't be bothered to log into the Tsukiji website to make an offer on that yellow-fin tuna, you can bid competitively on Twitter. That's right: One of the world's oldest fishing cultures now allows consumers to select ultra-premium salmon, eel, and more via Twitter. Ikeda explains the details in passable English:

The program is hosted by well-known middleman Yoshikatsu Ikuta[J], the owner of Tsukiji-based 70-year-old tuna wholesaler company Suzuyo[J]. His live auction programming seems non-periodical due to the market situation and the marine weather, therefore you need to follow the site’s Twitter account (@deki_machi) in order to find when the next auction is.  Bidded items can be paid by credit card and C.O.D. and delivered to any part of Japan.
No word yet on whether you can use your MySpace profile to network with other fish fans and then, one assumes, crowdsource appropriate sake pairings via Stumbleupon.

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