Getting there · Tsukiji & Toyosu · verified 2 August 2026

Which exit, which line, and the 5 a.m. problem.

Tsukiji and Toyosu are two different places about 3 km apart on two different rail networks, and the decision that ruins most trips is made before you leave the hotel. The Hibiya Line and the Ōedo Line drop you at opposite ends of the Tsukiji lanes; the first Yurikamome from Shimbashi (05:45) cannot get you to the tuna auction. This page is the fix: exits, fares, the 05:02 bus, and the boats — honestly.

1 min
Exit to lanes
05:02
First market bus
05:45
Shimbashi = late
¥189
IC to Shijō-mae
~3 km
Tsukiji↔Toyosu

TL;DR

  • Decide which market first, then pick a station. Tsukiji (the food lanes, knives, shrine) = Hibiya Line Tsukiji, exits 1/2 or Ōedo Line Tsukijishijō, exit A1. The auction, Sushi Dai and Toyosu Market = Yurikamome Shijō-mae (U14) — not Toyosu Station, and 3 km from anywhere called Tsukiji.
  • Your line choice sets your walking direction. Hibiya exits 1/2 start you at the Hongan-ji / food-stall end; Ōedo A1 starts you at the Namiyoke / knife-shop end. Same lanes, opposite doors — chapter 02.
  • For the auction, the first Shimbashi Yurikamome (05:45) is the classic mistake. The moves are the 05:15 train out of Toyosu Station or the 05:02 market bus from Shimbashi — chapter 05.
  • Load a Suica/PASMO with ~¥3,000. Yurikamome machines are cash-only, Toei buses won't change big notes, and the one boat worth taking sells tickets from a machine at the Asakusa pier.

The exit trick: two lines, opposite ends of the same market

This is the fact almost no English guide states. Tokyo Metro's own exit database lists the Tsukiji Outer Market under exits 1 and 2 only of Hibiya Line Tsukiji Station (H-11) — exits 3a, 3b and 4 serve St Luke's Hospital and Shintomichō, the opposite direction. And the official outer-market map prints Ōedo Line Tsukijishijō (E-18) exit A1 at the Namiyoke-dōri corner. The two exits are roughly 480 m apart (an unofficial measurement — no operator publishes it), at opposite ends of the same lanes. Both are an official 1-minute walk to the market. Neither is wrong; they just start different mornings.

Crowded shopping lane of Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo lined with food stalls and shop awnings
Hibiya Line · exits 1/2

The Hongan-ji end

You surface on Shin-Ōhashi-dōri by Tsukiji Hongan-ji and walk south-west down Monzeki-dōri — the classic food-stall run: tamagoyaki, croquettes, standing counters. Ends at the knife shops. The cleaner line if you're finishing near Ginza.

Hibiya H-11
1 & 2

the only exits that serve the market — both have lifts

Ōedo E-18
A1

the market exit — step-free, and the door to Hama-rikyu's Ōtemon gate

Ōedo Line · exit A1

The Namiyoke / knife end

You start beside Namiyoke Inari Shrine, the Tsukiji Uogashi buildings and the knife shops, and walk north-east up through the lanes towards Hongan-ji. The shorter, step-free approach with luggage, a stroller or a wheelchair.

The third door: Higashi-Ginza (Hibiya H-10 / Toei Asakusa A-11), exits 5 and 6, a signposted 5-minute walk — the market's own Japanese page says 5 minutes while its English page says 3, the same organisation disagreeing with itself in two languages. A trap to know: the Ōedo station is called Tsukijishijō, “Tsukiji Market” — it kept the name of a market that moved away in 2018. It serves the outer market. It does not serve the auction.

To Tsukiji from the big hubs

FromRouteTimeNotes
Tokyo StationMarunouchi → Ginza, change to Hibiya → Tsukiji, exits 1/215–20 minThe Ginza transfer is a long underground walk — or just walk the whole ~2 km in 20–25 min
Tokyo Station (bus)Toei / / from Marunouchi South Exit → alight Tsukiji-sanchōmeone seatThe option the market's own site publishes and English guides never do — flat fare, no stairs
ShinjukuŌedo Line direct → Tsukijishijō, exit A1~25 minSingle seat, no change — best with luggage or children. Fare commonly quoted ¥280; confirm on the Toei fare search
GinzaWalk Harumi-dōri past Kabukiza10–12 min~1 km; usually faster than the one-stop Hibiya ride once you count platform time
AsakusaToei Asakusa Line direct → Higashi-Ginza, exits 5/6, then 5-min walk~13 min + walkNo transfer. The scenic alternative is the Sumida boat — chapter 07
Kinshichō (east side)Toei bus → alight Tsukiji-eki-maeone seatAlso from the market's own published route list — useful from Sumida-side hotels
Ginza 4-chome crossing with the Wako clock tower, a 10-minute walk from Tsukiji Outer Market
Ginza 4-chōme crossing — the outer market is a 10–12 minute walk down Harumi-dōri, which is why Ginza is the sensible place to sleep before an early market morning.

