The working day starts early in Japan’s largest wholesale fish market as trucks arrive throughout the night to unload about 2,000 tons of seafood. By 3 a.m. the prized tuna are laid out for inspection, and at 5:30 a.m. the tuna auction — open only to 120 visitors on a first-come, first-served basis — is underway to sell to the highest bidders. Wholesalers transfer their purchases to their own stalls in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market; then all hell breaks out.

Knives slice and dice creatures writhing on the chopping block. Band saws attack the frozen tuna. Forklifts zip through the wet, narrow lanes, and hawkers wearing black rubber boots lay out their wares like family jewels, shouting to prospective customers buying for retail stores and restaurants throughout Tokyo. From 9 a.m. the market opens to the general public, and there’s nothing as visceral as seeing tanks of live specimens — curled octopi lined up like colorful blossoms and about 450 different kinds of seafood, some easily identifiable, many not — stretching as far as the eye can see.

Another section of the market is devoted to produce, while barracks to one side are filled with cubby-hole sushi bars offering what is undoubtedly the freshest sushi you could possibly have. The market shuts down by 11 a.m., but just outside the Tsukiji Market, the Outer Market offers more restaurants, stalls and stores selling seafood, vegetables, knives and other cooking utensils to housewives and tourists.

The Tsukiji Market will move to larger facilities in Toyosu in November 2016, with the market’s current site slated for development in preparation of the 2020 Olympics.