Subway fares in the shortest bands are small (the Ginza–Tsukiji hop is commonly quoted around ¥180) but the operators' fare pages could not all be re-verified for this page — treat quoted fares as budgeting figures, not gospel. Times hold.

Toyosu: the market is at Shijō-mae, not Toyosu Station

The wholesale market and tuna auction connect directly to Yurikamome Shijō-mae (U14) by an elevated, fully covered pedestrian deck — you never touch street level. Official walk time from gate to the auction muster point: 5 minutes (Tokyo's own sources also say 3 and 4 — allow 5–8 with children). Two things to know: Shijō-mae is unstaffed, which matters if you have a ticket problem at 05:20, and Toyosu Station is a different station — it's the Yūrakuchō Line interchange two Yurikamome stops away, and the stop for the LaLaport water-bus pier, not the market.

Yurikamome journeyPaper ticketIC card
Shimbashi (U01) → Shijō-mae (U14)¥390¥388
Toyosu (U16) → Shijō-mae (U14), 2 stops¥190¥189
Day pass ¥820 / 24-hour ¥900QR mobile ticket only — no paper day pass exists

The machine trap: Yurikamome station ticket machines and pass offices take cash only — a credit card in your pocket does not buy a paper ticket there. Contactless tap-to-ride works at the gate but charges the higher paper price. Fares official, revised 2019-10-01 and unchanged. Verified: 2 August 2026

After the auction hour, the Tokyo BRT is the other door: stop B03 “Toyosu-shijō-mae” sits about 100 m from the station, flat fare any distance (¥240 IC / ¥250 cash), first bus from Shimbashi 06:20 on every calendar — after the auction, fine for everything else. And the ride itself is a reason to come in daylight: the Yurikamome is driverless, and the front window over the Rainbow Bridge is one of the best cheap views in Tokyo.

The pre-dawn problem, solved minute by minute

The auction's real gatekeeper is that most of Tokyo's transit wakes up after it starts. Here is the entire workable pre-dawn timetable:

  1. 05:00First Yūrakuchō Line train leaves Shin-kiba — the feeder that makes the rail route possible.
  2. 05:02Toei bus leaves Shimbashi bay 1 as the express, straight to the market — on trading days only, including Saturdays.
  3. 05:15First Yurikamome leaves Toyosu Station (¥189 IC) …
  4. 05:18… and arrives Shijō-mae. The earliest any train reaches the market.
  5. 05:30Lottery-deck muster at the market; the auction bells ring.
  6. 05:45First Yurikamome finally leaves Shimbashi — the classic mistake. You arrive as the chants end.
  7. 06:20First Tokyo BRT leaves Shimbashi — fine for breakfast, useless for the auction.

The bus is the only pre-05:15 public option, and its timetable is keyed to the market calendar, not the weekday/weekend split — tobus.jp publishes four separate variants of the same stop:

Two footnotes from the operator's own pages: alight at Shijō-mae Eki-mae and enter over the pedestrian deck — riding to the in-market terminus adds a walk back — and note that older articles still quote a 05:18 first bus on closed days; the current timetable (revision 2026-04-01) says 05:25. Checking the market calendar is therefore a transport step, not just an opening-hours step.

No train, no bus? A taxi is the only remaining way to make 05:30 — budget very roughly ¥2,500–4,000 from Ginza or Tsukiji pre-dawn including the night surcharge (estimates, not quotes; ride-hailing apps remove the address problem). Or dissolve the problem: sleep in Toyosu, Ariake or Ginza — there's a hotel immediately beside Shijō-mae Station, and the Senkyaku Banrai onsen next door for afterwards.

Tsukiji ↔ Toyosu: the transfer nobody explains

No single rail line links the two markets. Four honest options, in the order most visitors should consider them:

OptionTimeThe catch
Toei bus — the one-seat ride nobody writes about20–25 minBoard at the National Cancer Centre stop on the market's edge (the market's own listed stop). Market calendar applies: no ordinary-Sunday service, short-turns on closed days
Rail via Shintomichō20–25 min door to doorThe part guides omit: it starts with a ~7-min walk to Shintomichō Station (Yūrakuchō Y-20), then Toyosu, then one Yurikamome hop. About 15 min of actual riding
Taxi over Kachidoki Bridge~10 minCommonly around ¥1,500 — an estimate, not a quote
Walk~3 km / 45 minReal views of the Sumida mouth — and zero shade or shelter the whole way. A bad idea in July–August heat or with luggage

How far apart are they really? Sources in our own research say 2.3 km, 3 km and 3.5 km — all defensible: about 2.3 km in a straight line, around 3–3.5 km by the walking route over the bridges. Guides quoting one number without saying which measurement they mean are the problem. The efficient pairing runs Toyosu first (05:00–09:00), then Tsukiji (09:00–14:00) — Toyosu winds down exactly as Tsukiji's lanes hit their stride. One seasonal note: in December 2025 the Tsukiji traders' association declared overtourism and asked visitors to avoid the late-December peak; the advisory was December-only and had not been reissued as of early August 2026.

By water, honestly

Three separate boat services get confused into one imaginary “water bus to the fish market”. None of them lands at either market. Here is what each actually does:

Hama-rikyu Gardens tidal pond and teahouse against Shiodome skyscrapers, a 7-minute walk from Tsukijishijo Station
Hama-rikyu Gardens — the Asakusa boat lands inside it, and Tsukiji is a 7-minute walk from the Ōtemon gate. The gates keep garden hours: 09:00–17:00, ¥300 if you arrive on foot.

If you'd rather have the Tsukiji-plus-garden pairing narrated instead of navigated, one market walk does exactly this route: the Tsukiji Market and Hama-rikyu Gardens guided tour (★ 4.8 · 83 reviews · ~$32) walks the lanes and finishes in the garden — the same combination this chapter just built by boat and foot, at the cheap end of the guided range. Best for first-timers who want the market's etiquette and the garden's history handled in one morning; skip it if you've already done a food tour, because the route overlaps.

The one-seat bus that strings the whole day together

Toei route runs Tokyo Station (Marunouchi South Exit) → Ginza → Tsukiji-sanchōme → on towards Tokyo Big Sight via Shin-Toyosu — which puts one flat-fare bus past the outer market and within a 9–12 minute walk of the Toyosu side, near teamLab Planets. The Toei 23-ward flat fare is commonly quoted at ¥210 (the official fare page could not be re-verified for this page — confirm before budgeting). Two honest limits: it does not run early enough for the auction, and buses take coins and ¥1,000 notes only — another argument for the IC card. For a no-stairs, no-transfer day of market grazing and bay-side wandering at a civilised hour, it's quietly the best ¥210 in this guide.

Arrive well: luggage, lifts and the last traps

The locker asymmetry catches people on arrival and departure days. Toyosu Market has no lockers at all anywhere inside — the nearest are the coin lockers at Shijō-mae Station (the Yurikamome publishes live availability) and on 2F at Senkyaku Banrai. Tsukiji has lockers at the Plat Tsukiji information centre, including a limited number of suitcase-size units accessible from 06:00 — but you must retrieve luggage before the centre shuts in the early afternoon, not at 17:00, and stroller storage there costs ¥500. The outer market's official manners explicitly ask you not to wheel a suitcase through the lanes; more on that page-wide etiquette in visiting responsibly.

Step-free routing: Toyosu is the accessible market — lift-served and fully covered from the Shijō-mae ticket gate over the deck into all three blocks, indoors the whole way. At Tsukiji, Ōedo exit A1 is the step-free surface route (Hibiya exits 1 and 2 also have lifts), but the lanes themselves are narrow, uneven, wet and shared with working turret trucks — the station is the easy part. Full detail on toilets, wifi and ATMs: practical & accessibility.

Two smaller conveniences worth knowing: Tsukijishijō Station itself has coin lockers, two lifts and an accessible toilet with ostomate fittings and a nappy table — a better staging point than the lanes for anyone regrouping — and the Yurikamome offers group tickets at 17% off for parties of 25 or more, arranged at the Shimbashi or Toyosu station offices.

On board, three small rules: Toei buses and the BRT board at the front, pay on boarding, and change nothing above a ¥1,000 note. On the Yurikamome, the driverless front window is a shared viewing spot — enjoy it, don't camp it. And phone calls on any Tokyo train are a genuine breach, not a soft preference.

Transport myths this page exists to kill

“Tsukiji Station, exit 3, five minutes to the market”

Wrong side of the station. Exits 3a, 3b and 4 face St Luke's Hospital and Shintomichō. Tokyo Metro's own exit data lists the market under exits 1 and 2 only.

“Get the first Yurikamome from Shimbashi for the auction”

05:45 is too late. The first train to reach Shijō-mae is the 05:15 out of Toyosu, arriving 05:18. The Shimbashi answer is the 05:02 bus — on trading days only.

“Tsukijishijō Station is the station for Toyosu Market”

It's a Tsukiji station wearing an old name. The market it was named after moved in 2018; the station stayed. Toyosu Market is 3 km away on the Yurikamome, at Shijō-mae.

“There's a water bus to Toyosu Market”

The pier is at a shopping centre. Both operators' Toyosu landings are at LaLaport by Toyosu Station — the boat company itself warns against the confusion. Details in chapter 07.

“There's a 5 a.m. bus from Shimbashi every day”

Only when the market trades. Closed days: first bus 05:25, stopping short. Ordinary Sundays and holidays: no service at all.

“Just tap your credit card at the ticket machine”

Yurikamome machines are cash-only. Contactless works at the gate (at the paper price) and QR tickets can be bought by card — the machines cannot. Chapter 04.

“Take the free shuttle bus from Shimbashi to Senkyaku Banrai”

Withdrawn after 31 May 2026. Only the Monzen-nakachō shuttle survives, on a revised timetable; the operator's stated replacement is the Yurikamome or the Tokyo BRT.

“The Yurikamome hop to Shijō-mae is ¥185”

A stale figure repeated everywhere online — even in travel databases. The operator's own fare page says ¥190 paper / ¥189 IC, unchanged since the 2019 revision.

FAQ

For the outer market, either Hibiya Line Tsukiji (exits 1/2) or Ōedo Line Tsukijishijō (exit A1) — both 1 minute, at opposite ends of the lanes. For the tuna auction: Yurikamome Shijō-mae at Toyosu, 3 km away.

Exit 1 or 2, both with lifts — the only exits Tokyo Metro's own data lists for the market. Exits 3a/3b/4 cost you ten minutes of backtracking past the hospital.

Only via eastern Tokyo: first Yūrakuchō train to Toyosu, then the 05:15 Yurikamome, arriving Shijō-mae 05:18 (¥189 IC). The first Shimbashi Yurikamome (05:45) is too late — see chapter 05 for the bus, taxi and sleep-nearby alternatives.

The one-seat bus from the market's edge (20–25 min, not on ordinary Sundays), rail via a 7-minute walk to Shintomichō (20–25 min), a ~¥1,500 taxi (~10 min), or a fully exposed ~3 km walk. Full comparison in chapter 06.

Shimbashi → Shijō-mae: ¥390 paper / ¥388 IC (top band). Toyosu → Shijō-mae: ¥190 / ¥189. Machines are cash-only — tap in with IC or contactless instead.

Not to either market directly. The Asakusa boat lands inside Hama-rikyu Gardens (fare includes admission; disembark-only), a 7-minute walk from Tsukijishijō. The “Toyosu” pier is at the LaLaport mall, and the Mizube Line has been suspended since January 2026 — chapter 07.

Yes — stop B03, about 100 m from Shijō-mae, flat ¥240 IC. But its first Shimbashi departure is 06:20 on every calendar, so it's an after-the-auction service.

Not strictly, but ~¥3,000 on an IC card defuses every trap on this page: cash-only Yurikamome machines, buses that won't change big notes, a BRT day pass that only loads onto IC. The boats are the exception — the e-LINER is cashless-only and the Asakusa pier machine is its own world.

To Toyosu: no visitor parking and no bicycle parking anywhere in the market — use the Senkyaku Banrai car parks next door. At Tsukiji the official advice is the paid Tsukijigawa Daiichi lot off Harumi-dōri, but transit is genuinely faster.

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